Oil Painting: Sand, Sea & Sky

Class Preview

Learn the oil painting techniques you need to develop dramatic seascapes that rival the depth and realism of your favorite beach photographs!

Drawing Studies

Meet your instructor, classically trained painter Edward Minoff. You’ll gain an overview of the methods you’ll learn in class before learning how to sketch a site study of your chosen subject. Minoff shows you how to quickly heighten you tonal sketch with white gouache to create a beautiful sense of sky, sea and land.

Color Studies

Explore hue, chroma and value as Minoff demonstrates how to create rich color studies. Working with the bare necessities needed to paint in the field, you’ll be able to quickly and skillfully block in an underpainting and layer it with rich colors inspired by nature. You’ll hone your reductive and additive techniques as you gain flexibility painting light and subjects that can change quickly.

Linear Perspective

Move into perspectival studies as you learn classical techniques to create the illusion of depth. Employing methods that were used by master painters like Vermeer, you’ll establish a horizon line and vanishing points to create a perspective grid. Then reference the color study you created earlier as you begin to lay in a charcoal study of your landscape or seascape.

Creating a Transfer Drawing

Refine your linear perspective drawing with Minoff’s compositional tips along the way. Transfer your drawing to a stretched canvas with charcoal, add finishing details and “fix” the drawing with an ink tracing. Then wipe away the charcoal for a professional underdrawing that will help inform your painting.

Learning to Analyze Color

Revisit your color study as you carefully examine and recreate its colors. Minoff walks you through professional painting methods for mixing, comparing and storing your paint colors, allowing you to delve deeply into complex color relationships, atmospheric perspective and more.

Monochrome Underpainting

Build upon the architecture of your ink transfer drawing as you develop a monochromatic underpainting. Develop form, analyze light and create a sense of place and distance using just one color as you work.

Color Application

Apply color to your painting using your prior color studies to inform your choices. Minoff walks you through the best ways to set up your palette before demonstrating methods to paint the sky, sea and sand. You’ll focus on how to represent what you see as you continue to explore color and value relationships in your seascape.

Finishing the Painting

Work through the final pass with Minoff’s expert assistance along the way, focusing on details in the surf and sand that bring your work to life. Minoff paints with various brushes and visual effects as he adds texture and dimension with impasto and scumbling techniques. You’ll finish the class with a gorgeous seascape and a new perspective on capturing wild, unique elements of nature on your canvas.