Cornwall Painting Lessons – Tips & Advice on Acrylics – How to paint Wet Rocks.
To capture the look of “Wet Rocks” in acrylics, REALLY look at the colours, very rarely are they just brown or black.
With the colours you see, vary the tones to give light and shade and the structure of the rocks, in the end, this will make it so much easier to add the occasional white highlight.
The high parts of the rocks will have a lot more detail as they are dry, further more, they will be paler in tone, hence when you work your way down to the water level the rocks will be darker tones as they are wet and less clarity in detail, much softer overall as the water washes over them.
There are many techniques , tips & advice and tutorials online but if you have problems a good tip is why not get a few pebbles and rocks place them in a shallow dish and half fill with water to see for yourself the change in colour from half submerged rocks.
Another great tip is to maybe take some paints or crayons down to the beach and look at the subject for 5 minutes and observe how the water flows over the surface and memorise as much as possible and just paint, don’t even think about it, just paint what you remember as quickly as possible, you will be amazed at how much you can remember.
I am Sophi Beharrell and have been a Marine Artist for over 19 years, working from my waterfront gallery/studio in the heart of Falmouth – Cornwall, If there are any questions you would like me to answer to make your painting experience more pleasurable please contact me or leave your email address on my website to receive more tips and the latest news. I am hoping to give Cornwall Painting Lessons in the near future for those who are interested.