Hard As A Rock

Rocks can be the downfall of a seascape, if they are not right it really shows, after all there are only 3 elements in a seascape, rocks, sea and sky, such a stripped down design means all of it has to work well, no fudging allowed.I'm not a huge lover of rocks, not like some, so I've had to do a lot of work, maybe some of it will be of use to other artists. Stapeton Kearns has a lot of good ideas on his blog, Here are some Ive gleaned from various books the best one is by Curtis, How to Paint Successful Seascapes. He suggests you start very thin and scribble the forms in. I use a lot f Spike of Lavender, or you can use turps or OMS ( odorless mineral spirits) and a tiny bit of paint I usually use a warm tone of Greenish Umber and Venitian red. Do not put any white into this color. Its very much like water color very liquid. Then with a synthetic flat or brigth brkush I scribble the mass, I let this set up a bit then go in with a darker tone and put in the shadows, all rought blocked in. Then I stop let it dry and work on the water, tthe same way very thin color, brushstrokes showing. This allows me to see the developing compostion of the two and if adjustments are needed, its so easy at this point to lift off color with a wet brush or a rag and wipe back to the canvas. Here is a small study with that process just finished, I will let this dry a couple of hours before starting on the impasto painting