I love to paint. However, with all the demands of being a mom and teaching, I often find it hard to find time for painting. Well, if you’re super busy like me and are looking for a quick way to get your artistic juices flowing, here’s a super easy and fun DIY painting tutorial on how you can paint your own ocean scene in about 15 minutes. This allows you to create your own painting in no time at all, and still accomplish all of the other things on your to do list. 🙂
This DIY painting does involve blending and mixing a couple of the Studio 71 paints together. If you don’t have a lot of practice blending, try mixing some of the colors before hand to get a feel for the colors you want and how the paints feels. You can practice on paper plates. I find that sometimes they’re the easiest to use and they also make clean up a breeze. Okay, let’s see just how easy and simple this is to create.
Ocean Scene DIY Painting Supplies:
- Darice Studio 71 Primed 16 x 20 Canvas.
- Darice Studio 71 Acrylic Paints (I used Cerulean Blue, Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Bright Aqua Green, Brown and Cream).
- Darice Studio 71 Bentle Fan Brush.
- Paper Plates.
Step 1. Start your DIY painting by mixing the cerulean blue with a little of the titanium white and paint the top portion of the canvas.
As you can see here, I worked with one paper plate and kept blending my colors. You want to work quickly so the colors blend together and create a nice gradation from one color to the next. I also used this fan brush because it works best when creating the gradation and doesn’t require using a ton of paint.
Step 2. To create the next couple layers of the sky, I added a little more cerulean blue back into my mixture.
Step 3. For the ocean, I used the ultramarine blue and painted a band of color.
Step 4. Mixing the ultramarine blue with the bright aqua green, I created another gradation into white. At the bottom, I used a little brown and cream and mixed it with the white to create the sand of the ocean.
Step 5. I went back and layered some of the titanium white to make it look like the white wash of the waves and I dabbed some of the areas to further emphasize them.
There you have your DIY painting! Fun, simple, and easy. All you’re doing is blending some colors and painting horizontal lines.
This is a great way to experiment with paints and color blending to create a beautiful ocean painting that is sure to impress all of your friends and guests when they come over. Not to mention, you’ll make your room look nice and relaxing. If you’re ready to attempt another DIY painting project, this one a little more challenging, try this DIY wall art birch tree painting.
About Melanie
Melanie Artz is a Mom, an artist, an Art Educator and lover of all things creative. She has been sharing her passion for art and the creative process with her students for the past 17 years. When not teaching, she continues to share her love for creating online at ArtzyCreations.com.
How do you keep the colors from fading? This would be my first time painting. Thanks for the tutorial!
Hi Eva, You shouldn’t have too much trouble with acrylic paints fading unless the picture will be displayed in a room where direct sunlight will be hitting it often. You could make sure to hang it out of the direct light. Also, check the label of your acrylic paint, it should mention the degree of lightfastness. The higher quality acrylic paints will withstand fading more. Good luck with your first painting!
I want to do this with 13 teenagers and I’ll probably do it twice (once to make the model and once with them). Do you think I can get away with only one bottle of each color if we do it on a much smaller canvas? Maybe just buy two of the blues?
Hi Monica, It’s hard to say how much paint you’ll need without knowing how small of a canvas each painter will be using. With a small canvas I would think you’d be able to get a away with one of each color (if you will be using the 6.75 oz Studio 71 paint from our tutorial). Maybe get two of the blues and greens and one each of the white, brown and cream. Good luck with your paintings!
ThankYou Melanie!
Wow—so nice and it couldn’t be easier. Blending acrylic paint can be a real challenge for me, because they start drying so fast. My first few attempts at painting on canvas were an epic fail, but I’ve found that keeping the canvas wet with a spray bottle has helped me a lot while blending the acrylic colors. A small, spray bottle from the dollar store is much kinder on the wallet than buying a bottle of retarder from the craft or art store. Thanks so much for the great inspiration!
Mary
Thank you so much Melanie! I am going to do this!
Melanie, I most ABSOLUTELY LOVE this painting! I plan on having fun with this project and I’m writing this
on my to do list. I am very crafty myself and I have a love and passion for creativity and I love anything
that is associated with the beach and the ocean!
I did this one today!! Took longer than 15 minutes (just because I’m new so this was only my 3rd painting). Fun to work with the colors and experiment! Turned out well enough to frame and hang! I’m excited! Thank you.
That’s great Laurel! We’re so happy you had fun with this project!
Awesome! Going to try this with my chamber of commerce group!
That’s great Penny! Hope you guys have fun!