Everyday Watercolor Seashores: A Modern Guide to Painting Shells, Creatures, and Beaches Step by Step

by Jenna Rainey

Overview

From the Instagram artist behind Everyday Watercolor comes a beautiful step-by-step guide to painting shells, sea creatures, and oceanscapes in her effortlessly modern style.

Jenna Rainey shares a gorgeously illustrated guide to painting a wide range of ocean-inspired subjects, from starfish and whales to beach landscapes and cresting waves. Featuring step-by-step instructions easy enough for beginners and inspiring for hobbyists, Rainey's fresh, contemporary illustrations bring more than thirty-five fishes, shells, sea creatures, corals, beaches, and ocean scenes to life. Everyday Watercolor Seashores is an accessible muse for the next generation of watercolor artists, creatives, and nature lovers alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984856814
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	154,343
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jenna Rainey is an artist, self-taught designer, and author of Everyday Watercolor and Everyday Watercolor Flowers. As a surface pattern designer, her work has been seen on products in stores like Staples, Target, Office Depot, and more. Rainey specializes in watercolor, calligraphy, and other hand-drawn designs. She shares her talent and teaches the world how to paint on her YouTube channel, at her in-person workshops, and through her books.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

The wet, sinking sand under your feet and water lapping at your toes. The salty air tickling your nose and sun baking into your skin. The sound of waves battering and rumbling . . . this is life near the ocean.

Because I grew up in a beach town, these sights, smells, and sounds are beloved sense memories for me. For many, the beach is a place to relax and break free from lives of overworking and busy schedules. For children, it’s a wonderful place to create memories and discover new landscapes and creatures.

This landscape holds so much beautiful texture and color—not one beach or ocean looks exactly the same. The way the beach looks in the morning, enveloped by fog and stillness, transforms at sunset, rich with color, waves rhythmically rolling in all night. When I look at any ocean or walk any shore, I feel peace. When I encounter a starfish or see a dolphin in the distance, I am met with awe! It’s a place full of life that is so inspiring to paint.

To me, the beach is not just paradise—it’s a place to explore and learn, a place to be moved, a place to experience joy and tranquility. It is also a place to treasure and that should be treated with great respect. My hope is that anytime you paint an ocean landscape or creature, you are met with this vastness and complexity of emotion and inspiration. This feeling of being in “flow state” can be encountered more easily when you think of this landscape and all it holds as a majestic and holy place. It is big, it is beautiful, and the creatures that inhabit it are powerful and mysterious.

Although painting ocean creatures, plants, and landscapes may seem complex, my goal is to simplify and break down the techniques so you can focus on how amazingly fun it is to paint with watercolor. Watercolor and the beach? It’s like they’re meant for each other, right? A match made in heaven, if you ask me!

We’ll start by working our way through all the technical stuff. You’ll have less fun painting if you miss these fundamental guides and tips, so don’t skip the introduction. Trust me!

Each section of this book will cover a particular type of subject: seashells, plants and fishes, sea creatures, ocean scenes, and painterly landscapes. We’ll cover different watercolor techniques and will begin with simple shapes that then become more complex. For example, we’ll start with a circle and build on it to create a conch, or murex, shell. Understanding how to break complicated subjects down into simple shapes—whether you are using a reference photograph or working from life—will help you paint more confidently!

Throughout my years of teaching, I’ve found that many people, though skilled, lack confidence. My goal with this book is to simplify even the most complex-looking subjects so you can feel comfortable painting anything on your own. Painting is such a joyful experience, and if you put in the work on the basics you can accept and conquer new challenges as you grow in your painting practice.