I LOVE the Beach!

I LOVE the beach.  Checkout this fun painting tutorial to I am showing off. It was inspired from a painting I saw a few days ago in my latest Ballard Designs catalog.

Materials:

• Blank canvas,
• acrylic paint (I used Ultra Blue Deep and Bleached sand from Americana),
• paint brushes,
• sponge brush,
• a "beach" stencil (I made my own).

Prepare the work station.

Liberally, apply your sand color paint. Spread the paint on the canvas in a left to right (horizontal motion).

Paint about half way up the board,

Apply your ocean blue color and spread,

more blue,

Blend it in so that the color appears to go from dark blue to light blue (overlapping the white a bit),

Add more color and blend, again,

I wanted more blue to show on the canvas for my beach stencil, so I added more paint at the halfway point. This made it so that the blue took 2/3 thirds of the board.

Blend, add more white, blend, add more blue, BLEND, blend and blend until it's just right, and maybe blend a little more without overworking it. I wasn't sure how this was turning out until my 5 year old pointed out that I was painting the beach (I figured if she could get what it was then it wasn't as bad as I thought).

Make your beach stencil. I typed the word "beach" on word and printed it out. I used an xacto knife to cut the letters out.

LIGHTLY dab paint over the stencil - trying to not let the paint seep under your stencil. Printing your stencil on cardstock might make for an easy application if you are unsure about stenciling over you painting.

and TA DA!

I am not a professional artist but I LOVED doing this and it turned out so nicely!
This TOTALLY brings the beach closer to my home and I love the fresh look it adds to my living room.

Thanks for visiting!