In the image above you can see that I’ve been making waves in my sketchbook! Daniel Smith’s Cascade Green and Winsor & Newton’s Indigo are perfect partner’s for painting the sea in watercolour. They are both beautiful colours on their own but also mix together to make a gorgeous dark turquoise shade. 

I didn’t use a pencil sketch for this wave practice. But I did consider before hand where I would need to leave white paper. I also splattered a little masking fluid in the right area to create some sea spray. At the end I also splattered some Winsor & Newton’s Titanium White watercolour for some more sea spray. Dark areas under the wave help to give the wave some depth.

For this wave practice I used Winsor & Newton’s Indigo with Daniel Smith’s Phthalo Green Blue Shade – they also mix together to make a stunning turquoise shade. Again I considered where I would need to leave white areas before I began. I also splattered some masking fluid for some sea spray before painting. Notice the watermarks at the top of the wave; I created these deliberately to add a sense of movement, a feeling of the wind blowing across the top of the wave. I splattered a little Titanium White for some extra sea spray at the end. Notice too that in both of the waves I have added some very dilute Indigo into the white area to add some volume and movement to the waves.

I absolutely love Winsor & Newton’s Indigo. It’s stunning and very versatile. It will feature in many more seascapes in the future. Both sketchbook pages above illustrate exactly what sketchbooks are for: they are for practicing, experimenting, making a mess, not worrying if it goes a bit wrong, testing colours, learning lessons. They are a vital part of my art learning process!