En Plein Air Beach Watercolor Painting - Sharks Seawater and Wave-Splashed Sketches

This week, I play a game of hit and run at the beach. Taking a walk / run along Exmouth beach round the headland to Sandy Bay in Devon, I stop at 5 different locations to create a quick monochrome watercolour study of the scene.


The beach was amazing today as the tide was further out than I'd ever seen it at this location.


For a couple of the sketches, I even place the paper in the sea to try and achieve interesting effects.


 Great fun, an amazing day drawing and painting in watercolor at the beach, working en plein air, on a day with a particularly low tide.



Materials: Mixed media paper, smooth finish, A4 size, Winsor and Newton watercolour marker, burnt umber.

Here's a link to the paddle boarder cartoon inspired by the same location

and the colourful sky painting inspired by the same location

Check out hi-res versions of

Sketch 1: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/exmouth-beach-watercolour-sketch-mike-jory.html

Sketch 2: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/exmouth-beach-monochrome-watercolor-study-mike-jory.html

Sketch 4: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sandy-bay-beach-in-devon-sketch-mike-jory.html



Here are all the drawings from the day:

Starting at Exmouth beach, this pool in the sand caught my eye.

Standing on some rock that jutted out into the sea, I was able to capture this view looking back to the beach.

This little experiment didn't really work, put down a few lines then swiped the paper across the surface of the sea, the watercolour didn't move in the way I was hoping.

Simple sketch but it captures a nice sense of light.

Second experiment with the sea, put down more squiggly lines and then let a small wave hit the paper producing much more interesting marks.