If you want to paint a seascape and you don't live near the ocean watch some reruns of "Gilligan's Island!"

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What I'm saying is this, there are many ways to study the ocean.

You can look at magazines, you can see commercials on television, you might even take a trip with your loved one to the ocean-- that would be great.

I think even the computer has it where you can type in "ocean" and you'll see it.

So please enjoy this 3-part painting of the ocean.

We'll do part one in acrylics and two parts in oils.

So you'll get your knowledge right here on the Buck Paulson show "Painting with Paulson" presented by Prairie Public.

Oh, love those guys!

All right, we have a canvas that has been primed with this is about 4 white, 1 Permanent Green Light and 1 Payne's Gray.

So it's just a little darker than when I normally use 6 white, and I've outlined it for you for a downloadable tracing to see where things are, and we'll start with the acrylics as we said and I've mixed up 1 part of Ultramarine Blue and 1 part of Alizarin Crimson and 1 white.

Now when I say the 1 white, I take the 1 white and don't put it all in right away and see how it looks, because sometimes the colors may vary a little bit.

It's the formula I'm using that may not be necessarily be yours unless we're using exactly the same paint.

I'm using water because of it being acrylics and what you notice right away is the relationship of the new color you look at it on the canvas, it looks kind of gray, when it comes up against the green, it brings out that kind of violet look in to it and that's very pretty.

This can go on, it's rather smooth.

As I notice over to the left, I may not be quite as dark but that's okay, I like this.

And you know there was one painting on this series we liked so much the new painting we did that when it came time to go onto the second one, we stayed over on the first one and put the oils on it, so we'll see what happens.

I dip redipped in the water.

I think what I'll do, and know what I'll do, after I get this in, I'll sort of let you in on the secret.

So the water allows it to be a little more evenly done.

Okay, what I want to do is to take a little more of the Ultramarine Blue with that mixture, and we'll darken the corners of the canvas.

That is such an easy way of getting that nice dome shape of the sky.

Darken the corners.

And when I say "corners" the other one would be the sky one.

Here we are.

And I could even use a little bit of this going right across the top middle.

That doesn't have to be real evenly done, because when we put a little character in there in the oil, it'll help if it's not all just a flat surface.

Okay, now I'll come down, well here's the thing I've pointed out before.

When I have covered that, you say well, that's pretty good, but I can see some places where there's a little green showing through and I don't necessarily want it to be showing through purely, I want it to maybe peek through some of this color.

I'm coming down lower like that.

That-- you look great, I like you; you got vitality!

Feel like I can go back in there-- here you come-- boomp!

Against the wall, but don't criticize that, because that's pretty well done too.

Okay now down in the water, we'll take some green, I have Permanent Green Light, and I have a little Payne's, you're-- what are you?

I better find out, oh you're Payne's Gray.

That's right, okay so we're taking Payne's Gray and Permanent Green Light.

I am using more of the green, in this case it's 3 green, now it's going to change so it's going to be 2 green.

Very good, 2 green and one permanent gray.

2 Permanent Green Light and one Payne's Gray.

I give everyone the same name, and say you're permanent, you're permanent.

This represents the shadows underneath the big wave.

Isn't there power in that?

We'll show you next time, we'll have, let's see, well we'll have the in-between stage.

We'll have the first stage in oils so the final one, you'll be seeing the completed painting as a model, and boy, she's a beauty.

I put like that.

I'm saving just a little space for the eye of the wave.

The eye of the wave is the thin part.

Let me show you from the hands.

So-- oh this way.

There you are!

You have a big wave, and it comes up and turns over, so it's very narrow at the top.

That's where the light shows through, and that's what we call the eye of the wave.

And we can have that several places.

This one has 2 eyes-- isn't that nice?

So we'll put this over on the right side.

I can feel the need to move... high tide.

Oh, there's such a difference in high tide and low tide.

In certain areas you'd say, you go down and Winslow Homer was one, he'd go down and say, "Oh it looks like a duck pond today."

He'd go back because it didn't have that big inspiring waves.

But what I do, I lay my head down in the sand, and that little 3-inch wave would come in, I thought, whoa that's HUUUGE!

So you use different ways, you can use your imagination.

Winslow did a good job.

He was very dedicated to what he did.

He would often jump up early in the morning maybe 1:30, go down and get the same water he had seen the day before, in other words the same action, the high tide was at the same time.

We'll put some of this down lower.

There's so many great artists, and when you say study the ocean, truly study some of the great artists who've painted it such as Winslow Homer.

And one of my very, very, very, very favorites is Eugene Garin, the Russian artist and he studied from I think it's pronounced Ivashevsky.

(ph) So there's ways you can learn, and Turner and others-- oh they're great.

Okay so what I've done in putting on the darks, see, I don't fill in the whole thing because I want to have a little variation, I want it lighter down here so you feel like there's a gradation it's light where the light hits it and it's darker as it goes up into the shadow area.

The back wave has a little bit of this as well in here.

I like putting the darks in first, because I can kind of overdo it and then when I put the lights in they can walk into that and narrow it a little bit.

So let's go ahead with that, and basically what I'm going to do there is just add white to this mixture.

We hadn't put any white in before.

I'll hold this up, but I'm sure it's going to be what I want.

Close enough, there's kind of a little blue in there, but I don't think I'll do that.

I want the harmony that's coming from this.

I'll change brushes, I'll use a fan brush, because it will spread quite well.

Then when I blend it, it's a good blender.

Gee, I keep hearing from my program director, I can mentally hear her saying, "Why don't you give them what you see?"

So I'm putting a little blue in, Barb.

I'm putting a little blue in.

That is better, I do like that-- that was good instruction.

I don't have anything in my ear, it's in my heart that I can feel from that special person.

Look at that, that almost matches what's there, but by having it on-- let's put just a little more blue in-- by having it on, even though it matches the color, you now have something you can blend into.

Those blend so well when they're oil.

With acrylics, you have to go kind of quickly because it dries under the bright lights.

Yeah, isn't that nice?

That's real power, it's such an interest spot.

Okay now I'll come down-- what'll I come down with?

Oh yes, that's the eye.

Oh, I think I need to go a little darker for the non eye area.

so this is the green and the Payne's Gray and a little blue and white.

Not much darker, but a little darker than the eye color.

Wiping the brush I also want to blend this just a little bit.

Think I'll put just a little green in there.

Permanent Green Light, it's a powerful color.

Okay now we'll go out to the back area, and this is very close to the color of the canvas, but darker.

Darker, it's still in that kind of green family.

While I have that on the brush, we'll just continue down, this is the lower, the trough area of the wave, flat area if you want to say that.

Blend a little bit.

You do have some places where the green just kind of sparkles through, and that's fine.

I see it on this one as well.

More, I'll use a little water.

And the lowest one.

We live one block from the ocean.

Ha, ha, ha!

Isn't that nice?

Oh, it's so great-- you walk down one block and you see that beautiful ocean out there and the great beach down here, you have to walk down the ramp to get to the beach, or you can walk along the park next to the ocean, which is about 90 feet up.

Oh!

The producer of this show, he came out one summer just to kind of photograph Buck at the ocean, and he almost didn't go back home.

Oh, he enjoyed it.

And when people come and say you realize how lucky you are?

I simply say "Yes, yes."

Okay, I have one other place to put the eye of the wave.

So we have some of this, right there we had it, and now we're back here just a little bit, then over here.

I left a spot for that so it would just fill in.

It would probably be wise when you do the eyes if you do them while the paint is still wet, however on this one it worked out right-- I put it in, the paint next to it wasn't wet, so you just thin it out a little bit, and you can still achieve somewhat of a gradation.

I'm speaking about the acrylics.

Because with the oils, you can put them on all of the places, and work somewhere else and come back and get them.

Okay what do we want to do now?

Let's put a little bit of the foam on and that would, of course, be the shadow foam.

Let's see what we do on that.

I'm going to take the first color we mixed up, this the blue and Alizarin and white and I'm coming over here with more white.

I'll hold this up to the canvas.

Maybe just a little darker.

A little extra blue in it, and I'll hold that.

That'll give me the value which will be shadow foam.

All right, there's some that comes in here... down around there... around the bend here... and through some rocks.

A little foam here, now watch as I fill in the foam along here.

I'm putting it on, not just filling in the line, but you kind of do a little bit, pick it up, make another little shape.

Very much you want the feeling the water's going towards your right And loose and bouncy, therefore you don't have a definite edge along there, or at least a smooth edge, it has a little bit of drip over.

And we'll use that same thing up in the big wave.

On this, after I put this on, I'm going to splash up a little bit.

I think they call it spindrift, so that blows back, that is such an important part of a big wave in an ocean.

What other kind of waves are there?

I've been to a ball game when the go yea... yea!

Those are waves!

So let's come just a little bit across the eye, a little bit over in here, and when I come here, same idea.

I want to just kind of push it on, a little bit goes above, a little bit below so you don't have any real hardness to it.

You're dealing with foam, which is very fleecy.

A little bit along here, and then we'll-- just a little water-- foam back in here.

I'm so thankful that they are allowing a 3-parter, because that makes such a difference-- you do such a careful complete job.

Not that the other ones aren't good, but it's nice to have the opportunity to do even more careful work.

Okay, I'm taking white.

Let's see, what do we want to use?

Permanent Green Light and Payne's Gray.

It's about 2 green, 1 Payne's Gray , then a lot of white.

This is going to work as the light foam down near the rocks and also will be the first highlights on our wave.

So let's see, what brush?

I want a small flat brush, and I'm taking this, and I'm going to go right against the rocks.

You instantly feel like you got some real strong light there, which you have, but boy, look on the palette, the difference between those two-- the white is white, and this is not white, but it sure looks bright on the canvas.

This is foam lying down against the rocks, it's been a previous wave, then it starts reaching up, and it will go into being foam patterns.

Now, the other use of this as I suggested was it'll be the highlight-- I'll take a fan brush-- will be the highlight on the top of some of this foam that we have coming across these waves.

Oo, there's a little bit here too, it'll come down through the rocks, almost like a little waterfall.

You'll see that more when I put the rocks on.

A little bit through here, and a little bit through there.

Then again along on the top of this.

You're consistent in showing the light direction.

You're lighting the tops of the waves.

Then I'll go up to the right side over here of that big wave.

A little bit in the distance, and you can see this is a large brush-- I want that to be very fluffy; It's not a precise thing at all.

Now let's see, we'll take our strong highlight and that's for the big wave.

Now when I put this on, I want to have it just a little bit where some of the gray, if you want to call it gray, is showing below for a little form and then there's still the spindrift up above.

Okay, that gives me what I want there, I think.

Then the last, not the last thing, but we'll see, it may be last.

What are you?

You're Raw Umber.

We'll take the Raw Umber, and I have a flat brush and we're putting this on the rocks.

I still want to be able to see where the edges are.

I'm going to do two things to the rocks besides this and one of them will be to put on a little highlight as you can see, but I also want to put little bit of Payne's Gray in that will darken some of the space between the rocks.

It's interesting how people, the viewers, or whoever, the buyers, they like to kind of categorize the artist.

They say "Oh Buck Paulson he's a seascape artist."

Yes, but have you seen his landscapes?

Have you seen his portraits?

See, don't lock in one place.

You can have specialties.

When I was asked "What's your favorite thing to paint?"

I'll just respond "What's in front of me?

Is it an ocean?

Is it a person?

Is it a vase of flowers?"

That's my favorite thing at the time.

And if you approach it that way, being your favorite thing, you do it justice.

You do just the best you can.

Before I go on with the rocks, I'm going to just jump up with a little green, because you probably saw it, that would be right in here that I don't have it, so a little of the water showing through there.

Okay now, onto the rocks, we said we would use a little bit of the Payne's Gray just to kind of get some strength-- oo, it does.

It separates the dark slightly that were previously there, and then we'll put some lights on.

That didn't do anything, oh that's why.

Because I was using Umber.

Payne's Gray!

You promised me I could play coach, and you didn't get me in.

I remember playing a basketball game when I was in high school, I guess it was C league!

C team, we had a league, and gee, our team was ahead about 99 to 5, and I'm still sitting on the end of the bench.

And the coach felt so bad afterwards, he apologized, "Oh I'm so sorry.

Didn't get you in, I didn't remember you, or didn't remember if you'd played or not.

So the next game he started me, which might have been a mistake too.

[laughs] Okay now, let's go to the light on the rocks.

I have Raw Sienna straight, and I'm going to place this on.

We have a couple rocks that will really stand out, this being one of them.

You're going to enjoy as we go on with this.

Now, I'm looking at what's the temporary original, what we're trying to match, and I think outside a little bit of rush strokes, I feel pretty good about the technique, and that's basically what we want you to achieve here.

If I put just a little of the light foam on over in here, then you can separate that from the sky, and often just right across the top of the eye, just a little thin line.

So we're just about ready to fly on this one, but it will be next time when we go with oils.

You be sure and come back because we've got 2 more parts both in oils and we'll make this a beautiful painting.

Thank you for watching today, I'll just tell you it's a joy to be in your home-- homes.

And my children, they love the shows too.

Okay just a little splashy splash as we go away, that just further enhances the character of the foam, it's very misty and often like that, you touch it just at the end, you can control it featherlike.

See you at the ocean, make a date.

Bye-bye.

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