Eagle Beach. Painting #46. First Original Seascape Oil Painting

Eagle Beach is painting #46. It is an original piece and was painted as a gift for a great leader and supervisor for their retirement. This person was a fighter pilot in the F-15C Eagle, hence the silhouette of the fighter jet. I did not follow along with a Joy of Painting episode but I did use some tips and techniques from various episodes of seascapes.

“Let the canvas work for you. Allow the colors and the paint–everything–to work together to make it easy.” – Bob Ross

Let’s Get Started

This post is about my original oil painting, Eagle Beach. First, I’ll talk about the inspiration for this painting. When I talk about inspiration in this blog, it will normally be why I chose a certain subject or Bob Ross episode to follow. Then, I will go over the colors and equipment I used and that you will need if you want to try your hand at it or something similar. Next, I will expound a bit about my process. Finally, I’ll wrap up with some lessons that I learned from painting this picture and things I could have done better or wished I had known. So join me on this trip down memory lane as I recap my 46th overall oil painting. 

The Inspiration

The inspiration for this piece was the general scenery around where I worked at the time of this painting. I went to the beach often and fished them a lot. I often took sunset photos as I was trying to catch the sunset bite. In fact, this scene was likely inspired by my favorite fishing spot. 

I also watched a couple Bob Ross seascape episodes to get me started in the right direction. One such episode was S10E10, Ocean Sunset. It mostly gave me the color palette of the sky to get me going. Though I used some elements  for inspiration, the entire composition is mine alone. 

Materials Used

Here are the colors and equipment I used. All of the colors are included with the Bob Ross Master Paint Set. 

Colors

• Alizarin Crimson
• Bright Red
• Cadmium Yellow
• Dark Sienna
• Midnight Black
• Phthalo Blue
• Phthalo Green
• Titanium Hwite
• Van Dyke Brown

Mediums

• Liquid Clear
• Don’t forget the Liquid Hwite!

Equipment

• 2 Inch Brush
• 1 Inch Brush
• #6 Fan Brush
• Large Palette Knife
• Script Liner Brush
• Filbert Brush

I’ll admit, the kit can get a bit pricey. So here is an alternative starter oil paint set. Windsor and Newton is a solid brand. The only thing is it doesn’t come with any brushes or instructions. 

W&N Oil Paint Starter Set

For a list of other items needed to paint or alternative art materials, visit my Getting Started page. 

Before We Begin/Medium Application

For tips on medium application, see my post about my first seascape painting Tropical Seascape. 

Tips/Tricks

In this section of the blog post I would normally go over how I painted this particular painting and lessons learned. For original paintings, I usually comment on something that may have been particularly challenging or a new technique I learned rather than go into detail about how to paint the entire thing. 

The only thing that gave me a bit of a challenge was the shoreline. This is a different shoreline style than the ones Bob paints. At the time of this painting, I had been painting for about a year and a half and was still learning. I had to adjust to the size of the canvas and the angle of the beach and shoreline. Overall, a series of happy accidents worked themselves out in the end.

Fighter Jet

Silhouettes are a great way for the inexperienced artists to add a little something extra to their landscapes. Find an image online of the object you’d like to add. Print it out, trace it onto tracing paper, transfer to the canvas with carbon copy paper. This is done by placing the transfer paper in the area you’re adding the object, place the tracing paper on top of it then retrace the shape with a lot of pressure to ensure it transfers to the canvas. Once transferred, fill in the shape with black gesso or acrylic paint and let it dry. Finally, place masking tape over the painted shape and carefully cut the tape off along the outline. Now you can paint your landscape/seascape on the entire canvas and simply peel the tape away to reveal a perfect silhouette. 

Final Thoughts

There are a few things in this painting that have some meaning. That’s something I don’t think about very often when I do a piece. As I mentioned at the start, this was a gift for a great leader who taught me a lot. The scenery represents the area where this person spent a lot of his career. The dark clouds represent the general stress of the career. The sunset represents retirement. And of course the jet represents flying off into the sunset away from the ominous clouds.

If you paint with Bob enough, you will be able to pick up the techniques and use them to create your own masterpieces. Give it a try. It’s so much fun when you venture out on your own and create. Get brave and try to create your own original painting then share a link to a photo of it. Have a question? Comment below. More art is available in my Etsy shop. Check it out if you want to see more of my work and see other paintings available. You can also follow me on all my social media sites. 

Happy Painting!