Widget Beach. Painting #71

Widget Beach is painting #71. I painted this during my 15th Twitch stream.

I did this painting for a co-worker as a retirement gift. He has always been fond and supportive of my artwork and expressed interest in receiving on of my paintings for a retirement gift. So I did. This one is somewhat similar to Eagle Beach, a painting I did last year for a retirement gift as well.

I was on sort of a time crunch with this one. I had to go out of town short notice but had to get it done before I left but also before my coworker retired. So I followed along with Bob Ross but put the plane in the sky. I’ll explain that later. The reference for this painting was The Joy of Painting S10E10.

Colors

• Alizarin Crimson
• Bright Red
• Cadmium Yellow
• Dark Sienna
• Indian Yellow
• Phthalo Blue
• Phthalo Green
• Titanium Hwite
• Van Dyke Brown
• 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 like the color of the sea in this painting. Nearly every time I do one of Bob’s seascapes, I change the color of the water. The color of the water where I live is emerald green so I tend to mix the color more towards that shade. You do that by mixing Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green. Add more of the green to bring it to more of an emerald shade.
I also love the reflections in the sand. Ever been too the beach and see that thin layer of water on the sand as the wave recedes? That tiny layer is enough to reflect the sky or sunset. I see that a lot near where I live.

These large waves can be a bit of a challenge. The most challenging part for me is the foam on the top of the wave. I seem to have trouble with the white picking up the shadow color a lot. I constantly have to wipe off and reload my brush. Anyone have any experience here or any tips to offer?

So what is that airplane in the sky you ask? That is the E-9 Wdget. That is the aircraft that my coworker flew on as part of his job. He flew on different air frames but this is the last one he flew on before retiring. How do you add something like that to a Bob Ross painting? Well I’m glad you asked. You can add anything like that to a Bob painting. It could be a plane, a boat, or anything really. The easiest way is to make it a silhouette if you’re not blessed with the drawing side of the artistic talents. You can either draw the object out on a piece of paper or the canvas itself or you can trace it then transfer it to the canvas with a piece of carbon paper. Once it’s on the canvas, paint it with a black acrylic or black gesso. Once it’s dried, you can cover it with contact paper or masking tape then cut out the shape with an Exact-O Knife. You don’t necessarily have to cover it up. It all depends on your skill level. You can be extremely careful when painting the rest of the picture. Covering it and cutting it however gives you more freedom to paint in the sky or anything else around it. Then you just peel the tape away and you’re left with the shape you drew in.
Here’s a tip with that though. Make sure the tape is as tight and flat as it can be on the canvas or else the oil paint will bleed under and you’ll have to tediously tough up your shape.

A video will be posted later so you can see how I’ve done things. One day, I’m going to use this technique and paint a ship or something with a seascape. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. Have you tried anything like that? How did it turn out? Hope you enjoyed reading about this one. Happy painting!