Air Battle Beach. Painting #90. The Skies are a Buzz at this Emerald Coast Beach.

Air Battle Beach is painting #90. It is an original piece and was painted as a gift for a co-worker. This person is an executive secretary for an Air Force air battle manager training unit, hence the silhouettes of the command and control aircraft. 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, Air Battle 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 90th overall oil painting. 

The Inspiration

I was inspired to paint this piece by the general scenery around where I worked at the time of this painting and the aircraft that could be seen in the skies around the coastline. The larger aircraft are used in air battle management and are not common around that area but the smaller one in the middle is one of the key aircraft in air battle management training.

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 one of my favorite fishing spots. 

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
• 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. You might notice the slightly different perspective. It looks like you’re standing on a dune looking down at the beach. This presented a bit of a challenge in getting the angles right. Sometimes you get into a painting and focus on one thing that you often don’t realize what’s happening until everything comes together. 

Air Battle Aircraft

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. 

The aircraft depicted, from left to right are the E-8 JSTARs, MU-2, and the E-3 AWACS.

Final Thoughts

The best thing about this painting, in my opinion, are the colors. I always love incorporating Pthalo Green into my beach paintings inspired by the Emerald Coast. The water really is gorgeous along the Florida panhandle. Pthalo blue and green mixed makes a lovely color for water. If you’ve browsed this site or my Instagram, this may look familiar. I did a similar scene when I painted Eagle Beach.

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!