Working from my beach blanket day sketch I did on location at the Fort Lauderdale beach, I finished this pen and ink with watercolor painting today. I decided to use pen and ink first and then add the watercolor. After viewing the composition I went to a vertical format. I kept everything in a fairly light value in the background and stronger warm values in the foreground. I was using a smoother watercolor paper so I could use pen and ink.

The colors I used for the people were cerulean blue, cadmium red and raw sienna. Using those 3 colors in different strengths I could get a variety of skin values. I added spatter at the end for more texture. This was fun to paint as I was working from my plein air sketch from Nov 7 blog post here. My goal in this Beach Blanket Day watercolor was to simplify everything I saw in front of me into interesting shapes.

 

beach blanket day watercolor painting by PJ Cook

“Beach Blanket Day”, original watercolor, ©2015 PJ Cook