Watercolor

Three New Ocean Watercolor Paintings

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

September was especially beautiful at the beach this year. It stayed warm much longer than usual. The surf was often very rough because of the hurricanes brewing far from shore. Here are three watercolors I painted from photos taken last month. And I took a ton more photos to last me through the winter!

These three September paintings are now available for sale as prints on watercolor paper or gallery wrapped canvas. Click here to visit my online shop.

West by Eileen McKenna | Watercolor seascape #coastalinteriors
West
September by Eileen McKenna | Watercolor seascape #coastalinteriors
September
Yellow Sky by Eileen McKenna | Watercolor seascape #coastalinteriors
Yellow Sky

All of the prints in my shop are available on watercolor paper or gallery wrapped canvas!
Click here to visit my online shop.
Blue Wave #11 Canvas Print by Eileen McKenna | Watercolor seascapes #coastalinteriors

Easy Forest Watercolor Painting for Beginners

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}
Easy Forest Watercolor Painting for Beginners

This painting lesson is perfect for beginners. You’ll learn watercolor painting techniques as you follow the lesson and end up with a beautiful final painting!

Watercolor techniques used:

  • Masking areas with tape
  • Wet on wet painting
  • Dry on dry
  • Using salt
  • Softening lines with water
  • Adding details in ink

An easy introduction to watercolor that yields a beautiful final painting no matter what your skill level.

Supplies you’ll need:

This beginner painting lesson is available in two formats:

  • The video lesson explains and demonstrates each step of the painting process. Easy to follow!
  • The printable pdf – is a step by step tutorial with photos. Convenient and inexpensive!

In the video painting lesson:

  • Learn several watercolor techniques
  • 10 step, easy to follow 17 minute video lesson
  • Listen and/or read the easy to follow instructions, watch a video demonstrations of each step
  • Great for watercolor beginners

Click here to purchase access to the Birch Forest Online Video Lesson. 

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For more beginner painting lessons visit my website eileenmckenna.com/shop

Watercolor Seascape Tutorial Download

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Easy Forest Watercolor Painting for Beginners | Learn watercolor techniques! #winter #forest #watercolor #beginners

The Green Collection

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

The Green Collection by Eileen McKenna | watercolor beach ocean landscapes available as limited edition giclee art prints at shop.eileenmckenna.com
I’ve added six new paintings to my online shop! Four of the paintings are “The Green Collection.” You may remember that in August I launched my shop with “The Blue Collection.” Grouping the paintings by the color of the ocean made perfect sense to me when the giclee printer suggested it. Something that has always fascinated me about the ocean, is how the same water, in the same place, can be different colors at different times.

The Green Collection is the second set of watercolor paintings I’ve released as Limited Edition Giclee Art Prints. Click here to visit my online shop.

The paintings in the Green Collection are (from left to right):

  • Jetty Surfer
  • Breaking Wave
  • Rolling In
  • Windy Day

The Blue Collection by Eileen McKenna | watercolor beach ocean landscapes available as limited edition giclee art prints at shop.eileenmckenna.com

Being “In” a Painting

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Painting waves in watercolor | creative habitsPainting for an entire hour proved impossible this morning, as I had things to do. But a half hour is better than nothing. As I worked, I thought about how daily work keeps you “in” a painting. You’re engaged in the project, even thinking about it when you are away from it. Being “in” a painting helps bring you back to your creativity. It’s easier to get to work – you know what to work on, perhaps you’ve even thought out how to tackle an area of the painting. But when a few days pass without revisiting your painting or project, that thread is broken. It’s harder to motivate to sit down and create, because you might not remember where you left off or possibly even what you were working on.

Want a dose of creative inspiration? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” by clicking here. Learn more about the newsletter here.

Prints of my watercolor beach paintings are now for sale at shop.eileenmckenna.com. Take a peek!
The Blue Collection by Eileen McKenna | watercolor beach ocean landscapes available as limited edition giclee art prints

It starts with mixing colors

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

It starts with mixing colors | Painting the ocean
After I use painter’s tape to mark the horizon, I mix the colors. I use a blue, this time Prussian Blue, and Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow. The color of the ocean, even in the same place, changes. So many things cause this including the weather, the light. It’s blue, it’s green, it’s brown, it’s grey.
Mixing watercolor paint to paint the ocean
I start painting the ocean at the horizon line and move towards the shore. The water is browner closer to the beach. I add a layer of the brown before I use white gouache to create the foam.
Mixing watercolor paint to paint the ocean
The color of the sand is another challenge – one I’ve been contemplating on and off for 3 1/2 years. For this painting I tried something new and added Burnt Sienna to my mix of blue, red, yellow.

Want a dose of creative inspiration? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” by clicking here. Learn more about the newsletter here.

Prints of my watercolor beach paintings are now for sale at shop.eileenmckenna.com. Take a peek!
The Blue Collection by Eileen McKenna | watercolor beach ocean landscapes available as limited edition giclee art prints

Swimming. A Creative Muse

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Swim Meet
The competitive swim season ended a few weeks ago. With only a week left in summer, we will probably visit the town pool only once or twice more. The pool and swimming has been a source of creative inspiration for me for the past few years.

This summer I designed fabrics in the swimming/pool theme:
Pool themed fabric designs - Swimming Laps, Pool Tiles, Goggles. Fabrics for all the swimmers!
Click
here for more info on the fabrics.

and did two paintings:
Watercolor Swim Race by Eileen McKenna.
Swim meet warm ups. Painting swimming pools in watercolor.

Here are other swim inspired pieces from previous years:

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The last item in the slideshow (the “Vets” cards with goggles) was the first time I added ink to a watercolor. It was a turning point for me and has become something I do often.

Want to read more about the place, artists and makers, etc. inspiring me? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” by clicking here! My goal is to inspire you! Learn more about the newsletter here.

A Cloudy Day at Surf Camp

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

The second day my son participated in surf camp was a cloudy day. When I saw my pictures I decided to try to paint the clouds, as many of my ocean paintings have clear blue skies.

"A Cloudy Day at Surf Camp"

Close up of the sky:
Painting a cloudy sky in watercolor

The start:
Painting the ocean in watercolor

Progress on the water:
Painting the ocean in watercolor

As much as I have developed a process for painting the ocean, with each painting I still have to figure things out – mixing the right colors and shades, capturing the details of the waves. It’s still a challenge, but a rewarding one!

Prints of my watercolor beach paintings are now for sale at shop.eileenmckenna.com. Take a peek!
The Blue Collection by Eileen McKenna | watercolor beach ocean landscapes available as limited edition giclee art prints

Jetty

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Jetty by Eileen McKenna, beach watercolor painting available as giclee art prints.
The focus of this painting is the rocks – the jetty. I had fun creating the different shapes and shadows of the rocks. I’m especially proud of the wet look of the sand where the water has just receded. And of course this painting needed a seagull.

The beaches in my hometown are delineated by the jetties. They are an unmistakable characteristic of our beaches. So it seemed appropriate to have them be the star of a painting.

“Jetty” is part of “the Blue Collection” and is available as a Limited Edition Giclee Art Print in my online shop!