Catch that wave!

Paul Riley reveals the bold, expressive techniques he uses to capture the movement of tempestuous seas in watercolour

Paul Riley reveals the bold, expressive techniques he uses to capture the movement of tempestuous seas in watercolour

As soon as the weather ‘turns nasty' I head for the sea with a sketchbook. To catch something as elusive as wave motion is not easy. The temptation is to take a photograph and copy that, but that misses the whole point of illustrating an experience.

For this type of drawing I like to work A3 or larger, even if it flaps around in the wind! I usually work with a felt pen or Fude (ink brush), which produces particularly expressive strokes. I like to use a variety of gestural strokes to suggest movement, rather in the manner of Rococo architecture. Van Gogh was very good at this. I know the crashing wave is a muchused convention bordering on the hackneyed, along with sunsets. However, you should not be deterred from putting your own observations down, if only to enjoy the exhilaration of doing so. I have witnessed savage seas from typhoons in Japan, to force 12 gales off Cape Horn. Seas, when stormy, are like landscapes on the move, with extraordinary textures varying from the deep dark and sinewy to flailing white. I love the way in which a wave reaches up at the start of its journey to the shore in almost silent contemplation of the chaos it is about to unleash; then that tumultuous thundering crash which is almost impossible to see and understand. I just draw on auto and hope to untangle my thoughts back at the studio.

How to observe

To avoid the obvious conventions regarding wave images intense observation of the stages in a wave's evolution is needed. This takes time and cannot be rushed. I try to take a series of little snapshots with my eyes and brain, focusing on one stage of the wave formation at a time. I do this by first drawing the wave hump several times. Once this is done, I

draw the start of its steep rise, noting the colours, tones and textures. I concentrate on this stage, ignoring any subsequent development of the wave. This takes time. Once I've got my eye in, I concentrate on the start of the curl. I carry on drawing in this way until I am confident that I understand wave development. You will be surprised how soon you will be able to interpret how the wave is formed. Furthermore, if you look at photographs subsequently, you will have a more in-depth understanding of wave formation and motion.

Composition

The scale of big waves needs to be carefully considered in the composition. I like to relate their form to the eye level/horizon; ideally the wave needs part of its structure to cross this line. This gains impact and arrests the eye of the observer as it is drawn along the horizon. The image invariably consists of three elements that need balancing and their empathy drawn out: the sky, the sea, the foreshore. The latter may well be omitted but, if included, its appearance must enhance the whole.

First the sky. The lighting and clouds have to play their part in creating the atmosphere. I often include the sun or moon, or even both. The cloud formations need careful consideration, using their mass to counterweight the wave or waves. I occasionally use shafts of sunlight to draw the viewer's eye towards the centre of interest. I try to avoid hard edges, preferring soft ones mainly to enhance the sense of movement and to help the integration between the sky, the water and the shore. Crisp edges are only employed to bring forward elements of the main centre of interest. I try to introduce dramatic contrasts by adjusting the tonal balance – dark waves against a light background, or light spume against a dark sky, for example. It is interesting occasionally to use a very dark sky to merge with a dark sea, to create a brooding and sombre theme. I may contrast this with the flying white of the sea in ultimate fury.

Along with the tonal balance I tend to use a limited palette. The reason for

this is about cohesion. The monumental build-up of a wave needs a kind of restraint. To contain the colour I use those that give the most tonal contrast and represent a more realistic sea. To me, the sea colour seems to alternate between blue and green, for instance ultramarine further out to sea, green nearer the shore. The blue seems to integrate with the colour of sand, a yellow orange. The sand or gravel of the shore when wet reflects the colour of the sea, which is a useful fact that helps to integrate the shore with the rest of the composition. Depending on the atmosphere required, your colour choices must reflect this. For example, a light and pellucid atmosphere needs a more dilute series of stains to achieve the delicacy required. If a more dramatic scene is envisaged, you can resort to dense and even precipitating pigments. Do remember that watercolour pigment behaviour falls into three basic groups: stains (transparent), semi-opaque (dense), granulating (precipitating). The dense and precipitating pigments can easily result in a mucky, heavy-looking image so I tend to put in the dark tones in one layer, avoiding over layering, which can disturb the under colour.

Tools, techniques and materials

In order to create the sense of movement, choice of brushes is important. These are not all necessarily watercolour brushes. For broad sweeps of colour I use large flat hog-hair bristle brushes, which I use alternatively with a hog-hair fan brush. The latter is ideal for the stripes on a curling wave and for depicting the action of the spray. For many of the small strokes – ripples, small waves, etc – I use a combination oriental brush. This consists of a goat outer hair with a wolf hair core. I also use various sized hakes for wave forms and textures. These can be purchased from orientalartsbrighton.co.uk – browse under Chinese stationery. The large flats are Whistler brushes, available from lawrence.co.uk. I use the hog hair a lot for splattering. This is done often in conjunction with a blow pipe sprayer, usually associated with spraying fixative. I also use it to spray diluted masking fluid. Flat sable brushes are very useful for detailed work, especially the 10mm wide version.

My colour palette consists of phthalo green, perylene green, shadow green, cobalt green, raw sienna (for showing the sun piercing through waves), ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, indigo, lamp black, permanent white (designer gouache). The latter is ideal for spray and any semi-opaque highlights. I use masking tape for horizons and cut-out discs for suns and moons. The latter I cut out using a compass cutter. Masking fluid is used in a spontaneous way for spume and spray.

Sources for inspiration

I came across some extraordinary videos of gigantic death-defying images of surfers that really piqued my interest. I couldn't wait to put my spin on them as it seemed a terrific

way to exploit some of my techniques. To avoid the obvious wave-type picture I try to get my imagination working. Nature is extraordinary. The clouds are born of the sea and vice-versa – so this is what I strive to paint. To get to grips fully with depicting its might and majesty you need to produce a volume of work. I have painted very large triptychs and diptychs alongside small gestural images to see how scale affects the outcome. All I know is that the sea is a highly inspirational subject.

Wild Water, Flying Surf (triptych), watercolour on Saunders Waterford Not, 30346in (763117cm).

This is a companion piece to Sea Spray, above. I used a much darker palette and incorporated both the sun and the moon into the composition. The sun is partially obscured, casting an eerie light through the waves and silvering the breaking crests. The moon took three stages of masking to produce

Wave Poised, watercolour on Saunders Waterford High White, 140lb (300gsm) 7½311¼in (19328.5cm). I wanted to produce something showing the gloomy and brooding menace of waves. This is one of my smaller studies where simple statements can be given broad expression. It was almost entirely painted with a 10mm wide sable one-stroke brush and a soft sponge

Sentinel Rock (triptych), watercolour on Saunders Waterford 140lb (300gsm) Not, 30346in (763117cm). This striking rock formation stands defiant against all the sea can throw at it. On some occasions even chunks of rock are smashed off by the fury of the sea. Here I am trying to show how the sea envelopes the rock, producing hard, soft and even lost edges. I introduced some subtle red passages to complement the green of the sea

Strete Gate Devon, drawing, A3. Done in situ on the beach, I drew almost unconsciously, acting purely on instinct to capture movement, drama and texture. I even had the birds recoiling from the sea’s anger!

STAGE ONE (detail) Although the painting is very large, it happened very quickly, using mainly my Whistler and a large hake. Compositionally there is a preponderance of white: what the Chinese refer to as ‘flying white’. This is tricky to do without losing form. The dark tones in the background rely on negative painting to express the form of the background sea

STAGE TWO (detail) This is the left-hand side of the painting. I was building up the interrelationship between the sea and the sky. I imagined a wave had just broken, releasing spray into the sky, linking the two. The spume of the broken wave is retreating back down the beach into the maw of the next advancing wave. There is something voracious about a wild sea

FINISHED PAINTING Sea Spray (triptych), watercolour on Saunders Waterford High White, 140lb (300gsm) Not, 30367¼in (763171cm). Whilst painting this I felt like the demented conductor of an unruly orchestra. I had to be very careful when laying in the sky because I wanted a strong tonal contrast with the sea. I first wet the area, masked the horizon, then worked like stink to keep soft edges. The sun was masked, so I was able to achieve a shimmeringly crisp image in high contrast to the rest of the painting. The shore is simply retreating froth and reflective wet sand

Here I am showing my palette layout for the final moments in the painting of Sea Spray. All this is just to paint the sun!