Oh Buoy!

                    

      

 

The watercolor above is of a group of old fishing floats or buoys that we saw hanging on the side of an old fishing shack in the Outer Banks outside of a wonderful seafood restaurant on the pier.    They are just so typical of the beach and the fishing community of the area; I knew I wanted to capture them to remember this trip to the beach. Buoys are used to mark a location or suspend a net or bait and are usually painted bright colors to be easily seen.    The side of the fishing shack was a deep blue which made these buoys stand out.

Materials needed:

• 140 lb. watercolor paper or watercolor journal
• Pencil
• Eraser

Paint:

• Windsor Blue
• Paynes Gray
• Yellow Medium
• Cerulean Blue
• Yellow ochre
• Grumbacher Red or red of your choice

Instructions:

Lightly sketch in your buoys.  These buoys were clustered together and to add interest I captured only  half of a buoy on the left side of the paper and let a tip of one of the buoys on the right be off of the page.

Paint the background first using Windsor Blue and deepen it in areas behind the floats for shadows.  Drop in some Paynes Gray in places to indicate changes in shades of the paint.  Paint around the buoys and the ropes. 

Paint one buoy at a time and moving from one to the next one.  However, do not paint ones that are touching until they dry or the colors will blue into one another.  Using the various colors mentioned above or colors of your choice and this technique, paint all of the buoys in slightly different colors:

To paint the buoy:

Using a lighter shade of the main buoy color, paint the entire buoy except for any different color bands.  Deepen the color on one side letting the paint flow across to indicate light and shadow.  Drop in Paynes Gray to “age” your buoy.  Paint the contrasting band the same way.  Add lines and drops of darker paint to show signs of use.    Paint all buoys in the same method using different colors.

To paint the ropes:

Using a very light wash of yellow ochre paint the ropes;  and while still wet drop in a light wash of Paynes Gray.  After the ropes dry, use a liner brush and a deep wash of Paynes Gray to detail the rope. 

Congratulations – sign your painting!

Happy Painting!

Karen