A small watercolor of a breaking wave makes a kind first painting. The curl, the foam and the dark water underneath all come from three colors, a white crayon and a pinch of salt. You can finish it in one afternoon.
It suits the weeks before a trip, when everyone wants something to look forward to. If your plans include some florida surf, The Point Surf Park is one place to look, and its website has a surf academy page. With any park, read the posted rules first. Then paint a wave to hang by the door.
What you’ll need
- Watercolor paper, about 5 by 7 inches (heavy drawing paper works, but it ripples more when wet)
- A second piece of the same paper for the warm-up (a scrap left from cutting the first is fine)
- Watercolors in a blue, a green-blue and a dark blue or indigo (a child’s pan set is plenty)
- A medium round brush and a small flat brush (one medium brush can do both jobs)
- A white wax crayon (a plain white candle stub works too)
- Coarse salt (ordinary table salt is fine; bigger flakes make bigger starry marks)
- Painter’s tape (masking tape works if you press it on your sleeve first to take off some of the stick)
- A board larger than the paper (a cutting board or a stiff piece of cardboard)
- Two jars of water, paper towels and a pencil
Set up your space
Pick a flat table. Watercolor runs downhill, so a tilted surface will pull your sky into the sea. Cover the table with newspaper or an old plastic tablecloth.
Sit with the light coming from the side, so your hand doesn’t cast a shadow on the wet paper. Fill one jar for rinsing and one for clean water, and keep the clean one for mixing. That keeps your colors fresh instead of muddy. Clear a spot nearby where the finished painting can lie flat and untouched for a while.
Step by step
Step 1: Warm up on scrap paper
Spend about ten minutes here. Brush clean water over a patch of the spare paper until it shines. Touch in a little blue and watch it spread on its own. That’s called wet-on-wet, which just means painting onto damp paper.
The common slip is too much water, so the paint pools into puddles. Fix it by touching a folded corner of paper towel to the puddle. It lifts the extra right away. Try a sprinkle of salt on the scrap while you’re at it.
With kids: the salt is the best part. Let them practice on the scrap and watch the little pale stars appear.
Step 2: Tape and sketch the wave
Tape all four edges of your good paper to the board, pressing the tape down firmly. This leaves a clean white border and keeps the paper from curling. With the pencil, draw a light curve for the top of the wave and a gentle line for the horizon.
It’s right when the wave looks like a big comma lying on its side. The usual slip is a crest that’s too tidy and too small. Rub it out and make it bigger. Waves are rounder and heavier than we expect.
Step 3: Draw the foam with the white crayon
Press the crayon along the top edge of the curl. Add short flecks and dashes in front of the wave. This is a resist, meaning the wax pushes paint away so the white stays white.
It’s hard to see, and that’s normal. Tilt the paper toward the light to check your marks. The slip is pressing too lightly. Go over each mark twice, because a thin layer of wax lets the paint creep through.
Step 4: Wet the paper and lay in the colors
Brush clean water across the whole picture until it has a shine but no puddles. Start with the pale blue across the sky. Sweep the green-blue through the body of the wave. Bring the dark blue in underneath, where the water would be deepest. The colors should melt into each other with no hard lines.
If you see a cauliflower-shaped bloom of paint, you’ve dropped wet paint into a drying area. Blot it with a paper towel corner straight away and let the paper settle.
Step 5: Add the salt
Wait until the shine has gone and the paper looks damp and matte. Now sprinkle small pinches of salt over the darker parts of the water. Over the next ten minutes, the salt pulls paint outward and leaves pale, speckled stars that look a lot like sea spray.
Too early and the salt just dissolves. Too late and nothing happens. If it’s too late, brush a little water on the spot and try again. Leave the salt on until the painting is completely dry.
Step 6: Deepen the shadow under the curl
Once the first layer is fully dry (the paper should no longer feel cool to your fingertip), paint a stripe of dark blue under the lip of the wave with the flat brush. Then rinse the brush, squeeze it nearly dry, and run it along the edge to soften it.
A hard stripe looks like a painted line, so softening matters. Soften while the paint is still wet. If it’s already dry, dampen the edge gently and blend it.
Step 7: Brush off the salt and peel the tape
Once everything is dry, rub the salt away with a dry fingertip. Then peel the tape slowly, pulling back along the paper at a low angle. A crisp white border appears, and the wax foam shows as bright flecks.
If the tape tugs at the paper, warm it for a moment with a hair dryer on low. It will release more easily.
With kids: peeling the tape is a thrill. Count it down together, and let them pull it slowly.
Finishing and display
If the paper rippled, lay it between two clean sheets and set a few heavy books on top overnight. It will flatten. Watercolor doesn’t need a sealer for hanging indoors, but it does fade in strong sun and spot in damp rooms, so choose a wall away from windows and bathrooms.
A store-bought frame with a mat suits this size well, because the mat hides any wobbly edges. You can also tuck the painting into a card for someone heading on a trip.
Try it this weekend
Make a postcard-sized wave in a single sitting.
- Time: about an hour, plus drying
- Supplies: one blue, one dark blue, a white crayon, table salt, tape
- Paper: cut a postcard-sized piece and tape the edges down
- The step that matters most: sprinkle the salt when the shine has just gone matte
Where to take it next
- Sunset wave: trade the blues for a pink and orange sky over a purple-blue sea. The same salt trick works.
- A wave row: everyone in the family paints a small wave in their own colors. Tape the finished cards side by side for one long picture.
- A watching sketchbook: on a day out near the water, sit and draw quick wave shapes in pencil for a minute at a time. Stay behind any rails or lines, and follow the posted rules for visitors.
Your first wave might look like a blue blanket, and that’s fine, because the second one always looks better.