Landscape and Ocean Tutorials

This page has my step-by-step landscape and ocean tutorials, organized so you can choose a project and start painting today.

Landscape-and-Ocean-Tutorials

Do you love painting mountains, waterfalls, beaches, and waves?

They're all here.

Your paintings will improve the fastest by painting consistently - as often as your schedule will allow you to paint.

Quick links:

If you’re brand new, start with one beginner-friendly project below and don’t worry about drawing perfectly.

Start Here: Choose Your Project (30 seconds)

Pick the option that fits you today:

Oil Painting Tutorials: Landscapes, Beaches, Waves

These oil tutorials also work well for acrylic or alkyd because the painting steps and techniques are the same.

They include detailed instructions with the important choices for color mixing, composition, and how to use the light and dark values.

Watercolor-Friendly Lessons for Landscapes & Skies

Even if you’re not painting a full landscape in watercolor yet, these watercolor lessons build the exact skills you’ll use for skies, distance, soft edges, and luminous color.

How to paint ocean tutorial by artist Carol May.You can paint an ocean scene. (Oil)

3 Key Skills That Make Landscapes Look Real

Use these with any medium:

  1. Values (light, medium, dark) 
    Landscapes pop when you push contrast where it matters.
  2. Composition (where you place the horizon, focal point, and shapes) 
    A strong composition can make a simple scene feel dramatic.
  3. Color choices (limited palette + temperature shifts) 
    Ocean and sky color gets easier when your palette is simpler. 
    How-to-Mix-Colors and Color-Schemes-in-Art

Quick Exercise

Before you paint: Plan the composition with thumbnails of your scene.

  1. Select a light, medium, and dark value. Ignore all the in-between values.
  2. Lay out the general areas of each of the 3 values.
  3. Ask yourself: Is it interesting? Does it look balanced? Will the main subject be highlighted? Do you think you would use it for your painting?

Here's an example of a thumbnail study with the finished watercolor painting.

Composition study of an ocean landscape.Study of the proposed composition.
The completed ocean landscape painting.The completed painting.

Common Problems with Quick Fixes

  • My ocean looks flat - increase value contrast; darken shadows under the wave crest; keep foam edges crisp in focal areas. How to Paint Ocean
  • My greens/blues look muddy - simplify palette, mix in steps, and avoid over-mixing. Color Bias has a strong effect on your colors.
  • My waterfall doesn’t look like it’s moving - soften edges, sharpen highlights, and increase the contrast between the rock and water. Paint a Waterfall

Recommended Supplies

Oil painters: brushes + canvas + solvent safety

Watercolor painters: paper the first recommendation, canvas, or Aquabord

Studio setup basics: light, ventilation, and storage

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Easiest Landscape to Start with As a Beginner?

When you are new at painting, a quiet water scene is good for beginners. You can often paint them with only three colors.

Is Painting Waves Hard?

Painting anything is not difficult when you do it one step at a time. When you are starting with seascapes, Painting a Beach is a good place to begin.

How Do I Choose Ocean Colors?

You might want to check out the Ocean Colors page to get the basic colors for many seascape paintings.

Do I Need to Draw Well to Paint Landscapes?

Definitely NOT! Nothing is perfect in nature - so people won't notice the imperfections in your drawings.

When did you see a tree with a perfectly straight trunk or a lake in a symmetrical circle? Nature is not perfect, so you don't have to be perfect at drawing to begin painting landscapes.

Next Step:

Choose one project above and schedule a time this week to paint it. Small, regular painting sessions build skill faster than occasional long ones.

Beginners Guide
View All Tutorials

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