My Sister, who lives on the east coast of Tasmania Aus, sent me this photo of my Brother in Law and his friend coming back into shore on Christmas day after going out to pick up their lobster pots. The colours in the photo are quite vivid which I like but given I am new to watercolour painting and don't have any white paint in my palette currently, I decided to change up colours to try for a look that would have been there closer to dawn when the sun would have been reflecting off water. Maybe next time I might include my brother-in-laws head but as people are not something I have been a subject matter of my paintings I generally omit them from my scenes due being worried about mucking them up.
All the best for the new year
Thanks for sharing this - a dramatic scene for sure. I'm in agreement with @Fi comments. The figure is important here - it helps to prevent the boat from looking as though it is stranded in the shallows, instead of making its way to shore through the surf. The darkest tone in your painting is the tope of the distant hills - compare this to the darks under the foreground waves - they are much darker. Keep this vivd tonal contrasts between light and dark in the foreground, and dial them down in the background to promote a sense of depth. There's some difficult perspective o the boat...but you've captured that well. Well done!
That’s a great photo. Those guys are living the dream.
You have some really wonderful colours showing in the water. And the patterns in the waves must have taken ages!
There’s some great YouTube videos on painting loose figures in watercolour. You’ll be surprised at how little you need to paint, to suggest a person.
Plus don’t worry about getting a white watercolour at all. I’m not sure why they’re often in the pan sets at art shops. That’s always confused me to be honest. The paper itself is your white, so you’re actually negative painting around your highlights. Either pick up some masking fluid to preserve light areas, or just grab some white gouache if you need an opaque white to add highlights back to the finished painting.
And don’t be afraid to make the dark areas darker so those highlights really pop!