Wave Study #26 - Painting from Memory and Day 21: 30 in 30 Challenge

©2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #26, 6"x8", oil on linen panel

Well, this isn't my best one but I painted this from the sketch I made yesterday and from memory. It was a very gray day with very little contrast. Not much water haze. Looking at the painting I would push the contrast a bit more. Yes, the day was gray but the wave shapes were still better defined. I almost got the lower wave. At times the backwash hits the incoming small waves and they hump up into a distinctive shape. The foam tracing on the larger swells was really yellow-red. I think I should push the chroma of that a bit more too. I am happy with the breaker wave color. Not a lot of contrast and the light and shadows were very close in value and hue. There was a hint of lavender in on the ocean in the distance. I got that in but I believe the background ocean mixture had too much red in it. I wanted a very gray color with a tiny hint of green. Not quite there.

This was my first try at painting like this. I think I have plenty of room to grow!

Here is the sketch I made yesterday:

This sketch and my memory is all I had to work with. I expect it will improve with practice. I am really happy that I have this to fall back on when the weather conditions just won't allow me to actually be out there and paint either on the beach or the car.
The morning was beautiful but now the next system is moving in. I think I will still be able to hit the beach this afternoon though. I wanted to try my hand at this before my memory got obscured by this afternoon's work. I am posting this for Day 22 of the 30 in 30 challenge on Leslie Saeta's blog. I just missed the window to post it for Day 21.
With any luck, I will have another post tonight. I am off!