Odd things inspire me. I saw this illustration by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, he could do everything well) and I wanted to try to do “Tolkien Clouds”.

I read The Hobbit as a kid and Tolkien’s illustrations, to me, were fine art. Yes, I knew about “great paintings” but what awed me were fairytale illustrations. Those “great paintings” were obviously painted by talented humans but the fairytale illustrations were magic — too good for anyone to have made them — they just … were. Perfect. I could not imagine how they came from the hands of mere mortals.

At least that’s how it seemed to me. So yeah, I think they influenced me a LOT.

So I needed a beach – easy enough. I did a quick sketch of a horizon and water’s edge. I used Fineline Mask, and for once just kind of played and didn’t think about what I was doing but just…. doodled. I liked it.

Yes, since I found Daniel Smith watercolors, I have used little else. I do make one very big exception – Grumbacher “Academy” Davy’s Gray. Maybe because it is “student grade” it is not as strong and imposing as other brands. It is basically the color of concrete with a greenish tinge. I use it a LOT. If you ever need to “grunge” something up, Davy’s Gray is there for you.

So I laid down a wash of Davy’s Gray for the sand with a little Zoisite near the water for darkness

Now once upon a time, I painted with oils. I was self-taught so I did a few paintings just using dots of color. Millions of dots. When I took up watercolors, again, I had no idea what to do so I tried a similar “dot” approach. It can work well sometimes. I know it seems like it would be tedious but I find it calming and fun, like embroidery or beading – which I also do.

I take a steel calligraphy nib on a nib holder and use a brush to put watercolor on the nib. Yes, the brush rubbing against the edge of the nib rather quickly ruins the brush but I keep a few “ruined” brushes, just for this purpose.

With the pigment on the nib, I dot the paper. Over and over. It takes awhile to build up the textured effect and there is a point in the middle where it is truly ugly and you know this is never going to work. But it does. Most of the time, and always for beaches, I add Chinese White to the pigment. I am using Daniel Smith Chinese white but I think any brand will do, Here I am going to tint the white with Cerulean, Amethyst, Davy’s Gray and Terre Verte to create a sandy beach. Where I live, the beach sand is white but in nature, white takes on all the colors around it.

Here’s the ugly stage.

Just lots of dots.

With the sand complete, I started painting the water. This was a mistake as I had to smear parts of the beach sand – should’ve painted that last!

I used my favorite, Terre Verte, Cerulean, Indigo and a touch of Cobalt. The muddy green in the near surf is Rare Green Earth.

I still don’t know how to paint skies. It is always a “hold your breath and jump” moment for me.

I did a cerulean wash across the sky, added a little cobalt at the top and terre verte at the bottom and then with a watercolor sponge, tried to imitate the Tolkien clouds. Not too good, but maybe they will do. It is practice!

I added just a touch of potter’s pink to the bulkiest parts of the clouds to maybe give them a glow and let it dry.

Now, somewhere along the line, a bit of the paper shredded or there was something on the brush but I ended up with this blue blob after it all had dried.

Carefully, I took a stiff brush and kinda scooped it out and smoothed the blue wash a little. It worked!

Now just had to remove the masking fluid and it is done. Turns out I like it more than most I have done. I just never know how they will turn out!