Sailing on the Ocean Waves

Sunset at Sea

A sailboat floats along on the ocean waves under a cloud-filled sky in the latest artwork from Steve’s Sketchbook.

The stylized look of the waves, the clouds, and the sailboat are not meant to represent any one culture, although they were inspired by different South Pacific cultures whose art I enjoy. But this was just my own creation, an attempt to capture the feel of those cultures without copying any specific one.

Occasionally, scenes such as this one find their way into my head. After a scene has been there for a while, rolling around like the ocean waves, I decide I should try to capture it in artwork, just to see if I can produce what I see in my head. This one ended up matching pretty closely to what I wanted to do.

What’s On Your Mind?

Isn’t it interesting what our minds can come up with sometimes? Some things might be based on experiences or facts, and others might be purely based in imagination. Or maybe even a combination of both.

One of the things I enjoy about art is being able to translate what is in my mind into some other form. Sometimes it works. And then at other times, it does not quite match exactly what I was seeing in my mind. But it is still fun to try.

I would encourage you to try something like this sometimes. Maybe with pen and paper, or crayon and paper. Or some other medium, such as actual paint and canvas.

Having a creative outlet can be fun!

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. - Psalm 89:1

About the Artwork

Here is a look at my process for creating this artwork, if you are curious.

First, I made a rough sketch, figuring out where the clouds, waves, and boat should all be. The sketch was very rough and simple, but then it was just for me as a guide, so that did not matter much.

Next, I painted the scene using Procreate on my iPad in flat colors, changing up the colors a bit until I found ones that worked well together. Procreate allowed me to easily change the colors of the elements until I found the ones that I liked the best.

I next “carved” the design elements into the waves, clouds, and sailboat. Actually, I just used a wedge-shaped eraser brush in Procreate to erase those designs into the shapes.

Then, I added some shading and highlights to the different elements to make them look a little less flat. This was accomplished using an airbrush brush in Procreate. I also added some whitecaps on the tips of the waves.

Next, I used a texture brush to give everything a weathered sort of look, for lack of a better term. Once again, this was to make it all look less flat. I like textures in my artwork to make it look a little less digital, even though it definitely is digital.

And finally, I roughed up the edges, just to give it a different sort of look instead of the hard-edge look that I normally have. But this time, instead of erasing, I used a white brush on a different layer, just in case I wanted to do something different later on.

Sure enough, I did want to do something different, so I rearranged the different elements of the artwork, minus the sailboat, and created a new banner graphic for the website. Here it is, just in case it is no longer at the top of the page anymore if you are reading this far out into the future:

Also, just in case you are wondering, although the website here only has low-resolution versions of artwork, I do produce all of this in a high resolution, just in case I need it for something later on. If you are an artist, I would advise you to do the same. Because you just never know what might come up.