What color is the ocean?

8ball · Post by **8ball** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:13 pm

Sometimes it looks blue. Sometimes green. Sometimes gray or almost black.

So what color do you paint "ocean?"

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:38 pm

This color?

This was done with a storm grey base over flex paste. The flexpaste was sculpted to create the appearance of waves and surf. I then washed the grey with successive washes of deep river green, cape cod blue and green sea letting each coat dry before applying the next wash. I drybrushed green sea and then white on the breakers. The whole thing was varnished with several coats of gloss varnish. The colors are all Delta Ceramcoat hobby acrylics.

jb · Post by jb » Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:22 am

Cav Dog,
That is an excellent job of the beach terrain!

Scott Washburn · Post by **Scott Washburn** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:12 pm

Water has no color of its own. The ocean will typically reflect the color of the sky. Blue sky, blue ocean. Gray sky, gray ocean. If the water is shallow and clear then you might start to pick up colors from the sea bed, too.

8ball · Post by **8ball** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:45 am

Water has no color of its own.

Yeah, I know. But what I asked was what color people painted "ocean?" Cav Dog's first pic is a good example. It's kinda bluish-greenish black. I was hoping to see others' ideas on what "ocean" should look like.

voltigeur · Post by **voltigeur** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:18 pm

When I was in the Pacific the colors our reffering to have to do with depth and the Ocean Floor below that depth.

A deep indigo would be a good color for deep ocean but dry brushing some greenish blue and white on the wave tops will give depth. If you watch a video of surf you can see this color change as more light is allowed to shine through the water at the top o the wave.

Shoals and coral reefs are the reason you have seen green ocean when viewed from the skiy. here the water is less than 100 feet deep and the coral will show up as green when viewed from aircraft. This effect will ring many Pacific and Carabian islands. In the Med and more northern oceans shoals are shallow areas but will usually be Sand or rock. I usually paint these a ligher shade of blue. maybe a royal blue and more ehavily topped with white as more waves are cresting and breaking.

My expierence is that the grey ocean is more a function of weather. When you have heavy overcast the ocean appears grey.

Anyway just my observations hope it helps.

Fulcrum · Post by **Fulcrum** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:19 am

Not this color !!! I really screwed up on the water.....

8ball · Post by **8ball** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:24 pm

Thanks for the input fellas.

intobattle · Post by **intobattle** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:41 pm

Rick,

Your water is a bit bright but I think the terrain looks great! I especially like the hills you have overlooking the city.

Tanner

mark.hinds · Post by **mark.hinds** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:17 am

I realize the example ocean color in the links below is a bit on the light side, but it looks ok with my models. (I was trying to compensate for dim indoor lighting; my previous color looked too dark). I do think that matching model and terrain color intensities is important though; I don't believe in "absolute" color values.

A link to an overall view of the same scene: http://home.comcast.net/~mark.hinds/Fig ... xample.jpg