one last one from laguna

One more. The morning started out hazy which gave me ample time to block in the big shapes. The painting is about the big, flat dark shape of the rocks against the busy motion of the water so I played up the lack of information in the dark wall of sandstone against the movement in the breaking surf. The sun broke in the last hour of the painting and allowed me to get a little contrast  in the water and the sand and ocean falling into shadow. Also a little light floating through the mist of the breaking waves warmed up the piece a bit. The trick with the waves is to draw in the key lines and wait for each breaking wave to get the little bits of information; the foam in light and shadow, the color of the clear water at the crest of the wave (which I pushed in terms of color for contrast against all the muted tones), and the subtle shifts between the murky brine and the foam. The key lines of the waves and breaking water on the rocks help the eye to flow into the painting and around through it and the shape of the rock against the breaking light became critical so I gave it a bit of extra attention.