Painting Ocean Background for Orca Wood Art

Painting a blended background for any art is easy and fun. Anyone can paint a blended background following my simple steps!
This technique is versatile and looks great! I know when people are new to painting it can sometimes feel intimidating or overwhelming, but I can promise you this technique is easy to do and creates a beautiful background.
This is great technique for beginners!
Paint is a forgiving medium to use, if you aren’t happy with how your painting is going you can always let it dry and just start again.
Paint is also relatively inexpensive and can add so much to wood art pieces and backgrounds.
I really hope you try this technique!
I create this video tutorial to show how you can do this too! You really can!

For this project you need your background to be painted, paints and brushes.

Paint:
To create a blended ocean background, you need acrylic paint in a deep navy color, teal blue, black and white.
I used acrylic paint from the dollar store and Michaels Craft store.
PAINT
Navy – DecoArt Copenhagen Blue
Teal – Delta Ceramcoat Laguna Blue
Black – DecoArt Black
White – DecoArt White

Brushes:
I used the brushes listed below but any brushes will do as long as one is very soft for the final blending.
BRUSHES
1” Grumbacher
2” Nobel Badger Hair Brush (soft brush)

The first step is getting the paint on the background. Add dots of paint in the areas they will be most predominant.
Start in each corner and add dots of the colors in the following order in a diagonal:
• Small dot of black paint
• Large dot of navy paint
• Large dot of teal paint
• Medium dot of white paint

Time to blend – don’t be scared it is only paint and anything can be fixed!
Take your 1” brush (not your soft brush) and start blending in a circular pattern from the center outward.

Use a cris cross or X motions with your paint brush to blend. If you feel the background is too dry add more paint. If you have too much paint and it is too wet just remove the excess and then continue to blend.
This is the first round of blending and there will be brush strokes and lines between the colors.

Once your first blend is finished decide if you are happy with the colors. You may want to add more dark paint in the corners or light paint in the middle.
Once you are happy with the initial blend use your soft brush to blend everything smooth. This brush should be dry.

When you are blending with you soft brush use a light touch. As Bob Ross said, “2 hairs and some air”.
The soft brush blending will smooth any brush strokes and help make the blend between colors seamless.
The more you blend with this brush the smoother and softer your background will look.

This technique can be used to create many blended backgrounds to create the galaxy or sky effect.
You can also play around with different color combinations to create totally different looks.
The more you work with paint and colors the more comfortable you’ll be, and you will be able to express your creativity and unique style in your wood art pieces.
Paint is an incredible way to make any art piece a true expression of your creativity and vision.
If you have any questions, please leave them below.
Creative the life you want!