Making Water (Part 2)
by Jim Baumann

Having brought the model to 'flatcoated-but-not-yet-rigged' stage it was time to apply some colour to the water surface.
I chose a tone similar to that found around the British Isles and Norther Europe on an overcast day; a dull grey-green mix that forebodes worse weather to come!


The previously mounted ship had the immediate perimeter around the waterline carefully painted using a fine brush, ensuring that the 'underbelly' of the ship remained visible.

Once completed, the effect was of a dull sea, lifeless and monotone.


I now applied more of the grey roughly to the still wet surface with copious amounts of thinners and re brushed the surface wet-on-wet

This was then blended using the thinners to keep it all wet and flowing,the idea being to create subtle highlights and darker tones

   

Next the crests of the bow and stern waves were added-using thick white paint, the initial effect is very crude, but more thinners and dry-on-wet paint will give a fairly satisfactory effect yet...

The contrast of blended and un-blended can be seen to good effect below

once washed and dry-on wet brushed the results start to look a little like foaming sea


after all the mixing and blending the overhead view was quite pleasing to the eye

Not forgetting the water ahead of the ship; the swell would require a little spindrift- important not to overdo this as it can overpower the scene

Overhead views of similar ships at a variety of speed are always the best source; the variance of wake pattern and foam distribution varies from photo to photo depending on sea conditions, speed, and direction of travel relative to the wind.


Bow wave spray was made of the slightly torn edges of tissue paper, and supplemented with white fluff taken from a tumbledryer filter-this being finer than cotton wool!