The surge of the water was what attracted me to take this photograph on a recent visit to Southend. I liked the way the boats bobbed on the water and the neat diagonal line they created.  

I drew in the horizon, drew in the boat shapes (with a lot of detail), the edge of the body of water, the breaker and was then ready to paint. 

I used a blue that was in my palette for the sky, this was painted wet on wet, using a nice rounded brush stroke with a large round headed brush. I painted in the boats before the water, using reds, blues and chromatic blacks.  

To suggest a body of water, make a solid line around the edge where it meets the shore, I used a dark blue I had mixed for the edge line. For the water: have ready washes of purple, blue, green, and red. The technique here is to leave some of the paper white, which then suggests light playing on water. Use a horizontal brush stroke and leave gaps between each brushstroke. When dry, paint in the shadows of the boats, using a vertical directional brushstroke. These shadows need to be strong in tone.  

For the shore: under paint with flesh tint, premix a range of brown colours from light red to a burnt umber. I used stipple brushstroke to mark in the shapes of pebbles. Paint the breaker with an under paint of yellow, then light red, then a burnt umber. 

This painting took two hours to complete.