80 ideas

Beach Drawing Ideas

Deal one beach subject, from a cockle seen end on to a wave in three frames, with the shape to get right underneath.

Beach Drawing Ideas

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Drawn: An oystercatcher probing the shoreAn oystercatcher probing the shoreBlack and white; orange-red bill, long and straight; red eyes; dull pink legs.

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All 80 ideas

Shells by name 16

A blue mussel shell, one half inside up A rounded triangle with fine growth lines and no ribs. Purple, blue or sometimes brown.
A chambered nautilus sawn in half Walls called septa divide the spiral into chambers. Outside it is matt white with dark orange stripes.
A cockle seen end on, the two halves making a heart Two ribbed halves that form a heart when viewed from the end. Space the ribs evenly.
A common periwinkle, dark with spiral bands Broadly oval with a sharp point and six or seven whorls. Grey-brown; dark spiral bands are common.
A cowrie from underneath, slit and teeth showing Smooth, shiny and egg-shaped. The flat underside has a long narrow slit, often toothed along the edges.
A lightning whelk, the shell that coils left A left-handed shell: point up, the opening sits on the left. Its cousin the knobbed whelk coils right.
A mermaid's purse washed up on the tideline The egg case of a skate or shark. Roughly rectangular, with a horn at each corner.
A moon snail shell beside a clam it has drilled A globular shell. Moon snails bore a neat countersunk hole in their prey, so bevel the hole's edge.
A queen conch with its flared lip Heavy, with knobbly spines on the shoulder and a thick flared lip. The opening is pink or orange.
A scallop shell face down, ribs fanning from the hinge A fan of ribs from a straight hinge, with a flat ear either side. Cockles have the ribs but no ears.
A sea urchin test with its spines gone The bare shell is called a test. Its rows of bumps run pole to pole in fivefold symmetry.
A slotted sand dollar, bleached white Some sand dollars have slits called lunules. The flower on top is five paired rows of pores.
A stack of slipper limpets Often found heaped one on another. Turn one over: a white shelf inside makes it look like a slipper.
A wentletrap, the spiral staircase shell The name comes from the Dutch for spiral staircase. High sharp ribs cross every whorl like steps.
An abalone shell with its row of holes Flattened and ear-shaped, with a row of breathing holes near the edge and an iridescent lining.
An auger shell, a tall thin screw Extremely high-spired with many whorls, like a drill bit. Taper it evenly, then wrap the whorls round.

Tide pools and shore life 16

A beadlet anemone closed up at low tide Out of water it pulls its tentacles in and looks like a blob of red jelly, up to about 5 cm across.
A beadlet anemone open under water Up to 192 tentacles in six circles, with a ring of bright blue beads just beneath them.
A brittle star crossing the floor of a pool Five long, slender, whip-like arms joined to a small central disc. Bend each arm a different way.
A by-the-wind sailor stranded on the sand A deep blue raft under 7 cm long with a small stiff sail on top. Wind can strand them in thousands.
A chiton on a rock, eight plates in a row Eight overlapping shell plates ringed by a skirt called the girdle. It can curl into a ball.
A ghost crab beside its burrow Named for its pale colour and night habits. A box-like body with thick eyes on long stalks.
A horseshoe crab on the tideline A domed shield shaped like a horse's hoof, a smaller abdomen and a long tail spike called the telson.
A lugworm cast and its dimple A tight coil of sand marks the tail of the burrow. A saucer-shaped dip a few inches off marks the head.
A nudibranch, all frills and horns The name means naked gills. Two horn-like rhinophores on the head; some species carry finger-like cerata.
A shore crab facing you, claws tucked in Five short teeth along the shell rim behind each eye, and three bumps between the eyes.
A starfish turned over, tube feet showing The mouth sits in the centre of the underside, and rows of tube feet run down a groove in each arm.
Acorn barnacles crowded on a rock Each is a tiny volcano of six grey plates round a diamond-shaped door. Pack them tight, no two alike.
An ochre sea star clamped to a rock Five stout arms round a vague central disc. Also called the purple sea star. Drape the arms over the rock.
An oystercatcher probing the shore Black and white; orange-red bill, long and straight; red eyes; dull pink legs.
Bladderwrack draped over a rock A brown seaweed with a clear midrib and almost round air bladders, usually paired either side of it.
Sanderlings running from a wave Small waders that run along the wet sand with a bicycling action of the legs. Blur the legs, not the body.

Sandcastles 12

A crenellated sand wall, teeth and gaps The solid teeth of a battlement are merlons and the gaps are crenels. Keep both the same width.
A drip castle, towers like melted candles Made by dribbling very wet sand so it piles up in blobs. No straight lines anywhere, only stacked drips.
A moat with a channel dug down to the sea The channel is a long S that narrows with distance. Wet sand is darker than dry, so tone the banks.
A row of bucket turrets, one collapsed Each turret is a cut-off cone, wider at the base. Let one slump into a heap with its flat top still on.
A sand dragon curled round a castle mound One long body wraps the mound and overlaps itself. Put scale texture on the near side only.
A sand fort as the tide reaches it Water fills the moat first, then undercuts the outer wall. Draw one side crisp and the other dissolving.
A sand gatehouse with a driftwood drawbridge Two round towers, an arch between them, a plank over the moat. The arch is the darkest shape.
A sand mermaid tail sculpted over someone's legs A long mound that tapers and splits into two flukes. Press the scales in rows with a shell edge.
A sand sculpture of a sea turtle, low and wide An oval shell scored into plates, four flippers and a head. Low relief, so keep the shadows thin.
A sandcastle with a spiral ramp to the top Draw the mound first, then wind the ramp round it. It narrows as it climbs and hides behind the hill.
A sandcastle with shell windows and a feather flag Shells pressed in rows make the windows and a door. The feather leans the way the wind blows.
Bare footprints, some crisp and some half washed out Heel and ball press deepest and the arch hardly marks. The washed prints keep only the heel.

Piers and lighthouses 12

A fishing boat aground at low tide, leaning on its keel The mast tilts with the hull and the mooring rope hangs slack. Wet mud holds a dark smear of reflection.
A Fresnel lens close up Concentric rings of glass prisms round a bullseye, invented for lighthouses by Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
A lifeguard chair on tall legs, empty A high seat on splayed legs with a ladder up the front. From below, the legs spread towards you.
A lighthouse beam sweeping through sea mist Two wedges of light from the lantern, widening as they go. Lift them out of a dark sky with an eraser.
A lighthouse on a rock, tapering to the top The tower narrows as it rises. Its paint pattern is called a daymark, so ships can tell it apart by day.
A lighthouse top: lantern room, gallery and rail The glassed-in lantern room holds the lamp and lens. The open walkway round it is the gallery.
A pier from underneath, legs marching out to sea One-point perspective: the rows of piles shrink to a single spot, with cross-braces making Xs between.
A pleasure pier from the beach at low tide A long deck on thin piles with a pavilion at the far end. The tide runs through underneath.
A rowing boat pulled up on shingle Out of the water the whole hull shows. It leans on one side, so the far rim sits higher than the near.
A stack of lobster pots on a harbour wall Netted frames with a one-way funnel entrance. Draw the frames first, then the net as loose diamonds.
Harbour steps going down into the water The steps carry on under the surface. Draw two more below it, paler and wobbling. Weed marks the tide.
Timber groynes running down a beach into the sea Low walls built straight out from the shore to stop sand drifting along it. Each one shrinks with distance.

Umbrellas and beach kit 12

A beach cabana with striped curtains tied back A box frame with a peaked roof. The stripes gather to a point where each curtain is tied.
A beach umbrella from above, wedges in two colours A circle cut into equal wedges like a pie, colours alternating. A small dot marks the pole tip.
A beach umbrella from underneath, ribs showing The canopy is held up by ribs spreading from the pole. From below they read as the spokes of a wheel.
A kite with a long tail over the beach A diamond on a cross of spars with a tail of bows. The string sags in a curve; it is never straight.
A lifebuoy ring on its stand A ring with bands of colour and a grab rope looped round the outside. Draw the ellipse before the bands.
A striped windbreak staked along the sand Cloth between wooden poles. The stripes bulge where wind fills each panel, so curve them.
A sun lounger and umbrella casting one joined shadow Draw the shadow as a single flat shape first. It should be darker than anything in the light.
A thatched palm-leaf sunshade A shaggy cone on one post. Draw the thatch in layers from the bottom up, each overlapping the last.
A tilted umbrella with a scalloped edge Tilted, the circle becomes an ellipse. Hang one scallop from the rim between each pair of ribs.
An umbrella blown inside out, tumbling down the beach The ribs flip upward and the cloth bellies the wrong way. Draw the ribs first, then stretch cloth between.
Six umbrella canopies, six patterns Stripes, spots, zigzags, checks, palm leaves and one plain. Bend every pattern over the dome.
Thirty identical umbrellas in rows on a resort beach Repetition in perspective: each row is smaller, closer together and paler. Line the poles up.

Waves and the water's edge 12

A great wave with claw-shaped foam Hokusai's woodblock print of 1831 shows three boats under a cresting wave. Study the claws, then invent.
A sea stack and an arch off a headland Waves widen cracks in a headland into caves, and collapse leaves free-standing pillars called stacks.
A spilling breaker on a gently sloping beach On a gradual slope the crest turns unstable and white water spills down the face. Soft and wide, no tube.
A wave bursting against a sea wall The spray is a fan of bare paper against a darker sky. Flick its top edge into separate droplets.
The four breaker types in a row Spilling, plunging, collapsing and surging. Four small side views, one for each, all the same height.
One wave in three frames: rising, curling, collapsed Three boxes, one viewpoint. The horizon stays put while the wave changes. Most of the work is in frame two.
Sea foam left as lace on wet sand A net of bubbles with holes of every size. Draw the holes, not the foam, and let the net fray at the edge.
Wave stage one: a swell rising, no white yet A smooth hump. The highest line is the crest and the dip in front is the trough. Shade the near face.
Wave stage three: white water running up the sand The sheet of water that washes up the beach after a wave breaks is the swash. Give it a lacy front edge.
Wave stage two: the crest curling over A plunging breaker: the crest goes vertical, curls over and drops onto the trough. Leave a dark tube.
Wet sand mirroring the sky as a wave pulls back For a second the sand is a mirror. Drop the sky colour onto it, then streak it towards the sea.
The wrack line after high tide Kelp, seagrass, driftwood and other debris left in a wavy line where the tide turned. Draw it as a ribbon.

How it works

Eighty beach drawing ideas that get past the palm tree and the sun in the corner. Shells and sea animals go by name, waves come in three stages, and sandcastles have battlements. Every hint says what to look at, with species and wave facts checked against Wikipedia. Pair a topic group with a level.

Read the full guide

A wave is three drawings, not one

Most ocean drawing ideas go wrong at the water: a wave drawn from memory is a row of bumps. The Waves group splits it into stages. Wave stage one: a swell rising, no white yet is a smooth hump with a crest and a trough. Stage two curls over and leaves a dark tube. Stage three is the swash, the thin sheet that runs up the sand. Draw all three and the sea starts to move.

Six topics, three levels, proper names

The 80 ideas split 30 easy, 32 medium and 18 hard across six topic groups. Shells by name holds 16, from A stack of slipper limpets to a wentletrap, named from the Dutch for spiral staircase. If you only want beachy things to draw on a postcard, open Umbrellas and beach kit. Topic and level combine, so Shells by name plus Easy holds five.

Put the horizon in first and keep it level. Everything else is measured against it.
Wet sand is darker than dry and reflects like a dull mirror. One band of tone along the water's edge does it.
Shell ribs are evenly spaced, so tick them off along the rim before you draw one.

Questions and answers

Which of these make easy beach painting ideas?

Start with A beach umbrella from above, wedges in two colours: flat shapes and two pots of paint. Sea foam left as lace on wet sand suits a dry brush dragged over blue. In acrylic, paint the sea dark and add white water on top. In watercolour, leave the foam bare. As ocean painting ideas, the three wave stages make a set.

How do I make a sandcastle look built and not melted?

Give it geometry. A bucket turret is a cut-off cone, wider at the base, and a battlement is teeth and gaps of equal width: merlons and crenels. Rule those first, then let one corner slump. A drip castle, towers like melted candles is the exception, with no straight line anywhere.

How do I tell a scallop from a cockle?

Look at the hinge. A scallop's is straight with a flat ear either side, and the shell is a fan. A cockle has the same ribs but no ears, and its two halves make a heart seen end on. Both are Easy, so draw them side by side.