I dreamed for so long to make my resin ocean art – I watched soooo many videos on Youtube and it is just mesmerizing. The thing is…I’m a complete beginner with resin, I am a painter!
“Why am I not getting cells in my resin ocean waves?”
Have you tried getting cells to form while making resin ocean art. but it just doesn’t work? If you answered YES, we’ve got you covered! Keep reading for 5 tips from Jenna Derrenbacker that will up your resin waves game!
Scaling her art business to full time in less than a year, Jenna from @artsncraftsbyjen is fresh out of college and has been living her dream of being a full-time artist for 6 months now. She specializes in ocean resin art, and often incorporates the cremated remains of a customer’s loved one into her artwork per their request. Her favorite resin to use is MAS Epoxies Table Top Pro because it gives her the best white lacing for her oceans. She also loves using MAS’ FLAG system because it’s such a time saver! If you’re interested in some of her work, check out her next Valentine’s Day themed website restock on February 1 st at 6pm EST!
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Epoxy resin works best in a 68°-75° F environment, and any temperature outside of that will cause it to cure either too fast or too slow. It’s common for artists to have a preference of exactly what temperature they prefer to work in, my sweet spot is 74° F. That’s what I always keep my art studio at, which helps me achieve consistent results!
Torch your waves!
If you aren’t using a torch when creating resin ocean art, you are seriously missing out on your best lacing potential. Immediately after you blow your white pigment out with your heat gun, lightly torch the surface of your resin to activate the cells. When doing this, it’s extremely important to move your torch quickly and gently in back-and-forth motions over your piece, being sure to not hold it too close to the surface. NEVER hold your torch still over the same spot (this will burn your resin and ruin any cells in that area). If you remember these torching tips, you should be on your way to some beautiful cells!
When working with resin, you probably have to stop and put on a fresh pair of gloves a couple times throughout one pouring session. This can get very tedious when the clock is ticking and you’re working on multiple pieces at once. Not to mention the struggle of trying to force gloves onto sweaty hands! When I know I have a big pour ahead of me, I’ll put 2 – 3 pairs of gloves on over each other, that way when it’s time to change to a fresh set, I just strip the first pair off and the clean pair are already on my hands! While it probably doesn’t save me quite as much time as I’d like to think it does, it definitely gives me some piece of mind when I’m working on larger projects.
Epoxy resin Ocean art: what is that?
Epoxy resin is dense and fluid, it is glossy, transparent, and highly durable.
The gloss and its fluidity made some crafters think it will be perfect to imitate sea and ocean, beachside with white sand or black volcanic sand, rocks, shells, or even deep sea or ocean art with fishes and algae painted underneath.
My ocean art started with me spotting a perfect round wooden tray and some rocks I thought would be perfect for an ocean painting.
I’ve already had some resin so I decided to take a go.
Ocean Resin Art Supplies
- Pigments or acrylic paint: ultramarine blue, light blue or turquoise, white, or beige if you will pour the beach. I used this paint.
- Round wooden tray (in my tutorial), but you can use a wooden cutting board or canvas.
- Sand, shells, and/or rocks if you want to make it 3D and more realistic. I have rocks.
- Cups
- Nitrile gloves
- Mask (epoxy has toxic fumes)
- A heat gun to remove bubbles and create waves
- Stirring sticks
- Trash bag or large silicone mat to cover your working area
- Digital scales* (if your epoxy needs to be weighted by grams)
Is pigment or paint better?
They are both nice and will work.
You can buy powder pigments – they are gorgeous, and mix them with epoxy, or you can mix your acrylic colors with epoxy.
NOTE: if you are using acrylic paint, you still must mix it with epoxy. You can not add heavy body acrylics on top of the freshly poured and, still wet, epoxy – it will sink or it will start spreading around unevenly.
DIY Resin Ocean Art: how to make ocean resin art?
Step 1 – Preparation
Make sure your whole work area is covered, and your wooden tray or cutting board is clean, smooth, and the surface is leveled.
For leveling you can use cups flipped upside down, paper pins, or special cones sold online for pouring (painters’ pyramids) like these ones.
Step 2 – Mixing resin
Now you need to prepare as many cups as you want to use colors + one cup with clear premixed epoxy resin.
Check the mixing A: B ratio of the bottles you are using, but normally it is 2 parts of base A to 1 part of base B or equal parts.
Every brand is different. Pay attention to how the brand says you must measure your epoxy, by grams or by volume.
- I will use ultramarine, turquoise, white and clear epoxy.
- My resin calls for an A:B ratio being 2:1 and it has to be weighted by grams. I take my base B as I need 1 part of it and I pour 50 gr into the cup (I use digital scales). In a separate cup, I measure on scales 2 parts of the base A, so I pour 100gr.
- Now I mix them together in one cup, 150 gr is enough for one layer to cover my whole round tray. I mix for around 3 minutes to make sure it is properly combined.
- You can use a bubble remover machine at this step to get rid off all bubbles.
- Remember I have 3 colors? I prepare 3 smaller cups and squeeze some acrylic paint in them. Then I add the premix epoxy: a little bit for white, as we only use it for waves, quite a lot for ultramarine as it is the dominant color for my idea, and some for turquoise. And I leave some clear epoxy in the original big cup to cover the rocks I’m using.
Step 3 – Rocky Beach
I start from the “beach” side.
I had some rocks so I decided to make a rocky beach, you can do sand, shells, a mix of everything, or even just pour premixed sand color epoxy instead.
First I pour a little bit of epoxy on the area I want my rocks to be and spread it with my finger (in glove. ).
Then I place rocks in it so they stick nicely.
Step 4 – Pour the ocean
I start with dark color – ultramarine and pour it along the furthest side, then turquoise, and then white along the rocks.
As I have a rocky shore I wanted more white to create this impression of foam.
This is the first layer for me, but for you, it can as well be the only one if you blow the waves with the heat gun from the shore into the ocean right now and let it dry
You can use wooden sticks to guide the resin where you need it to be, as you see I used the sticks to pull some white into the shore and rocks.
Remove all bubbles with the heat gun!
I was not 100% happy with it so I let it dry overnight and go for a second layer. The same 1 to 3 steps repeated again but this time I made waves
Mistake!
Oh lord, I made a mistake that almost got my whole ocean art ruined.
I forgot the second round to mix my white with epoxy! And you can see the waves are foamier than I wanted.
So please, if using paint, always mix it with resin, don’t belike impatient Masha (me) haha.
Step 5 – How to make Resin Ocean Waves?
To make waves we need white color and a heat gun.
- Premix white pigment or paint with epoxy in a paper cup
- Squeeze the paper cup so there is only a tiny hole for white resin
- Pour a few lines over your ocean art
- Blow with the heat gun into the direction of the ocean from the beach. Stop when you are satisfied.
