What color is the ocean? I’m sure it depends on where you live or what time of day it is. My favorite color of the ocean happens sometimes in summer when the sun is at its’ highest point in the sky and the water is clear, and it turns the color usually reserved for tropical islands.

It looks like green. Ocean Green.

The ocean and water in general features quite a lot in my art, living on an island and in a place with lots of rain there is no shortage of water for inspiration.

The often recommended colors for tropical oceans however are usually too bright for my taste (e.g. Cobalt Turquoise and Cobalt Teal Blue), as I love painting in softer muted shades. So I’ve come up with some favorite color mixes for the ocean (and water in general!) which I use most often. (All paint used is Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor, and I’ve listed the pigment numbers in bold too!)

Some random mixes.

These colors are all beautiful, although I don’t use them often, if at all, but I love to record new mixes to remember for later, just in case they are useful!

The deep teal from Prussian Blue PB27 + Lemon Yellow PY175 + Indanthrone Blue PB60 + Monte Amiata Natural Sienna PBr7 looks like a lovely color for deep ocean shadows.

And Prussian Blue PB27 + Lemon Yellow PY175 + Buff Titanium PW6:1 is the perfect color for those close to shore areas where the ocean color is further influenced by the sand beneath.

My favorite mixes.

These are my most used color mixes for oceans and water. My all time favorite is Prussian Blue PB27 + Perylene Green PBk31. The brightest mix I use (up until now) is Prussian Blue PB27 + Green Apatite Genuine, I find it adds just a bit more of a tropical vibe when needed.

I was most surprised with Prussian Blue PB27 + German Greenish Raw Umber PBr7, and can see myself using this mix a lot in the future.

All of these colors can of course be tinted more green or more blue and lighter or darker depending on preference, I just swatch my most used color as reference. I am not super detailed with my color swatch recording, only ever writing down the colors used, I don’t record the amounts of each paint, although I know many people do prefer to do that! It’s just not my style, I like a more relaxed intuitive ‘a bit of this, a bit of that, oh that looks right’ kind of color mixing.

Let me show you some examples!

Prussian Blue PB27 + Perylene Green PBk31 was used in both Venice and Island Holiday, shown below (click on them for more info!)