IVOILUSTRA

Tag: wave painting

  • Spring Surfing in Portugal — Clean Waves and New Watercolours

    Spring Surfing in Portugal — Clean Waves and New Watercolours

    Girl surfing a spring wave, watercolour illustration by IVOILUSTRA
    Spring surf watercolour illustration detail by IVOILUSTRA

    Winter on the Portuguese Atlantic coast is beautiful in its own way — heavy, grey, powerful. The swells come in big and the water is cold enough to clear your head in seconds. But it demands something from you. Every session feels earned.

    Spring is different. The light softens. The swell direction shifts and the waves become longer, cleaner, more forgiving. The kind of waves that make longboarding feel like dancing — slow, deliberate, every step on the board a choice you have time to make.

    This illustration was painted in that spirit — the anticipation of spring surf, the lightness of a clean wave on a morning when the wind hasn’t woken up yet. Soft colours, movement without force, the hat brim catching the first warm light of the season.

    Surf Art Inspired by the Seasons

    One of the things I love most about living close to the ocean is that the water is never the same. Every season changes not just the waves but the palette — the winter blues are deep and cold, the spring greens are translucent and warm, the summer light turns everything gold by late afternoon.

    These shifts end up in the paintings whether I plan them or not. Watercolour responds to mood, and mood responds to the ocean. This piece is spring on the Atlantic — hopeful, gentle, and just a little bit restless.

    Sending good vibes to everyone waiting for their season to start. It always comes back. 🌊

    Browse all surf art prints at ivoilustra.com/shop — worldwide shipping, delivered in 4–9 days.

  • Longboard at Estoril, Lisbon — A Perfect Wave, a Watercolour Painting

    Longboard at Estoril, Lisbon — A Perfect Wave, a Watercolour Painting

    Praia do Estoril doesn’t get talked about the way Ericeira or Nazaré do. It’s not a big-wave spot. It doesn’t have a world-famous reef. What it has is something harder to find: consistency. When the wind and the swell align, Estoril delivers a long, peeling wave that runs down the beach in a way that feels almost too good to be real.

    It’s a longboarder’s wave. Patient, readable, generous. The kind that lets you walk to the nose, hang five, turn back, and do it again before the wave finally gives out in the shallows. I surfed it one afternoon when everything clicked — and came home and painted it before the feeling left my body.

    Longboard surfer riding a perfect wave at Estoril Lisbon, watercolour illustration by IVOILUSTRA

    Painting the Wave While the Memory Was Still Fresh

    This is how most of my surf illustrations start: in the van, immediately after a session, with the memory of the wave still physically present. The paddling fatigue in the shoulders. The salt still on the skin. That state is the best reference a watercolour artist can have — not a photograph, but a felt memory.

    The figure in the painting is riding with that particular longboard ease — upright, unhurried, reading the wave rather than fighting it. That’s what Estoril does to you. It slows everything down and makes the ocean feel approachable again.

    The short video below shows the painting coming together — from the first wash to the final marks.

    I have a feeling there’s a lot more to come from this stretch of coast. The Atlantic doesn’t run out of waves. And I haven’t run out of reasons to paint them.

    Prints available in the shop — worldwide shipping, 4–9 days. More process videos on YouTube.

    From surfers, to surfers.