How to Make a Beach Time Clock Drawing

We’ll try to capture that beach time vacation feeling on a clock drawing. 

Most of the year, I keep pretty busy in among a slurry of artwork, sports schedules, gardening and the never ending homemade menu. But when I’m on vacation, everything is peaceful and relaxed. All time melts into a calm, timelessness. 

We rarely have to be anywhere at a given time. I mean, who cares if we eat at set times? Sure … we have time for another walk on the beach. Ice cream instead of lunch? Let’s do it! Sit on the balcony and stare at the waves for hours? How soothing. 

In fact, on this year’s vacation, I realized just how stressed I operate the rest of the year because of the absence of tension the entire week away. A clue to the need for an adjustment? Or a permanent vacation? 

Since the permanent vacation isn’t realistic, maybe we can create some artwork that reminds us to spend some moments livin’ on beach time. 

Gather your supplies

• Basic calligraphy supplies with Ziller ink
• Basic Watercolor supplies 
• Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box 
• Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White

Read on for extra tips or jump to the video.

Livin’ on Beach Time Lettering

Think about lettering styles you like. When working with quotes, I like to use bold or open letter styles for important words and simple or script letter styles for the rest of the quote. 

I always draw in pencil first. It warms up my hands to the motions and allows me to redraw and center things until I like what I have.

Clock Drawing Pieces

When you’re satisfied with the beach time lettering, move on to the clock drawing. 

I have always liked those clocks that say “Who Cares?” and show all of the numbers falling to the bottom of the clock. 

As I mentioned, I hardly ever operate on that kind of time. Vacation is the exception. When I’m at the beach, all time keeping goes out the window. So go ahead … draw the entire clock on a heap at the bottom of the page.

Here are the pieces I drew for this tutorial. Use them as a starting point to think of ideas in a lettering or number style you love.

Finish your clock drawing and go over it all with a calligraphy pen and ink. This allows you to quickly add stroke variations with thick and thin calligraphy strokes.

Let it dry completely before you erase the pencil lines.

Watercolor Background in Beach Colors

Can you picture the color when I say beach blue? Maybe you picture several colors. The blue I picture leans toward teal and goes well on weathered wood with a white wash on top of it. 

That’s the kind of background we’ll paint for our beach time clock drawing. 

Start with the teal color.

I mixed mine until I liked it, using a little green, blue and a touch of yellow. The tint of the blue matters, so I started with the intense blue in my pocket box set. When you have the color you want, use a flat brush to paint stripes of it across the page. Leave white between them so they kind of look like wooden planks. 

Let it dry. 

Now, use a smaller round brush to paint white in quick, short strokes over the teal, giving it a white washed look. Go ahead and paint it over the black lines of the lettering too. Do this over the whole drawing. 

Let it dry again.

Accent Colors

Next we need to help the drawing stand out. Pick a dark blue to paint inside the beach time lettering and every other number. 

Then use one shade darker of the background teal to fill in the other numbers. 

Finally, paint the clock gears brown. 

And you’re finished! Celebrate with a little beach time at home.

Watch How to Make a Beach Time Clock Drawing

Enjoy the process!