How to create ocean resin art

Ocean resin art layers coloured resin to mimic waves, foam, and open water. It's a technique piece — most of the skill is in colour layering and heat manipulation rather than any single fixed recipe. This guide covers the process from base to finish.

Choosing your resin and base

A sealed, rigid panel works best as a base — a primed wood panel or canvas board is the standard choice, since it can be tilted and handled while the resin is still workable. Whatever surface you use, make sure it's sealed against the resin (raw, unsealed wood or canvas can absorb resin unevenly or let it seep through).

For the resin itself, this is a coating-style project rather than a deep casting one, so Arts & Crafts resin is generally the right choice — mixed 1:1 by volume, with a maximum layer of 6mm and a working time of around 35 minutes for a 50g batch at 25°C. If you want a thicker, glassier single pour instead of a layered build-up, Table Top resin (also 1:1, max 3mm per coat) is the alternative — see "Arts & Crafts vs Table Top vs Deep Pour vs UV — Which Resin Do I Need?" for a full comparison. Deep Pour resin is not suited to this technique; its long open working time and thick pour depth work against the fine layering and quick heat manipulation ocean art depends on.

Keep your workspace level before you start pouring — an uneven surface will pull your wave lines off to one side as the resin cures.

Colouring your ocean effect

Ocean art typically uses a small palette: one or two blues, a pearl white for foam, and optionally a sand-tone for a beach section. Mica powders are a common choice for this style, since their shimmer reads well as light on water, but liquid pigments and alcohol inks also work.

Whatever colourant you use, remember it sits on top of an already-correctly-measured resin and hardener mix — colourant is not part of the ratio. Keep total colourant additions to no more than 5% of your total resin volume; going heavier than that risks a soft or sticky cure even though the resin and hardener themselves were measured correctly. See "Colour Mixing Guide — Pigments, Mica Powder, and Ratios" for the full breakdown by colourant type.

Mix each colour separately, in its own container, before you start pouring — you want distinct blues and a distinct white ready to go, not a single mixed batch you're trying to swirl.

Building the wave layers

Pour your colours in bands rather than trying to blend them upfront:

• A sand or neutral tone along one edge, if you're including a beach section.
• Your lighter blue next, working outward from the sand.
• A darker blue further out, to suggest deeper water.

Leave a little bare space between bands rather than pouring them edge to edge — this gives you room to work the colours into each other deliberately, rather than having them bleed together on their own. It's fine for this stage to look messy; the wave lines are built in the next step, not here.

Creating movement with heat

The characteristic wave and foam lines come from manipulating thin lines of white resin with directed heat, usually from a heat gun on a low setting. Pour a thin line of white along where you want a wave crest, then pass the heat gun over it from a distance — the moving air drags the white through the blue beneath it, creating the foam-and-wave pattern. Keep the heat moving continuously; holding it still over one spot for too long will overwork that area rather than improve it.

This is a thin coating layer, so a heat torch is fine to use afterward for clearing any surface bubbles — torching is appropriate for thin layers like this, not for deep pours. Use it briefly and evenly rather than lingering in one spot, which can scorch or discolour the surface.

Expect some trial and error here. The distance, angle, and speed of the heat source all change the result, and it's a technique that's easier to feel out on a small test piece than to get right first try on a large one.

Curing and finishing

Leave the piece completely undisturbed once you've finished manipulating the waves — any movement of the panel while the resin is still flowing will drag your lines out of place. Cure it as normal for whichever resin you used, and don't disturb, demould, or handle it before it's reached a full cure, not just a hard surface — a piece can feel dry to the touch well before it has finished curing all the way through.

Step-by-step

1. Prep and level your base — seal the surface if needed and make sure it's sitting level before you mix anything.
2. Mix your colours separately — one or two blues, a pearl white, and an optional sand tone, each in its own container, keeping colourant to no more than 5% of total resin volume.
3. Pour in bands — sand, then light blue, then darker blue, leaving thin gaps between bands rather than pouring edge to edge.
4. Add and shape the white lines — pour thin white lines where you want wave crests, then work them with a heat gun on a low setting until the wave pattern forms.
5. Torch off surface bubbles and leave undisturbed — a brief pass with a torch is fine on this thin a layer; then leave the piece flat and untouched until it's fully cured.

Related articles

• Colour Mixing Guide — Pigments, Mica Powder, and Ratios
• Arts & Crafts vs Table Top vs Deep Pour vs UV — Which Resin Do I Need?
• Bubbles — Why They Appear and How to Remove Them