Painting at the Beach - some plein air, some not

We spent a week at the beach at the end of July.  We were there with our children and grandchildren - all 11 of us.  It was an absolutely wonderful week of family time.  So many special moments.  We rented a house right on the beach in Seaside.  It's the first time we've stayed in Seaside, and it was wonderful especially for the teen girls.  They could walk right into downtown Seaside (two houses down from where we were staying) to get food or to shop.

I took my rolling backpack with my painting supplies, and I set it up on the 3rd floor covered porch which provided a beautiful panoramic view of the ocean and beach. I have to mention that having the rolling backpack is a great idea!  I know that everything I need to paint is in that backpack. I have to make sure the panels I want are in there - but everything else is ready to go. With my compulsive personality, I have doubles of everything so I don't have to unpack paints or brushes or other supplies in between use.  I have all I need in it - and I have all I need in my studio as well.

Here are my two paintings for the week.  Both have figures in them - and that is definitely not my strong suit.  This first one is Sophie. She ASKED me to paint this for her. I captured the basic scene, but I'm not pleased with the figure. If I'm going to continue painting figures, I need to take a figure painting class and see if I can learn some tips to make my figures better. The painting is based on a photo that Sophie Grace took of Sophie earlier in the week.

Then the second painting is of Ron and Bradley.  I did a plain air painting of the ocean view from our balcony/porch, and then I used a photo of Ron and Bradley at one of Evey's soccer games a couple years ago, and painted them into the beach scene.  I'm not pleased with the figures on this one either. While I feel I did the shadowing and highlighting all right, the figures just don't look authentic to me. I don't know how to fix it, though.  

All in all, while I'm glad I completed two paintings during our week at the beach, I'm not particularly pleased with either one.