/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>3833730
Thank you for allowing me to post this here. Please, When it comes to planning out the position and appearance of water in these two images, is there any idea or method that you would recommend when it comes to visualizing it? Would thumbnail sketching be the right path to go, attempting to draw three or four different waves (for the image on the right), and deciding from there about which splash/detail/review is better? I'm limited when it comes to the amount of the time that I have for digital work, should I have the details and layout of that wave already planned out in sketchbook pages beforehand? When it comes to the statements about learning the fundamentals, should I have done 10 or so strong-heavy-concentrated studies of similar waves, watching videos of the sea in that state? Or is it okay to freehand the scale and appearance of that wave without looking at any reference images, just doing whatever feels best?
Is there anything else that I need to study? Thank you for allowing me to ask, I hope that your week has been off to one good start.