How to Paint Watercolor Water Reflections
Water is a common element of watercolor landscape paintings. It's painted as rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, seas and oceans. A big part of convincingly painting water is getting the reflections just right. Boats, fishermen, clouds, trees, bathers and other elements of a watery landscape interact with the water's reflective surface to create a second set of images. Rendering the reflected images correctly is a complex undertaking, requiring a high level of observation. Realistic -ooking reflections are a key part of a successful watercolor painting of water.
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Things You'll Need
- Watercolor paints
- Paintbrushes
- Palette
- Sketchbook
- Watercolor paper
- Water
- Drawing pencil
- Drawing board
- Tape
Instructions
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Observe closely the body of water you wish to paint. Look at it under different weather conditions -- rainy, foggy and sunny. Notice how different the reflections look in the morning, at noon and during sunset. See how the reflections look in still, mirror-like water. Compare the visual effects with reflections on a windy day when the water is choppy with waves. Take a watercolor sketchbook along to make small, thumbnail studies of the reflections and the entire scene.
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Soak a sheet of watercolor paper in water for about 10 minutes. Flatten it out and tape it down on a drawing board. Use your sketches and studies to draw the composition in pencil on the paper. Lightly sketch in the reflections underneath and in front of the objects. Show the reflected undersides of boats or birds. Draw longer reflections from a low viewpoint and shorter reflections when observed from higher up.
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Take one of several approaches to painting reflections, depending on the conditons of the water. In still water on a bright day, paint a mirrored, full image of an object close to the water's edge, such as a tree. Make the reflection darker than the actual object. Paint the reflection with dry brush strokes, using a minimum of water. Wait until the paint is dry, then mix up a puddle of watercolor matching the water's local color. Lay down large washes of color representing the water over the reflected image.
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Paint reflections with soft edges on a foggy or overcast day. Use a wet-in-wet technique (applying a second color atop another color before it has dried) to suggest the sky reflected on the water. Paint the water a darker tone than the sky. Wet the paper with a large brush and let it soak in. Dip your brush in saturated watercolor to paint reflections while the paper is still wet. Add details in the reflections, but keep the edges fuzzy and indistinct.
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Lay down flat and graduated washes of color to represent choppy water. Paint a broken-up reflected image with darker-colored brush strokes over the lighter washes. Use short, fluid strokes to show the distorted, reflected image. Imitate ripples and waves with brushstrokes. Leave breaks and gaps in the image to suggest rough water. Use short brushstrokes in the distance and longer strokes in the foreground.
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Tips & Warnings
Paint the picture at the scene for a direct, spontaneous effect.
Don't overwork the painting, keep it simple and show just enough detail in the reflections.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
