How to Draw Water in Black and White

Water is one of the toughest things to draw, right? Not if you keep a few basic ideas in mind and really look at what you're drawing. Let's look at some ways to realistically show water in various black and white mediums, from brush pens to charcoal or pencils.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pencil, charcoal or brush pen
• Kneaded eraser
• Drawing paper
• Photo references of water features
• Workable matte fixative for charcoal and graphite drawings

1. 
   Dewdrops, first stage

   The easiest type of water to draw is a dewdrop on a leaf or flower petal. It's not a lot of water, but it illustrates the concept of drawing water perfectly. Start by drawing flattened ovals for your dewdrops.

2. 
   Dewdrops, complete with shading in two shades of gray showing reflection and distortion

   Shade in the leaf or petal they're on, leaving an arc of pure white under the upper left or upper right edge of the dewdrop. If you are drawing on tinted paper, you can even do the upper side to one or the other side (the side the light is coming from) with white, finishing the bottom with black or a very dark version of the color of what the dewdrop's on.
   
   Add a dark curving reflection away from the light, as if from something else reflecting on it and distorted around the shape of the dewdrop. Magnify any small structures inside the dewdrop, so that it looks as if it's a miniature magnifying glass. This will be very realistic, because water is reflective and it's transparent. Sometimes you see what's reflected on it, sometimes you see what's under it, but never both at exactly the same time.
   
   I used two shades of gray brush pens for this quick example, but you can easily copy it in pencil or charcoal, just smudge the grays, go hard for the blacks and if you cover a white area, erase it away with your kneaded eraser by pressing and lifting.
   
   See how the magnified structures inside the dewdrops distort and curve around the shape of the dewdrop. This is a surefire way to make it look like water -- even in a quick sketch like this, it looks wet.

3. 
   Shoreline ripples and some trees sketched

   Water in a pond, lake or shore will have a smooth curving shape as it laps in on the sand. In the first stage of showing water in a sketch, I've got some expressive lines just showing where the edge of the water is, plus a distant shore on the other side with several trees showing. Sketch something like this. I added some grass stems or weeds to show how water ripples around objects like weeds or twigs that come up through water.

4. 
   Shore with reflections of trees and weeds in rippled water

   The next step in this peaceful shoreline scene is going to show how water dramatically reflects what's next to it.
   
   Reflections in landscapes on more or less still water will still be rippled slightly, distorted a bit, maybe wider and not quite as long as the trees and objects are tall. But they'll still be recognizable in shape and value. Slightly squiggle and break the lines of tall objects like pines or telephone poles when drawing their reflections.
   
   Anything that has still water in front of it will reflect, but the reflection will be squiggly and broken up. Follow your photo references closely when drawing reflections in water. The lighter areas, if you are drawing in color or adding values, may be toned to match the sky. But even in this brush pen sketch, you can see how water reflects everything that's near it when it doesn't show through to what's behind or under it.
   
   Ripples will alternately reflect what's on shore and what's in the sky because they're reflecting on different angles, or look dark and light because from one angle you're seeing through it into the murky brownish lake water and the other you get bright blue or pale gray sky.
   
   Look at real water and sketch ripples. Sometimes in scenic landscapes, the reflections are broken up by a sky-colored streaky mass of ripples that go in other directions and reflect the sky. Putting that in makes it look even more realistic than just drawing the reflections.
   
   For anything more elaborate like waves breaking, study your photo references carefully and draw everything that's there in dark or light as it looks. Putting a clear red plastic sheet (like a clear red report cover) over a colored photo reference will turn it into a value reference, or printing it out in black and white if it's color. Then you can draw the lights and darks exactly as you see them, maybe gridding the reference and your drawing paper to get the proportions accurate or drawing both upside down for accuracy.

Tips & Warnings

• Sketch a subject more than once before starting a detailed careful drawing. You'll notice different things about it on different tries.
• Think in terms of values, how light or dark an area is, rather than what it is.
• Squiggle reflections in water to show the ripples
• Don't use workable matte fixative or any spray paint or varnish without adequate ventilation. Take it outside or at least open the window and get some airflow.

Resources

• Unrestricted-Stock club on DeviantART for royalty-free reference images
• Author's DeviantART gallery for examples of landscapes with water

[momose]

on 9/3/2009 I saw Robert's name as the Featured Author today - Congratulations, Robert! These are some great tips for drawing water, one of the most difficult objects to convey realistically. Thanks and *****