A while back, a reader asked me to share some tips for painting water and the sun reflections at sunset. Like many, this new painter has been a flake intimidated by depicting  reflected light on water.

oil painting Bigwood River at sunset
©2019 LMcNee

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oil on canvas

Painting water is a fairly complex subject. With careful ascertainment of Mother Nature you volition find how water, is affected by its environs, reflections, depth and clarity.

The painting rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans tin can be a challenging task. I hope the post-obit tips will help you.

Agreement Water

Different Bodies of Water:

Make sure that yous consider the differences between rivers, lakes, oceans, and puddles earlier you start to paint them.  A general understanding volition assist yous recreate them with greater ease.

Shallow water by and large ripples and moves its course over rocks and debris. This causes a complex design of broken reflections. Shallow body of water water is lighter, oft turquoise in colour.

  • Ripples combine the reflected colors from light and nighttime areas.

  • Utilize quick, energetic brushwork with side to side strokes of a thin castor.

  • Elevate paint from dark reflected objects quickly into the light areas, make clean the brush, then drag the paint from the light areas back into the dark.

  • Spotter for the bright highlights from ripples in nighttime areas and small dark streaks appear in light areas.

Deep h2o generally ebbs and flows more slowly with a smoother surface. This calmer water gently reflects its immediate surroundings and color of the sky. Deep body of water water is by and large very deep blackish blueish.

  • Employ broader brushwork with a larger flat brush

  • Slower strokes and elegant, softer edges

Under the h2o:

  • Shallow water is more often than not warmer in tone which is afflicted by the rocks, sand and algae underneath.

  • Lakes, rivers and streams tend to be greener. This is caused by the sediment in the h2o which reflects more calorie-free.

  • A lake, river or stream generally tends more toward greenish. Particles floating in the water reflect more low-cal, creating an overall lighter tone.

  • The value of the bluish-dark-green decreases and gets darker every bit the water gets deeper.

mountain lake reflections

The Surface of the Water:

Lights are darker when reflected on the water.

  • The sky reflected on the surface of the water is generally a deeper version of the heaven above.

  • Reflections of objects will be somewhat darker and dimmer than objects seen directly.

Darks are lighter when reflected on the h2o.

  • On the surface of articulate water, shadow areas from objects next to the h2o tend to offer a window to nether the surface – like wearing polarized sunglasses!

  • This is due to the object blocking the reflection of the sky.

Water Becomes Less Reflective the Closer the Viewer Is:

Water is an imperfect reflector. The closer the water is to the viewer, the less information technology reflects an prototype of the earth and sky.

  • For case, calm water directly beneath the viewer reflects simply weak images while the outlying water reflects well-nigh too as a mirror.

  • In murky h2o close to you, the overall colour of the h2o itself is seen.

  • In articulate water, the rocks and objects under the h2o are seen.

Water in the foreground is ordinarily darker than more afar water.

One play a joke on: Gradate the reflected images in the background from light, cool and clear to the foreground to darker and more olive greenish. Proceed in mind, the reflected sky in h2o close to y'all tends to look darker, grayer and more bluish-violet than in far-away water.

Understanding the Shapes & Angles Reflected in the H2o:

Many new painters paint the reflected image equally an verbal, mirrored epitome of direct object. This distorts and the realistic landscape painting requires a more than accurate representation of what your eyes really see.

  • When viewing a scene of reflections in h2o, you are seeing the bodily objects in the scene and their reflected images from two dissimilar viewing angles.

  • Of course, the reflected image you lot see in the water bounces off the surface of the h2o.

  • However, y'all run across the reflected scene from an angle of view equally far below the surface of the water as your optics are in a higher place the h2o.

  • This means you see more of the undersides of reflected objects and may fifty-fifty come across reflected objects that you cannot come across at all when you expect direct at the objects.

(I am using the gull photo to illustrate the 'angle' & colour differences of a reflection: Detect how the reflection is NOT a mirrored prototype of the subject. The reflection shows much more of the underside of the bird rather than the side view. Besides, observe how the white of the gull is darker in the reflection and the darks are a flake lighter.)

Lastly, many painters have difficulties when they try to paint very brilliant highlights such as reflections of the sunset on water. Using pure white paint and expecting the painting to await realistic is a common error. Observation and practice will help you lot paint what you see and not what you know.

Try mixing a bit of yellow or orange into the white for these intense highlights. If painted accurately, the painted sunlight tin announced as bright as the original reflection of the actual sunday.

Also, learning how to use gratuitous colors and warm against absurd colors will dramatically ameliorate the glow of your paintings. Observing whatsoever one of these principles will greatly meliorate your painting of reflections in water. These tips tin be used for oil, acrylic, watercolor and all other painting mediums.

*****

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a yellow spot into the sun." ~Pablo Picasso

Lean more about 'colour' and "value and tone' considering this will assist your paintings get more than conceivable:

The Importance of Value & Tone in Painting

Use the Subconscious Significant of Color in Your Art

A Unique Approach Using Colour Harmony to Improve Your Paintings

For more than information near painting h2o reflections check out these neat sources:

How to Paint H2o for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor Paintings