by CarlOwen » Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:12 am
Good morning Yolanda.
For years I had difficulty painting water. It never looked right. Take a look at Richard Devine's last work done before his dog portrait of Peaches. When you look, pay attention to how much varied color is in the water. Water has no color, but we forget that and always try to go for the blue. Since infrared light is absorbed in water it appears blue most of the time. But only for surfaces covering a depth of water like a lake, the ocean and a deep river. Shallow depths like streams and surface water run-offs take up the colors of the surrounding areas. I am sure YouTube will have some video instructions available also.
Now, the best for the last comments. To give the illusion of a water surface always make your strokes horizontal. Even choppy waves have a horizontal application need in between the wave chops. Always do some blending between the colors while keeping the land surfaces sharper between the colors that form the shapes. The juxtaposition of blended colors against sharper separation of colors will give the illusion of a water area. The last tip to make the always horizontal tip a mixed message is that to give water the feel of force of movement is to always draw or paint the lines of water flow in the direction that you want the flow to move. And water movement always takes precedence over horizontal application.
Mess around with these techniques a few times all by themselves on some paper before you try it on the painting. Sometimes just looking what you have done on the painting will confuse you and a person will tend to continue the technique already done on the painting and will not understand why the water illusion failed. Hope this helps you. Oh yes, my last, last tip. Spend more time looking and studying your painting than actually doing the painting. It reduces the muddling around on the painting while making it appear fresher and crisper.
