In this post, I will be discussing some techniques for painting water. I will be building on my previous cloud painting, so be sure to check that out first if you would like to recreate the whole scene. There are many different techniques and styles you can employ to create water, but for this demonstration, I will be focusing on blending some reflective colors from the sky and clouds, and a bit of highlighting.

As is the case with most things you would like to try painting, starting off searching for a few photos or paintings whose style you would like to reference or emulate is always really helpful. Even if you don’t intend to copy the colors or patterns exactly, reference images can help you visualize how light reflects off the surface or how to represent different bodies of water.

Some Tips

Before I move on to a step-by-step, here are some general things you should consider while painting water:

  • Prepare your palette in advance and mix a variety of tones and colors. Be sure to mix enough to avoid having to re-mix several times and spray your paints to keep them wet.
  • Water down your paints before starting to make the application and blending much easier.
  • Creating water requires a lot of wet-on-wet blending, so work quickly and use a lot of paint to cover the desired area on your canvas
  • Keep your brush strokes moving horizontally to mimic the surface of water. There is very little up and down involved and even wavy lines will be mostly left to right.
  • Since water is reflective, consider using colors that appear elsewhere in your painting, especially colors in the sky or anywhere near the water that may be reflected.
  • Start by adding in your major color(s) and blend in streaks or patches of secondary colors while the paint is still wet. (You’ll see in the video I mimic the sky gradient to start and add in cloud colors into the still wet paint)
  • If your water extends off any edges of your canvas, make sure to also extend the different colors you use to the edges to avoid framing the water within the canvas
  • Save details and brightest reflections for the end. You’ll want all the color tones in the water below to build on top of
  • Most importantly, remember you can adjust and rework any part that isn’t looking how you want, whether that’s layering more colors on top of an area, or re-blending your base tones. Sometimes it takes a lot of trial and error!

Water Painting Tutorial

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Color Palette

If you would like the use the colors I use in the video, you’ll need titanium white, quinacridone magenta, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and phthalo blue. The colors I mixed include a medium blue, light blue, light green/blue, light yellow, rose pink, and a purple tone. Here is a breakdown of each color used and how to mix them for reference:

water palette

You may find these colors need to be adjusted to suit your needs or, of course, experiment with your own colors!

Video Tutorial

Below is a video demonstration you can reference if you would like to try to recreate the water as I’ve painted it. This is a general idea and not based on a specific reference, so feel free to change it up. This by no means needs to be followed exactly, but should give you an idea of the general steps involved. So try it out and see what you come up with! More specific steps are detailed below the video.

Breakdown of Steps

  1. Mimic the sky gradient (in reverse) using the light green/blue, light blue, and medium blue tones using a large brush. Make sure to water down your paint to a milky consistency and apply a lot of paint. Work quickly and keep the paint wet!
  2. Define our horizon line using light pressure and the thin edge of your brush (or a smaller brush)
  3. Add in streaks and patches of your blue tones throughout the water, concentrating darker tones towards the bottom and lighter tones towards the top by the horizon.
  4. Add in patches of reflected cloud colors (purple, rose pink, light yellow). You can try to add these beneath the cloud forms if you’d really like to give the impression the water is reflecting the clouds above. (I kept mine more to general areas without worrying too much about this.)
  5. Once you have a general idea of color placement, start adding in stronger areas of color. Vary the shapes and sizes of color areas and work with both a small and large brush to add variety.
  6. If needed, you can blend out and soften some of these color areas with some of your earlier blue tones.
  7. Painting water requires a lot of back and forth, so spend some time building your colors and adjusting things to your liking. Since you are working with a lot of colors and blending, it’s easy to jump back and forth between colors.
  8. Once you are happy with the general color areas, you can start adding thin lines to the surface and start creating the idea of reflected light. Use a small, thin brush and watered down paint, and apply very light pressure. You can use very loose and random brush strokes, but be sure your strokes are primarily long and thin horizontal zig zagging lines.
  9. If needed, you can amp up some of the contrast by adding in some lighter tones between darker tones. It is always a good idea to take a step back from your painting every so often to get a better idea of it as a whole and make these determinations.
  10. Next you can add highlights to the surface with light yellow to create the idea of wave edges and reflected light. This is similar to the thin lines added previously, but try to keep these even more delicate. You can follow the edges of some of your previous colors as a guide, try adding these highlights throughout. Spend a good amount of time on this and remember, if you add too much, you can easily paint over any lines with your other color tones.
  11. Use white for the brightest highlights. Pure white can really help give the idea of reflected white. Try to concentrate these reflections to wave edges and a few stray areas. You can add a combination of think lines and small dots to represent reflected light.
  12. Go back and change and adjust as needed until you are happy with the result!

As always, the more you practice, the easier this will get. Don’t get to frustrated if your first attempt doesn’t turn out exactly as you imagined. Try it out and you’ll be amazed at what you can create!

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