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Shaw's Cove by Ray Roberts,
2003, oil painting, 12 x 16. |
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When I was in college, I read a lot of Romantic poetry, and what still sticks in my mind is all the water imagery those writers used. For them, water was a stand-in for life, transcendence, and the creative impulse. With such inherent possibilities, it’s all but essential for painters to be able to accurately depict this inspiring element, and that’s why we’ve compiled several methods and solutions for doing just that.
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Vernal Falls by Stefan Baumann,
2003, oil, 27 x 17. |
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In the natural world, water is rarely absolutely still. There is always some kind of movement, whether it is the wind blowing on the water’s surface, underwater currents, or waves cresting along the shore and flowing back out to sea. When painting water, be mindful of its motion, which is given away by the light reflections on, and refractions in, the water. In acrylic painting, scumbling with wet paint over dry is a great way to achieve these visual effects.
Water is a chameleon. It takes on colors around it—that of the sky, of its close surroundings, and of its contents. In most landscapes, water takes on a greenish cast and tends to darken with its depth, so shallow waters often have warmer tones that grow cooler as the water gets deeper. When water painting, it is always good to remember that.
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The Brooklyn Bridge
by T. Allen Lawson,
2002, oil painting, 7 x 10.
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Mirrorlike reflections are not the domain of creeks, rivers, and oceans. Reflections of sky on water tend to be darker than the sky itself. In the same way, dark shadows cast on the water tend to be lighter than the actual shadows.
In keeping with the essence of water as inspirational, free-flowing, and surprising, consider a resource devoted entirely to the subject:
Vibrant Watercolors: Painting Water with Soon Warren. The DVD explores painting compelling and unique seascapes and you'll also get direct access to the artist-instructor's inspirations and thoughts on the work. In a way, water is like a window into all the beauty of Nature and into the artist’s mindset—equally inspiring on both fronts. Enjoy!
