A Brush With Art.pdf

Painting waterAlthough it may seem a bit daunting at first, theillusion of water can be created quite simply inwatercolour painting. It's really not so much a caseof what you put in, as what you leave out! Keepthings simple, otherwise water can look unnatural.In Fig. C, an illusion of water has been createdby leaving the paper white. The secret ingredientis the use of reflections. If a painting has areflection in the water, it will give the impressionof water. Look at the first post in the picture. Thereflection is a copy of it and this is the simplestway to show still water. But if you look at thesecond post, the reflection shows movement,because I've broken the vertical reflection to createthe effect of light and movement of the water. Thetwo posts on the right are both at an angle,and their reflections are painted at theopposite angle to each post, a rulewhich applies to all reflections.Of course, if water is painted blue, itlooks even more realistic. The yacht(Fig. D) is simply a white silhouette ona blue background with a whitereflection, but immediately the reflectiontells us the blue is water.When painting water, use a very weton-wettechnique and hags of water. This i;something worth practising yourwashes for! And don't forget your drybrush technique, either. It will allowareas of paper to be left unpainted,giving a look of sparkling sunlighton the water.Fig.C63