Скачать или смотреть Ask An Artist Episode 3: How to Paint Reflections on Water with Acrylics

Today marks our 3rd episode of Ask An Artist! In today’s episode we’ll talk about how to paint reflections on water with acrylics.
Knowing how to paint water reflections is an enviable skill. We as artists are usually attempting to create a 3 dimensional world on a 2 dimensional surface.

In order to trick the eye when painting landscapes including water, we play with things like dimension and depth to create realism. It pays to visualize water in artwork by looking up examples by master artists through history.

So, how do you paint reflections on water?

Looking to the masters is a great way to try and understand any visual aspect of painting.
Let’s take a peek at how famous impressionist painter Claude Monet painted reflections on water:

The first image is by:
Claude Monet
French, 1840 - 1926
"The Bridge at Argenteuil"
There’s two sailboats and a small canoe floating down a serene waterway in the middle of a sunny afternoon. We can see there’s a sprawling sky, an arched footbridge, and calm ripply water below.

Things to consider when painting reflections on water:

*where's your light source coming from?
*account for the natural movement of water (ripples, waves)
*the color of the object being reflected

Considering these thoughts, let’s look at this master artwork once more.
First, let’s consider that this painting is seeming a snapshot from the middle of the day and that the water source is presumably a quickly moving waterway. The water is flowing seemingly from our left to our right. This pair of sailboats is headed down the river and both are approaching an arched bridge where there are a few onlookers admiring the boats.

When thinking about where the light source is coming from: Notice that the water under the bridge has a darker hue just in front of it, and that the angle of the shadow being cast from the boats is similar to that of the bridge’s shadow. It’s important to keep the shadow’s features somewhat consistent for this reason…

Monet does a fantastic job here of creating movement within the water using tiny ripples and peaks within the waterway. Notice that the water is not only moving but reflecting the color of the boats and bridge back onto the surface of the water. For this reason, water reflections are not always simply blue or darker blue.

Let's look at another example of painting water reflections from art history:
This art is by:
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,
“Jan van der Heyden/View Down a Dutch Canal/c. 1670,”
This painting shows us a more narrow and possibly slower moving waterway complete with boats and another foot bridge. This time, trees are lining the water on both sides and the time of day looks to be late morning or afternoon into dusk. It seems the boats are tied up and not moving anywhere, and the trees look unaffected by wind, the sky is blue.

Considering that our light source is the sun, we know light is showing up in this image at an angle which effects our shadows.
When painting reflections on still water-an item to remember is that image of what’s being reflected will be flipped upside-down.

Another thing to consider is that the water itself will have a blue hue which will distort the natural color of the image being reflected.
Let’s Review:
*where's your light source coming from?
*account for the natural movement of water (ripples, waves)
*the color of the object being reflected
Still water reflections differ from those in fast moving water.

We hope you learned a bit about painting reflections on water in acrylics today. Do you have a question about acrylic painting which you’d like answered in detail? Fill out our survey here: https://us18.list-manage.com/survey?u...

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   • Ask An Artist Episode 3: How to Paint Refl...   #freeartsacademy #freearteducation