Rivers, oceans, ponds and even puddles often enhance paintings of water with beautiful plays of light. I love the way sun-baked river rocks reveal vibrant earth tone colors where the river
water has washed over them. Experiencing an amazing water scene, you may find it difficult to create a painting of water that has that special feeling which made your experience so wonderful. For years, I have stood at the water’s edge trying to find methods to portray the many beautiful facets of water in a painting. Finally, a truth having much to do, I believe, with the intrinsic beauty of water has become obvious to me. There seems to be two very basic ways that we visually identify with water. The first and most obvious observation a viewer makes are the surface reflections of water. Then, if we pay attention, we begin to perceive depth. For the purposes of water paintings, the order is opposite of viewer perception. First, the artist must give attention to rendering depth.
Adding Depth to your Water Art
For the purpose of this article, I will assume that we are discussing a painting of a water scene that does not have a 100% reflective surface. In other words, the water is at least partially translucent. Something an artist must do, is perceive the depth and the surface of the water separately. In your mind, “peel off” the surface of the water, as it where, and focus your mind on only the depth of the water. With practice, this will become a natural way to think in your endeavor to make beautiful paintings of water.
Depth, in many cases, is expressed by clouded patches of
color blending one to another. Deeper usually means darker. You should render underwater objects near the surface more sharply. Deeper objects are usually blurrier. This is because refraction and particles in the water cause things to go out of focus. The more water there is between the object and the viewer, the more out of focus it will be. By the way, a savvy artist may choose to take advantage of this fact to create a wonderful perspective through the water. Just as objects appear to be smaller as they are further away; just as more distant subjects have more blue in them, so also, things that are deeper in water get darker and blurrier. That’s right! You can use this little trick to really create a sense of depth and space beneath the surface.
