Painting reflections in water

I follow a group on Facebook that is all about paintings with water. Every day many people post paintings with water - whether it is the ocean, lake, river, etc.  One feature that always enhances paintings with water is the reflection on the water.

A good reflection can enhance a painting. Like a number of features, the important elements include the choice of colour, values and perspective. Here are some considerations:

• consider how still or wavy the water is
• no reflection is a perfect mirror image
• the reflected shapes normally appear more vertical
• shapes that are further away from the water are less reflective in the water. The closer the water is to the viewer, the less it reflects an image of the earth and sky.
• ripples in the water appear smaller as you move further away  from the viewer.
• the more there is movement in the water, the less clear the reflection is
• when the water is calm low and medium value objects tend to have darker reflections, while darker value objects, like tree trunks, reflect lighter
• don't forget that the sky also has reflections in the water. Generally the reflection is a deeper version of the sky above.
• in shallow water, the ripples and reflections will often be broken as the water moves over rocks and other objects 
• shallow water is often warmer than deeper water

Check out the reflections in this painting from Thomas Aquinas Daly

When painting water reflections, it's probably to work from real life or from photos.

Today's artist find is Bill Vrscak

Have a great week,
Danielle