By Chelsea Reed
Drawing water is a sign of true artistic talent. It has frustrated many artists, and it’s not for everyone. But with enough patience and practice, mastering the art of getting water to flow out of a hand and onto the paper is an amazing rewarding experience. So how does an artist command the waves and tides at will with the stroke of their brush? How do they get it to look like real water? Well, as one can imagine, there are valuable tricks of the trade. Let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like for an artist to create the feel of water in their art.
In order for an artist to master the way of water, they must become one with the water. No, this is not some strange meditation. The artist must literally think like water! You see, water in real life is constantly changing. All you have to do is watch the many forms of water outside. There’s rippling rain, ocean white caps, and shimmering ponds. How does it make you feel? Even water in a glass has a different look and feeling. Because water is always changing, water can express every single emotion known to people. To capture that, the artist attempts to “feel” the water first before they express it.
The next important thing an artist must remember about water is the light source. We are always aware of water through motion and light in real life, so the seasoned artist considers this too. Where is the light coming from? What is it shining on? Is it natural, or artificial? Inside or outside? Once that is determined, the artist thinks about any reflections and shadows being shown on the water, then depicts them.
Finally, in order to communicate convincing water, the Master artist avoids rigid lines at all cost. You don’t see water having the same lines as architectural buildings, do you? Of course not. Even the ocean horizon has a very gradual curve because the Earth itself is a round planet.
To do this, the artist draws wavy lines and undefined shapes. These might not look like water at first, but they will become recognizable when more aquatic colors and layers are added to the artwork. As stated before, the illusion of light is also applied, so some areas will appear lighter, and others darker where it makes sense to the naked eye. Eventually, everything just flows together and before you know it, the image looks and feels just like water!
In short, there is no hard and fast paint-by-numbers tutorial for an artist when it comes to drawing water. But there are certain common sense rules of real water like movement, light, and organic shapes. To master water, expert artists will combine those rules with a gut feeling to create an image that looks so much like water, you feel wet just by looking at it. That’s how you know you’ve witnessed the work of a true Master artist!
If you’re not quite ready to trade in your sea legs just yet, check out the rest of the Seascapes collection at Seaside Art Gallery, where plenty of artwork inspired by water is to be found.
Chelsea Reed is a copywriter who writes winning content, articles, blogs, and websites from her base in North Carolina. She might not be building sandcastles or swashbuckling with pirates these days, but the Outer Banks beaches continue to keep her young at heart.
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