Charles Reid's 5 Tips for Painting Water

Water is one of those subjects which can be difficult to master in any media. It's always good to get tips from those who have mastered their media as well as the subject matter.

Today's post comes from the Watercolor Artist blog via the South Africa Society of Artists and their post Charles Reid's 5 Tips for Painting Water

watercolour painting by Charles Reid

Here's a little gem we plucked from our archives:

Charles Reid's best tips for painting water:

1. Water should be painted with hard edges between the light from the sky and the reflections from trees, buildings or boats.
2. Paint wet-in-wet within the reflections but rarely where the reflection meets the sunlight.
3. For distant water on the horizon, try moist Antwerp blue or peacock blue (Holbein). Sometimes I use ultramarine violet if the horizon line of the sea seems very dark.
4. In shallow water, use diluted Antwerp blue, peacock blue or Winsor blue. These are all transparent blues that retain their color identity when diluted.
5. Sometimes water near the shore can turn a delicate turquoise green. You can add turquoise green to your palette, or simply mix diluted cadmium yellow pale or lemon yellow with one of the diluted blues to achieve the same color.

I can certainly recommend Charles Reid's books about painting in watercolour - as can others. See my information site about The Best Books about Watercolour Painting for more information.

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