How to Paint Water in Watercolour - 5 Easy Lessons!

Good morning, afternoon or evening wherever you are. I'm Paul Clark and welcome to my studio. Now today we've got five great techniques for painting water in watercolour. From lovely soft tranquil ripples to some great crashing waves on the beach. So come and join me and we'll paint this step by step together. So just before we start I thought I'd mention I do have full painting tutorials on most of the techniques we learned today in these shorter lessons. So all you need to do is just to click the little link which appears at the top during the videos. Now you won't leave this tutorial it'll just store it up for you at the end. So let's get going. Okay today's materials my paper is some Arches rough 300 pound and I'm using that on all five of the demonstrations today. My brush is a medium mop number 12 round three quarter inch flat and my trusty number three rigger and my colours. I'll be mentioning those as we go through the video. Okay for this first demo it's a very simple subtle ripple in the water and I'm using some French ultramarine but you could use some cobalt blue and a nice watery 60% water 40% paint mix. So straight in with some clean water with my mop and let the water soak into the paper for a few moments. Now with my flat brush quickly paint in a graduated wash with a nice lot of paint at the bottom. Now all I'm doing here is adding more paint into the mix to get a much stronger depth of colour. And while it's still wet just a few bands of colour but try and get them wider at the bottom. Take out a little of the colour just so the value is a little less in the distance and closer together to get that sense of perspective. And that's it. Next are some more defined ripples with a reflection. So I've pre-painted a fairly simple sky with some basic tree shapes and then let it totally dry. For a full painting video with these techniques link above. And as before I'm wetting with clean water the bottom section. And now with some French ultramarine a graduated wash from the bottom. So before the next stage I want to talk a little bit about brushstrokes. Now you could take a small brush like this number six and slowly paint in each ripple. Thin, thick, thin. Now there's nothing wrong with painting in this slower deliberate way. I sometimes like to paint this way myself. But I do feel that if you want to get a bit more life into your work it always looks that little bit better if you can paint with one quick stroke. So practice your wrist action. Quick left to right movement. All done with one number 12 brush. Then skim across the top of the paper. Lovely natural strokes. And you can even pick up some of that great dry brush effect. So here we go. Make sure it's nice and dry and we're using the same ultramarine mix. Quick brush strokes. Now try and make the ripples larger and wider in the foreground. Then reduce the size and strength of the colour as you recede into the distance. Next with similar colours paint in the tree reflections. And try and match the ripple shapes that you've already painted. Drop in wet in wet colours to match. And when this is totally dry I'm using a damp tissue and softening both the tree line and the reflection just here in the distance. And again when it's dry I'm just painting in these darker ripples. All done nice and quickly and simply. And I think we're done. For this next demonstration this is all about reflections. Now sometimes you won't see any blue in your water at all. Because as we know water has no actual colour of its own. It's all about what colours are reflected into it. And again full detailed video on painting reflections link above. So here I've just painted a simple little scene with a variety of green trees and a small bridge. And I'm just painting in some yellow ochre and burnt umber washes to suggest this earthy bank. Now I'm letting this dry and then painting in clean water into the river area. And all I'm doing here is dropping in matching colours to the above. Wet in wet to get this lovely soft reflection effect. So now we need to let this totally dry. So it's a perfect time for a short break and a lovely refreshing glass of water. Is that it? Yes that's what the video is about. Finally just a few darker bands for some ripples. And then of course the magic scalpel to scratch out a few glistening highlights. What about the splatting I hear you say? All right then just a little. And we're done. So for this next demonstration we've got a choppy sea. And we're just going to be using one colour. And this is some Prussian blue. So it'll be a perfect test for getting our tonal values right. Start again by wetting the paper and then with a number 12 brush paint in a graduated wash top on bottom. Now dry off the brush and lift out a sense of light through the centre. Now with a strong mix just paint in a few bands from each side. Now let this totally dry and paint in some light washes in the distance. And again the trick here is to keep them much lighter in the distance and the centre. Then increase the size as you move towards the foreground. Also drop in much stronger colours to the sides to help with that sense of light running through the centre. I'm dropping in lots of wet in wet washes and using clean water to soften and blend some of the bottom of the waves. All of this has been done with the same number 12 brush. Now let this dry and my normal technique of softening a few hard edges with some damp kitchen roll or tissue. Next this is a great technique for lifting out highlights. Just simply paint with clean water back and forth back and forth about eight times then lift out with a tissue and you get these lovely little lighter values. And it always works particularly well with blues. Now just finish off with a quick headland here and again lighter towards the centre. And with the trusty rigger how about a few seagulls. There and we're done. What are we missing? Let's put in a trawler struggling to get home. And a few more seagulls chasing the fish. Sound effects please. And finally we have crashing waves on the beach. Link above for a full painting tutorial. Off we go with a very simple sky just using some French ultramarine again. And some shadows here in the foam. And always softening with clean water. Now this is some yellow ochre and I'm just blending it into the edge of the water. Let this dry. Then with the ultramarine again make sure you get that horizon nice and straight. And leave a few gaps for breaking waves. Now I'm adding some phthalo green into my blue. If you have viridian that will also do. Now this is an outrageously bright colour. But it's perfect to suggest that bright semi-transparent part of the wave. Now just blending it in with the ultramarine. I'm putting in here some very strong values. Just along the lip of the wave to suggest some shadows. And here just some further details in the sea. Here I'm just darkening the value to suggest a slight reflection from the wave above. And a little touch of burnt umber here. Now this is where the smudging technique really comes into its own. It's just perfect to get those spray foam effects. Love it! Back with my brush and the ultramarine for just a tiny amount of wave detail. Magic scalpel time again for some of this spray detail. Now several of you have asked me about this little tool. And to be fair it's not really a scalpel but just a very cheap craft knife brought from a local DIY store. You know the place. They wear mainly orange uniforms. What? No, not Guantanamo Bay. Anyway. It's perfect for creating those little dots of white. That should do it. Sound effects please. Well I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. And your bloody seagull's still here. And you'll give it a go. Please don't forget to do all the normals. Like, subscribe, leave a comment. Join the Facebook group if you'd like to share your pictures. It's been fantastic to see everyone's paintings. And I'll look forward to seeing you all again next Wednesday. So take care. Cheers.