How to Paint Water and Reflections

Steps

1. 1. Learn the One Rule

   Whatever sits above the waterline gets repeated below it. That is the whole technique.

   Tip: Reflections mirror vertically, not horizontally. The object nearest the waterline reflects nearest the waterline.

   

2. 2. Block In the Sky and Water

   Paint the sky across the top and the water across the bottom in the same blue, but mix the water a shade or two darker. Water almost always reads darker than the sky it reflects, and setting that difference now saves correcting it later.

   

3. 3. Set the Horizon and Blend

   Decide where your horizon line sits and blend the sky down into it so there is no hard edge. Every reflection in the painting is measured from this line, so it is worth getting level before anything else goes on.

   

4. 4. Paint the Distant Treeline

   Mix blue with a touch of red and plenty of white for a pale misty purple, then scrub in the far treeline. Keeping it light and low-contrast is what pushes it into the distance and gives the scene depth.

   Tip: The further away something is, the closer its colour gets to the sky. Resist the urge to add detail out here.

   

5. 5. Build the Pine Trees

   Switch to a small flat brush and work the trees along the bank. Tap in short downward strokes either side of a central trunk line, keeping the tops narrow and letting them widen toward the base.

   

6. 6. Mirror the Trees Into the Water

   Repeat the same tree shapes below the waterline in a darker, softer blue-green. Pull the strokes downward from the bank and let the edges stay blurry.

   Tip: Work the reflection while the water underneath is still slightly wet. The two colours merge and give you the softness for free.

   

7. 7. Cut Horizontal Lines Across It

   Load a liner brush with white and draw fine horizontal lines across the reflection, especially near the waterline. These breaks are what turn a mirror image into a water surface, and they do more for realism than any amount of detail.

   

8. 8. Add the Riverbank

   Bring in the bank with browns and a few lighter rocks, then copy its reflection straight down in a darker version of the same colours. The bank gives the eye something to measure the water against.

   

9. 9. Finish With Ripples and Check It

   Scatter a few small light-blue waves across the foreground water and stand back. The reflection should sit darker than what it mirrors, blur toward its edges, and break horizontally where the surface moves.

   Tip: Put the ripples nearest the viewer. Disturbance in the foreground and stillness in the distance is what makes the surface recede.