Learn How to Paint Water Digitally!

Would you like to learn how to paint water digitally? It's easy when you know that painting water is all about sampling the right tones since water reflects the environmental colors around it!

Different environments will yield different results of how water will behave. For example, sediments in the water will make it less translucent than it normally is.

Since there are a lot of variations that we can deal with, it is best to start this lesson off by painting water in a neutral manner.

That is, it is not calm enough that you cannot paint the water properties or too violent enough where there are too many properties to consider.

The goal here is to capture the movement of water with your digital painting or digital drawing!

1. The under painting

The first step in learning how to paint water is to start a new layer and fill it with a color! Most of us use a blue color as that is the first thing that comes in mind when thinking about water.

With your brush, gently fill the entire digital canvas with that color. The main objective is to have a base color that you can feed different colors off of.

From there, choose a darker shade of the same color and paint simple horizontal streaks across your base color.

In most painting software, you can just hold on to the shift key and then paint across the canvas. This will ensure that the line is perfectly horizontal.

It does not have to be accurate at all either. Zooming in on my canvas, you can see that some of the lines are broken and are not evenly spaced apart.

The ability to generate a simple random pattern like this is important because it simulates the idea that nature itself is random.

2. Paint water by creating the ridges

The second part of learning how to paint water is creating ripples! With your smudge brush, set the opacity level to 100% and the pressure sensitivity to change the size of your digital art brush.

The goal here is to randomly create the water ripples and ridges when water is in motion.

Remember those simple water drawings you did in elementary school? Well, we are going to use that pattern here.

In saggy motions, use the smudge brush and begin to create your ridge across your canvas.

As you finish on section of the ridge, find the highest point in one of the many ridges and then smudge it upwards or downwards to create another ridge above or below it.

To make it even more natural, don't finish an entire horizontal ridge. Instead, put breaks and elevations so it doesn't look all interconnected.

Adding some zigzag lines here and there can also add to it.

As long as you create ridges that are random and don't have any set pattern to it, you will have an extremely good base to work with.

3. Painting water details

Here is the tricky part of learning how to paint water as the details of the water come from multiple steps that you need to consider!

The best way to do this section is to have multiple layers ready. First, start a new layer right on top of your base in step two.

Then, set the opacity of that layer to 50% or so. With a very small digital brush, begin highlighting the ridges that you did in the under painting. At the same time, create new ridges.

This is to simulate small water splashes as the ripples collide against one another.

Zooming out, you can see that I have also added a horizon to give the water some added depth.

Sometimes, you will need to switch back to your under painting and use the burn tool to darken any additional ridges formed from the layer above it.

Once you get the hang of this procedure, merge the two layers together. Then, repeat again until you have a nice set of ridges that you think looks random and natural enough.

Another shortcut that you can try is to duplicate the layer where you highlight the ridge. Then, you can scale the layer and reposition it somewhere else.

Should you decided to use this step, reduce the size horizontally as it approaches the horizon.

4. Color correction and more details

This last section of learning how to paint water covers proper lighting techniques on top of the detailed water that you have painted thus far!

In order to do that, you will practice on multiple layers for painting water that reflects the environment it is in.

Any layer that you set up, make sure to set the opacity of the layer to 50% or less. That way, you will not cover up the details you did in the layers underneath it.

The first thing to do is glaze over your entire water painting composition with colors that unifies the water with the sky or objects it is reflecting.

Put the brighter color near the horizon as you want to create a sense of distance in the background.

Play with the opacity level of this layer so it balances between showing enough details and color unity. Then, merge the layers together.

If any time the details faded out, just simply repaint it on a new layer and re merge it.

To make the details even more real around the ridges, use the smallest brush size and create random scribbles around the ridges.

You can also create faint brush strokes leading up to the ridges for added effect. Don't forget to use your burn tool to make parts of the ridge a darker color than the rest to add additional depth.

One last tip is to always make sure your entire composition is in perfect perspective.

Though I should have mentioned this in the first place, you should set up perspective guidelines to help you figure out how to arrange the ridges in perfect perspective.

The great thing about the digital painting medium is that you can always find a way to correct your composition.

For example, you can duplicate the layer and scale it horizontally. Then, erase the boundaries of the scaled layer, change the opacity a bit, and re merge it back to the original layers.

That way, you can create smaller water ridges near the horizon without actually having to paint it. Techniques like this are only possible if you experiment a little.

In other words, play with your tools until you get it right as there are an unlimited amount of possibilities for painting water in the digital medium!

I hope you enjoy this lesson on how to paint water and I look forward to your progress to become a master digital painter!

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