How to create Reflections in a Painting

Creating reflections in a painting is thought to be a hard task. This is not so. Creating reflections is easy and helps create interest in a painting. There are basically two ways to do this. One is on a dry canvass and the other on a wet canvass. The secret of each of these is the same: Pay attention to the strokes!

Creating reflections on a dry canvass. Dry canvass only means you are applying paint to a canvass that has no under-coat of paint. First create the land by using horizontal strokes up to the waters edge. Now decide what is to be reflected into the water and "loosely" paint it using vertical strokes. Now with things of different colors that will be reflected, it is okay to overlap them. This will only add the the illusion. Now with a soft brush lightly stroke a horizontal stroke. Remember water must take on the appearance of being flat.

Creating reflections on a wet canvass. Wet means there is an under-coat of thin paint. Not much just enough to make the canvass wet. The process is almost the same as that on a dry canvass. The difference is that with a wet canvass you can either paint the reflections or, you can grab the bottoms of the land mass and pull straight down. Make sure they are straight down. Now lightly with a clean soft brush do the horizontal stroke to create the reflection. Keep these strokes straight. water must appear to be flat.

To separate the land from the water you may wish to use a palette knife with a mixture of white and a small amount of black to make a very light grey. Now use this mix and scrape or paint it in where the land and water meat. These lines must also stay straight. One more thing to remember. Reflections may be slightly darker that what they are reflecting. To do this add more base color of what you are reflecting.

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