Sijun Forums :: View topic - water, water, everywhere -- OMG! feeling unsure

eyewoo · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2001 2:02 pm

I'm feeling very unsure about digitally painting water in a stream... Has anyone seen a tutorial on making water? Here's the beginning of what I'm working on... really very early in the process...

[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

g:tech · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2001 3:39 pm

Hi there-

I'm definitely no expert on painting anything realistic, but I remember hearing one tip that I thought was really useful when painting water.

Since water is reflective, a lot of times it's the same color as the sky, because that's what we're seeing reflected when we look at the water. Unless of course it's a toiling ocean or a really small clear stream, but I think in this case, since the water's pretty smooth, it should more closely match your sky's color (white, in this case?).

Just my two cents. Wish I could paint!

I'm just a cartoon guy

Have a good one! Hope I helped a little. Now, if someone has a water tutorial.......

peace,

[ December 15, 2001: Message edited by: g:tech ]

Kinten · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2001 11:23 am

As u all allready know, I'm no expert at this... but I liked the picture so I painted a quick version on how I would do it---

I know it's messy and all, but I think if you would do a serious version of it it would come out pretty nice...

Moose · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2001 11:29 am

the sky is a bit less blue than the color of the water, try puttin more of it in as kinten suggested. also, water is translucent/transparent when it is shallow, so how about a hint of that? that may bork it though, i kinda like how kinten showed it.

is the water moving? are the bugs swimin in it? that could also help ya add some texture to it.

Steven Stahlberg · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2001 1:37 pm

Here's an overpaint to help explain my confused babbling, I removed items and cropped only to make my point clearer, hope you don't mind.

Tinusch · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2001 1:58 pm

Wow, definitely go with Steven's suggestion.

eyewoo · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2001 3:10 pm

Here's where I was going with it today...

...but after seeing Steven's treatment, I gotta also say WOW... and thanks. I think I'm gonna take it that way instead -- water more placid and at peace. Have to leave the globes, though. This is one of my Globes pictures...

[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

Kuzya · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2001 12:09 am

hey there fleabrain.. very very like your stuff... and well here is a tutorial that might help you with what you looking for ..

it belongs to gliebster .. here is url

CLICK FOR TUTORIAL

please let me know if it helped ya ..

thanks

Steven Stahlberg · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2001 12:21 am

You'd also see the trees on the ridge reflected. And the part of the sky that is reflected the most is outside of this image, higher up, and so would be either bluer or greyer depending on the cloud cover.
Water in little streams like this also often have a brown tinge to them, part of it the actual color of the water, part of it the color of the stream bed showing through. (Some streams I've seen are the color of strong tea, it's not pollution but the alcalinity I think.)
The brighter the reflection the less you see of this dark brown, the darker the reflection the more you see of it.
I think a good way to paint that would be to start with a dark brown base color, then paint the reflection on top using transparent colors, going more transparent in the darker parts.

edit: Mentally extend the surface of the water until it reaches the horizon - this is the plane through wich everything will be mirrored.
Draw a line straight down from each object to be mirrored, intersecting the mirror-plane. The tree's reflection will appear the same distance below the mirror plane at this point.
Also - this reflection will be somewhat darker than the real object, due to the fact that no mirror is perfect and some light is always lost (and water is less perfect than most other mirrors). So no object's reflection can ever appear lighter than the original.

[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: Steven Stahlberg ]

eyewoo · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2001 5:49 pm

I think I'm over the water hump, thanks to Sijun help... Stahlberg... that was a great suggestion... really turned the picture around. Still a lot to do on it, but I'm not fretting about it so much anymore... just having fun and moving ahead...

Jezebel · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2001 6:01 pm

fleabrain - Sorry if I sound like a doofus for asking... I've seen those globes in your artwork before, but I'm wondering what they are. Can you clue me in here?

They look neat, but I'm just not sure of the meaning

eyewoo · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2001 8:30 pm

Jezebel,

Well, I have some ideas about what they mean... spiritual conglomerates... energy concentrations... just interesting to see... environmental constructions... don't really know, but I like them and they seem to mean something to me... like I said, just not sure how to articulate it...

Thanks for asking... gonna hit the sack and think about it for awhile... after I read the new issue of "Southwest Art," which arrived today...