[hwei]

it's been driving me insane. I don't even know where to start, what base colour to lay down (tried yellow, orange, red because the lighting is warm colours, no good), how to ripple, how to highlight, how to drop reflections. It's like knowing exactly what you need to do but not HOW to do it.

any help is appreciated, the faster it comes, the more hair I keep. er. not really.

meh
Hwei

[Sumaleth]

Painting in photoshop isn't really a whole lot different to how you'd do it with paints or pencil. I guess that basically means practice, starting with copies of photos (or other reference) so that you can concentrate on the technical side on it's own.

Row.

[Socar MYLES]

A good thing to remember about painting water is that it doesn't tend to have one single solid base colour. You might want to try washes of yellow, orange AND red, in various tones and gradations, with suggestions of deep green & blue for shadowed areas.

Generally, when I paint water, either digitally or traditionally, I start with a 'median' range of colours--in your case, I'm guessing that would be your reds and oranges. Then, I add cast shadows and lowlights in complementary colours. You'd probably want to use green and blue. (Although this sounds very simple, it actually takes quite a bit of time to do, especially the first few times, when you're still just getting a feel for it. Just experiment with different tones and shades till you get it right. Digital painting is like oil painting in that way--if you get it wrong the first time, you can just paint over it. And one tip--you SHOULD paint over, rather than erasing. I find that I often get really neat tones and textures doing 'incomplete' paintovers of 'mistakes'.)

Anyway. That digression done with...okay. So you've got your underlayers, with midtones and shadows. The next thing to do is add some highlights. Not the strongest ones yet--just enough to give yourself an idea of where the light is going to fall. Light reflects differently on water depending on the state of the water's surface (choppy waves will reflect light differently than a smooth lake). Also, remember that water is translucent, so highlights often appear in unexpected places. Check out a few photographs of water in the desired weather conditions before you start painting. It helps.

You'll probably want to do your highlights in a colour similar to or slightly warmer than your midtones, and, of course, brighter. At least to start with. Later on, it can be fun to experiment with highlights with the colours of reflections in them, and all sorts of variations. But for the moment, I'll try to be simple and concise.

Now, keep messing with your highlights and shadows till the water starts to take definite form. Work towards your darkest darks first, then towards brightest lights.

One caution, especially if you're planning on using your image for print--It usually isn't a good idea to use pure white. Very light blues, greens, and yellows are more interesting, and still dramatic--and they don't cause as many problems at the printer's. Pure white patches (depending on what print process you use) are not usually covered with any ink at all, which can sometimes result in messy edges where the colour meets the white. I don't know why this happens, since I'm no print expert, but it does.

Anyhoo. I hope that helps. And please remember--this is just how I paint water. Other artists will probably contradict me. You really have to just try things till you find a method that you're comfortable with.

[hwei]

Socar and Sumaleth: thanks so much. The problem is that I never painted outside of Photoshop (not much. eep), with the exception of gigantic and strange murals in school (that's why my old school is producing weird students now).

and to Socar: I LOVE Gorblimey.com. The rats and the rest. Haven't gone to look at Pluto yet, though, after my exams will have to do...

Thanks again