1g. The Color of Water

When looking at water across a harbor, you are looking at four basic elements.

First, you see the reflection of the sky or clouds on the water. Second, there is the reflection of any objects in front of you. And third, depending on the amount of wave action, you might see something reflected that is actually above or slightly behind you such as the sky. And that sky can be totally different than the one in front of you. If you spend some time staring at water, you will see what I mean.

But, as you look from the distance down towards where you are standing, at some point you are looking into the water and not at a reflection. That water will have a color. In Texas, that color is usually a shade of green, unless you go into deeper water offshore ("where the sun don't shine".....onto the bottom that is).

As long as I am on the subject, I'd like to cover something less thought about.  Lets say its a sunny day and you are out standing on the dock. You might be looking at how the reflections are working across the water. Then, you observe the water near you and see that greenish color as you look down.

But wait, look what the sun does when it goes into the water. It makes shadows on the greenish dock posts and bottom objects in the water. Yes, there are shadows and highlights under the water too. If you are really good, you can show reflections from a light source above the water, while also showing what is happening with the light under the water. Hmmm. Nice.

Texas water really isn't green, any more than water in the ocean is blue. Water is clear, but can have particles suspended in it, like dirt (mud) stirred up from the bottom. Then, it takes on a muddy brownish cast. 

But, in a Texas harbor there is a lot of algae in the shallow waters, because algae needs sunlight to grow. So, when the wind is calm for a day or so, and all the particles have settled, the water takes on a greenish brown cast because it is taking on the color of the bottom and/or sides of objects under the water from where you are standing.

So, when I have a large area of water at the bottom of a harbor scene to paint, I like to add in some greenish color as if you are looking down past the reflections and into the actual water. When you look towards the other side of the harbor the reflections cover up the color of the water.

But, there's more! What happens when the object of that reflection is in shadow and isn't lit by the sun? It is a dark reflection and you see a greenish cast. What is happening is that the reflection isn't bright enough to cover up the color of the water. 

Reflections need light to keep their color!  You can see how I am compensating for that in the photos below by how I mixed in some green on these darker reflections. These greens will compliment the greens I will add in at the bottom and make a more harmonious painting.

 I will be able to play with these shades of green when I place these reflections back on top of the lighter sky reflections.

Next time you go down to the harbor, look at the reflections. You will see the green just as I have described. So water reflections are not just a mirror image of the objects? Uh......No. They have a life of their own!

Next in the progression of creating convincing water in the harbor comes the slow darkening  of color towards the bottom, creating more shapes and definition to each wave. I'm working in some darker blue, and putting them just under the lighter brushstrokes I had made earlier. Its the beginning of more structure in the water, but far from finished at this point.

Using my large brush, I roughly swipe the dark blue and then with fast, long strokes, blend it in to the lighter blue paint under it, until I get the darkness I desire. You have to know when to stop. Less is more here. You can always darken and blend a more later.

I will usually darken the lower corners a little more than the middle. Its a composition thing that leads the viewer's eye toward the center of the painting. If I do all this right, the red boat in the middle of the scene will be where the eye lands first. A dominate spot, not only from color, but from other aspects of the composition.

So now, remember that blue sky reflection color that I mentioned earlier? The one I thought needed a darker blue because it was too light? Well, now its time to put in the darker blue. It was too light. it doesn't take too long.

I use my small, number two brush for the tight areas and then switch to the larger, number four.

That's done. It pretty much covered up the darker blue strokes I had made earlier, but I was getting the feeling for it all, so no loss really. Darker strokes like those will go back in soon.

Now I want to start putting in some green along the bottom of the painting. The green that comes from the looking down into the water. There is a transition to this as the reflection hangs on as long as it can before letting go and allowing the water to take on the full color of looking down into it. 

I need to mix some green.

I start out by putting a squeeze of Olive Green and a squeeze of Chromium Green Oxide into my can. I had a little blue left on my knife, so I pulled just a little from both greens to see what kind of color I would have when the greens were exposed to the colors which are already down on the canvas. I liked what I saw initially. The Olive Green is so dark from the tube, its hard to see what color it will give when mixed.

But, when I mixed them together, the Olive Green was powerless against the Oxide and didn't darken or tone it down like I thought it might. The green was too bright –– too green. I needed to muddy it up a bit for it to look real. So, back to the color wheel. A little complementary color (the opposite color from green is red) is in order. Now how much to add?

That looks about right now. I could grey it more, but I see this painting as being pretty colorful and dramatic. This dark green paint will lighten somewhat when I start applying it to the existing paint, unless I wait for the paint to dry, which makes it harder to blend. I'll talk about paint drying another time.

For now, I am starting to add in the green.

I use the structure I have already created with the dark blues along the bottom.

Some of the dark blue will still be there as long as I don't use too many brush strokes to smooth the green into the wave.

I work from the bottom up and make sure the strokes that are getting close to the boats just barely show up with a hint of green. Everything is still wet, so just an extra stroke often does the trick.

Next time I will continue this process, adding strokes of light and dark until the water looks right to me. After that I will do more to the boats and backgrounds and work a lot of the object reflections back in over the water.

That's when the "Magic" happens!