Step by Step, Translucent Surfaces In Watercolor

Translucence has long intrigued artists because it holds the possibility of apparently looking at two areas simultaneously, the surface and what’s below the surface.  What follows are  watercolor illustrations showing you how to achieve translucent water effects. The angle at which you look at the water determines how much transparency you experience versus how much reflected opacity you experience. A direct view down into the water gives a transparent effect. We see through the water unless the water is clouded or quite deep. As you raise your eyes toward the horizon you become aware of the reflective property of water. Slowly reflected areas occlude your view of what is below. This experience is the goal of the watercolor demonstrations which follow.  I also aim to have a pattern of graduation as well as a design which takes you back ( toward the top) in the painting. The watery surface must be made to appear to recede .  Placing information above and below that surface while using linear perspective to relatively diminish the size of the information ( rocks, leaves) is a another way of triggering a sense of space below and on the water. I also employ  recessional color shift and diminishing acuity of focus.

Step I. Example 1. An 11×11 pre-varnished sheet of watercolor paper  has  just received a playful application of thinned gamboge yellow (Lucas Aquarelle brand or Old Holland) freshly  squeezed from the tube . The application is with a 2″ synthetic sable brush.  The palette has been set to include Ultramarine blue, Cyan blue, Transparent Red Oxide,  Opaque White, Gamboge Yellow and Carmine Lake Red. My goal is to paint rocks just below a sky reflecting  surface of a garden pond.

Step 2.  I have overlaid  a grey neutral made from a blend of ultramarine blue and transparent red oxide then, followed that with another overlay of carmine lake. I am still using the 2″ Raphael Kaerell 290 brush.

example 2.

Step 3.   Note that I do not overlay a glaze or wash color until it is dry. Otherwise, I would dissolve and muddy the colors already applied.  I also touch my brush to surface just once when watercolor glazing and, touch only lightly without much water in order to slowly build the layers of color  and minimize my  chances of dissolving them ( although there is always that risk).  Here are more layers glazed onto the surface. Notice how the colors are being mixed on the palette along the side.

example 3.

Step 4. Observe  how the colors are deepening with further over-glazing and, observe that I have begun opaque glazing with white mixing with the two blues.  The broken,  opaque, blue-sky reflections allude to the possibility of reflected trees.  Opaque areas are thinner toward the front (bottom) and more opaque and lighter toward the back(top). I sustain a lateral sense of movement with my earlier brushwork but,  lock it inside the picture plane by  the applying vertical pale blue opaque shapes.

example 4.

Step 5. Here are further applications of opacity with gentle lifting and rubbing  on  the stones to generate a more granular stone-like surface.  I extended the reach and value range of the opaque light blue sky reflection territory  as well as applied a dry-brushed, light haze to the top(back) of the painting.  By pushing in opaque light-blue into the stones in selected areas they appear to ride beneath the reflecting surface.  Darks  as well as lights are more modulated with a damp brush.

final form example 5.

In the next series of step-by-step my subject is a small pond surface supporting fallen leaves.  The palette is the same as the painting above.  Notice my reliance on the carmine lake mixing with gamboge. I used a complementary harmony of green versus red.  The design is an offset triangle of light directing you back into the picture space.  The greens were created by mixing cyan, gamboge and small bits of transparent red oxide while slowly adding more carmine lake as I move across the picture plane. The light area is the result of removal of pigment and the application of a mixture of opaque white with carmine and cyan.

step 1, example 6.

step2, example 7.

In example 7 you see the expanding, opaque light-blue area which is gradually darkening as it moves forward and, is placed only in selected areas leaving parts of the original red-yellow  pattern  untouched.

step3, example 8.

In the above example I have begun removing ( by dissolving pigment with my water only treated brush) pigment  with water and simultaneously creating a design that wends its way back into space as well as relatively diminishing the size of the leaves and their acuity as they recede.

step 4, example 9.

In example 9  I have applied a few darker shadow accents, light accents on the far edges of some leaves to suggest the heightened reflection from angled surfce tension and, I further occluded  selected areas with more opacity to push them below the surface.