Watercolor Tutorial | How to Paint Water Reflection Mist | Watercolor Painting, by NVfineARTstudio on YouTube. 10 min 7 s.
- Video length
- 10 min 7 s
- Time to do it
- 45 minutes
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Tape your 300gsm rough cotton paper to a board so it stays flat. Sketch a light horizon line and place two boat shapes on the water, leaving room for mountains behind.
Wet the sky area with clean water using the flat brush. Drop in pale warm yellow near the horizon and soft blue above it, letting the colours blend on their own.
While the sky is still damp, paint distant mountains in a weak blue-grey. Keep edges soft so they fade into the mist.
Add mist by lifting colour with a clean damp brush or paper towel along the base of the mountains. Work gently so you do not scrub the paper.
Paint the boats with the #12 round and #1 script brush. Use dark grey-blue for hulls and a touch of warm brown or red for small details.
For the reflection, paint downward strokes under each boat in the same colours but weaker. Wiggle the strokes slightly so the reflection looks broken by ripples.
Add horizontal ripples across the water with light blue-grey lines. Leave gaps of white paper to suggest light catching the surface.
Deepen the darkest accents on the boats and the waterline once the paper is dry. Check the whole painting from a step back and soften any hard edges.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep the paper damp but not pooling with water, or the mist will turn muddy.
Test colours on scrap paper first, since wet paint looks lighter when dry.
Use a soft mop brush for lifting mist so you do not damage the rough paper surface.
Questions
Do I need 100% cotton paper for this painting?
Cotton paper handles wet-on-wet washes and lifting much better than wood pulp paper. A 300gsm rough sheet gives the soft mist edges shown here.
How do I keep the reflection from looking too solid?
Paint it with weaker colour and broken vertical strokes. Leave small gaps of white paper so the water looks moving rather than mirror-flat.
Can I paint this without a reference photo?
Yes. The scene is a simple invented composition of two boats, mountains and mist. Sketch the main shapes lightly first and adjust as you paint.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
