How to Fix Reflection Lines in Painting
- 1). Paint over the area that will contain reflections, using a dark gray in oil or acrylic. Burnt umber mixed equally with cobalt blue and a touch of white works well. For watercolors, either leave the area clean and dry or paint a wash of plain water.
- 2). Mix colors that match the landscape above the water line, then darken them slightly using black or the complementary color. For example, for reflections of green trees, mix in some red.
- 3). Paint vertical lines from the edge of the water line straight down toward the bottom of your canvas or paper. Your reflection should start out detailed close to shore, then lose detail as you move into the foreground, and it should take up the same amount of space as the scene above the water. Let the paint dry.
- 4). Mix the color of the sky, and use this color to fill in the foreground below the main reflection, again using straight vertical lines. Mix extra sky color if your water is choppy or rippled.
- 5). Mix a blue-green color for the water, and thin it with water (watercolor or acrylics) or medium (oil). Ocean water tends to be teal green and lighter than clean, deep lakes, while shallow or dirty water may be mostly yellow-green or even brown.
- 6). Paint horizontal strokes of the water color over your reflection. Often a few strokes to suggest the surface of the water are all you need, and you should still see the reflection through this wash. Let the paint dry.
- 7). Dab on short, thin strokes of extra sky color with a flat brush or the edge of a palette knife to add ripples or waves to the water. These strokes should follow the rules of perspective: paint tiny, close-together ripples in the distance, and as the lines get closer to the viewer, make them longer, thicker and farther apart.
- 8). Step back from your work to check the effect. Go back and finesse areas that trouble you, but be careful not to overwork your painting.
