How to Paint Rocks in Water
- 1). Prime your canvas with gesso or an oil under-paint that is smooth. According to the William Powell Artist website, the smoother you can make the canvas, the less chance there will be unnatural dark spots that will appear on the painting while you work on it.
- 2). Paint basic sketched outlines of rocks that you plan to paint above and beneath the water. Make these rocks different colors, shapes and sizes, creating their basic size and shape on the surface of the canvas. Now with a different, darker color than you painted any of the rocks, paint the bottom of the creek or body of water the rocks will be sitting in. Add shadow to the base of the rocks with gray paint, as the light will be coming from above the rocks and the water. Add color and detail to the rocks, making some darker and some lighter than others. Once you are satisfied with how the rocks look as far as shape and color, set the painting aside to dry.
- 3). Mix oil and turpentine to make a glaze (or just purchase a premade glaze like linseed oil). With a softer brush, paint these glazes over the smaller rocks you have painted and parts of the rocks that are supposed to be submerged below the water. This glaze layer will create the illusion of transparent water over the rocks.
- 4). Add more glaze and small amounts of color where the water actually makes contact with the sides of the rocks that are sticking out of the water. These colors can be small amounts of blue, black, green or white. Adding small ripples of white, like the froth and bubbles that are produced on the surface of a body of water will make the water around the rocks appear more realistic. Mix in a small amount of glaze after these details are painted on the water.
- 5). Allow the painting to dry. Once it is fully dried, add a gloss varnish finish, adding more depth to the painting.
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