In just 4 easy steps you can paint waterdrops on to any object in your painting.
Water drops are always eye-catching and add interest to flowers, leaves, and containers.
If you do art shows or sell your work, you will find people are fascinated and very impressed when they see water drops on a painting.
This tutorial will demonstrate how to paint them in just four easy steps.
Look how much excitement those water drops add to that beautiful watercolor rose painting.
Notice, in the image above, that it's the shadows and highlights that make the water drops look realistic.
It's also important to note that water drops take on the color of the surface below it because they are transparent. So your water drops on leaves will look green and on petals will look like the color of the flower. You will choose your paint colors based on what you are putting your water drops onto.
Practice Painting Large Water Drops
If you have not painted water drops, I suggest you start by practicing some large drops on scrap paper.
By painting large water drops you will gain a good understanding of the steps. Once you understand the basic concept then you should be able to paint tiny drops onto your painting to add excitement and movement to the image.
To practice painting water drops, choose a paint color similar to what you have in your painting. In this case, I'll be adding waterdrops on pink rose petals, so I painted pink onto my watercolor paper.
Brush the paint color onto your watercolor paper and allow it to dry completely. You can speed up this process by using a hairdryer.
4 Step Process for Painting Water Drops
- Use a pencil to lightly draw your shape onto your background. Then paint the top of the shape you are creating whether that be round, oval, or teardrop-shaped. Use a darker value of paint than what is painted onto your surface, in this case, I used a darker value pink.
- Then use a dark value to paint a cast shadow under the drop.
- You need to pick out your highlight according to your light source. You can also add your highlight using white paint.
- You need to lift out your roll around light. This is always opposite your highlight.
Watch the video above to see the step-by-step process for painting water drops in action.
If you love this technique and want to learn more about painting beautiful florals, landscapes, or still lifes with Louise, you can purchase individual painting classes below. Click on the images to see a large image of the full painting along with a picture of the free bonus painting packet.
