Introduction

Hello, this time I will show you how you can paint water, I know that it can be intimidating and even difficult to paint water in any of its forms and make it look like it, but it does not have to be, here is an extremely easy and fast way to achieve paint water.

 

I will show you a method to paint water in two examples both on the surface of the water and under the water, to finish with an example of how we adapt what we have learned to a slightly more complete illustration.

Video tutorial

Paint water: water surface

To begin we will paint a background with the colors that we want our water to be, use different tones, without fear, we do not want something completely perfect because water is completely unpredictable and its colors too, feel free as it is.

 

To do this, use the brush that is in the "Airbrush" section called "Soft" and "Diluted Blurred Edge Color" or also called "Watercolor Blurred Edge" found in the "Diluted Color" section that come with the Program.

We will blend with the color mixer tool that you can find in the [Blend] section or whatever you feel more comfortable with.

 

The one I use can be downloaded from the following link:

Once we have our background ready, we create a new layer and go to [Filter] > [Render] > [Perlin noise]

The following window will be created with various settings, I invite you to experiment with them and thus find what you are looking for, for this example we will use the following:

And then we will create an image like this

We will change the blending mode to [Glow Dodge] and adjust the opacity of the layer as we like more in my case I will leave it at 25%.

 

Remember that you are free to experiment with blend modes and layer opacity as you like.

Now we go to [Filter > [Blur] > [Motion Blur]

Optionally we duplicate our layer and change the layer mode to [overlay] change the opacity to 10% and position it under our initial layer, we will have something like this:

Paint water: under water

Now an example as if we were painting a background underwater.

 

We paint and blur until we have the background.

Once again we are going to create a new layer and go to [Filter] > [Render] > [Perlin Noise] and use the following settings.

Put the layer in blending mode [Glow Dodge] and set the opacity to 25%.

Although we can use motion blur as in the previous example, this time I will use polar coordinates, let's go to [Filter] > [Distort] > [Polar coordinates]

In the option [Polar to rectangular] and we accept

And this will be our result

Light reflected in the water (Glow or light in the water)

We can add the shine of the water, for the first example I will use a special brush to do it, you can download it here below

-Let's create a new layer above what is our water layer

• blending mode will be [Glow Dodge]

• we choose a color that we like that is a light tone

• and now we are going to draw with the brush 水面反射光 B濃

Once ready we lower the opacity of the layer to how we think it looks better and we like it more, in my case I left it at 60% opacity

Now it is the turn of the second example, we create a new layer, blend mode [Brightness dodge] and I will lower its opacity to 70%, we choose a light color and we paint.

Now with a soft eraser and with low opacity in my case of 15% you can vary according to how you feel and we are going to erase in the same layer little by little and with patience

At the end we will have the following result

If you wish you can also add the reflected light in the background as we did before

Adapt what you have learned into an illustration

I have my illustration that I want to paint water on, it's a top view so let's get to it.

I create a new layer below my character

I help myself with the [Fill] tool to put the base color of the water, I continue painting and blurring until I reach a result that I like.

We create a new layer and create the [perlin noise] I configure as I see fit

We change the blending mode to [Glow Dodge] and the opacity to 25% for a while since I'll change it later.

[Motion Blur] I choose the angle to be as diagonal as possible because that's what I'm going for this time.

We duplicate the layer and put it in [Overlay] mode and position it below layer 2

I went back to the water base coat and painted on it again as in the process I decided I wanted a bit darker water, with the help of [tonal correction] I got what I wanted.

 

In the end the layers with the [perlin noise] were like this:

 

Layer 2 (top layer): blending mode [Glow Dodge] opacity 10%

Layer 2 copy (bottom layer): blending mode [Overlay] opacity 22%

Now we create a new layer, blend mode [Glow Dodge] and in it we add the reflections of the water with a light color, I will do it with the 水面反射光 B濃 brush that I previously showed you.

Next I am going to make part of an entire border or line that separates the face from the water so that it is not such a sharp cut, I will explain it quickly:

 

• select all 4 layers (water color, perlin noise and light reflections)

-duplicate them [Layer] > [Duplicate layer]

-merge them into a single layer [Layer] > [Merge Selected Layers]

I drag the layer above the layer called "border" , activate the "clip to layer below" box

I create a new layer, blend mode [Glow Dodge] and on it I draw with a light color in the area where the water hits the skin

go to [Filter] > [Blur] > [Gaussian Blur]

Change the layer opacity to 31% and also blur a bit with the blender

Then combine the layers

Lastly I change the opacity of the light reflections to 74% and that would be it.

And this would be our final result, I hope you like it and you can use this method in your next illustrations