TUTORIAL // rendering water with minimal tools (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here’s this month’s tutorial on rendering water with minimal tools. A patron reached out to ask how I render different textures using the same brush, so I wanted to tackle this subject with a focus on water! Some things that are discussed in this tutorial are:

• How to break a reference image down into ‘layers’ so that it’s easier to interpret and draw

• How I search for a strong reference image (something I've gotten a lot of questions about lately!) 

• Using the lasso and gradient tool to set down the basic colors and shapes

• Using the hard round brush to render the shapes and finer details

Here's the final result of the study:

And here's a link to the ref image in case you want to tackle the same image too: https://stock.adobe.com/images/reflection-of-sky-on-the-moving-water-surface-in-the-pool/164649097 

This tutorial builds on some previous resources that I’ve put together, so these might be good to check out if you haven’t seen them yet:

• A resource on how I use the lasso tool to create shapes 

• A step-by-step detailing how I painted the wave study that I discuss in this tutorial 

And here are some process videos in which I paint water:

• Process videos for ‘wave’ (which I mention in the tutorial): Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 

• Process video for a quick ocean study 

• Process video for a river study: Part 1 / Part 2 

If you’re having trouble watching this video in the app, it might help to watch it in a browser instead! And as always, let me know if you have any questions after watching this!