Paint Moving Elements
by Matt Smith
Imagine you are on the beach watching the waves. There are rhythm, repitions, and similarities throughout the moving water. The thing about painting moving water is that you actually need to be out seeing it firsthand. You can’t start it dead with a photograph, paint it, and expect it to have any life, unless you spend a great deal of time outdoors working from direct observation. Or, at the very least, observing first hand what is going.
Waves come and go; they will be calm and pick up again. When I am outside painting moving water, I look for the rhythms. I look for what is continuously happening, and what is unique about a given wave in any way I can maximize and support my concept.
The lighting is also a huge factor with moving water, The sun bounces in and out and you can see waves becoming back lit and translucent. It can also have rim lightning when the tops of them hit the sun depending on the time of day. Again, if you are painting a waterfall, a flowing creek, waves, whatever it might be, don’t count on copying something out of a magazine or a book. You can’t paint from a still image and expect to instill enough life and movement. Get out and observe first hand, consistently and constantly, and inject the experience into your own work.
“ I look for what is continuously happening, and what is unique about a given wave in any way I can maximize and support my concept.”
It’s the same thing as moving animals or figures. When you start painting things like this from a photograph, the life is sucked out of it. In our paintings, we have to create that illusion of movement. What do you see and how can you use it to your advantage? It takes time and study, so get outside when you can and observe and paint these moving elements.
Join Matt in his instructional waterfall video series and mentoring course below: