How to Paint REALISTIC WATER with Watercolor 💦

In this video on how to paint realistic water with watercolor, I go through the whole process from start to finish, in easy to follow steps. Learn how to create an horizon, alongside authentic looking ripples and waves. All are ideal for adding a dolphin, seal, or even a boat to your finished painting. I hope you find the tutorial helpful.

🕒 *Timestamps* 🕒
00:00 How to paint realistic water with watercolor
00:14 Preparing the paints and wetting the watercolor paper
02:40 Applying the background wash to the watercolor water painting
04:38 Lifting off, suggested wave and ripple detail on the water
06:23 Adding the wave details which start to make the water look realistic
10:56 Lifting off highlights within the water
12:28 Fine-tuning the darker wave details
13:48 Adding the opaque white highlights which bring the scene to life

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My videos are copy protected and are fully owned by myself. They are for your use and enjoyment on YouTube, I hope you like them.

🎵 With grateful thanks: Wayne Jones - Mr Sunny Face

#PaulHopkinson #TheDevonArtist #WildlifeinWatercolour

[dhwaniv]

I think this tutorial is one of the best tutorials I’ve ever seen

[brittanypurvis]

Lovely tutorial and your voice is very calming to listen to! Also, I will forever call paper towels "kitchen roll"!!! Thanks!!

[gigiartstudiowithartistvir]

Fun painting. Something I've been doing more of lately is wetting the backside of the paper as well as the front when doing washes. It allows more time to paint and it keeps the paper from warping so much. Happy painting!

[meglh]

How have I missed your videos until now? Love this tutorial! Not only are you informative, but your voice is soothing, encouraging, and kind. The Bob Ross of watercolor!

[voliabrandaolaveneremachad]

You make it look so easy! Thank you so much for teaching us!

[davidsaad]

I love this video. I am new to watercolor and realize this is over my head, but man it is inspirational.

[kle]

This as a fantastic tutorial. I completed it fairly quickly, but I used a smaller format, 5 x 7. I’ve been afraid of trying to paint water (after a couple of seriously failed attempts). But I watched the video through, then played it again and followed along. I was quite pleased with my finished painting. My FIRST successful water painting!

Tonight I went to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law whom I have not seen in years! I took along a stack of things I have been working on because my family always wants to know what I am up to. Among the stack was my painting following your process. My brother, who is quite refrained in giving praise picked out this particular painting and gave it high compliments. I mean, for him it was almost ‘gushing’ praise. It made me feel so good!

In my rendition, it looked ‘almost’ like yours. My sea was deliciously misty, but I changed the direction of the light source, and used a different light blue-green color. Overall, it was still a replica of your work, so I’ll be attempting this one again, hopefully without a tutorial, and with slightly different colors. And maybe a sailboat in the distance.

Thank you for teaching me to successfully paint water!

[sherryfurr]

Outstanding lesson. I have watched dozens of these on making waves. This is the best one ever. Thank you!

[toni-tzbt]

Great tutorial Paul, as ever. 👍 This ones on my 'to do' list for the weekend. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. 😊

[CarolCox-qs]

After watching many I found this one was the best for me. It achieved the results I wanted. Thank you

[magicmoments]

WOW so good explained, really helpful♥Youre an amazing teacher

[darcykelley]

I watched your YouTube videos on my tv all afternoon. This water demo was fantastic. I appreciate how you teach. Just joined your Patreon and will upgrade if I find I use it. Thank you! D

[nim]

Thank you for the tutorial. One of the best. It’s very useful and fun to watch throughout the clip. I will try to paint it.

[terribashaw]

Thank you, your patient method of teaching makes it easy to understand how you are getting your results!

[kimwoodring]

Excellent tutorial!!! I can’t wait to try this!

[nazneenjabbar]

Wow what a useful tutorial. I who get stuck on a couple of brushes, must look at all my brushes and use them more intelligently. 😅👍🏽

[susanh]

Thank you, such a wonderfully clear and effective tutorial.

[icefireobsidian]

Oh I like your method of dealing with paper stretching

[Sumoni__Puri]

Wow. A very detailed tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing. ❤😊

[chriswright]

Great video- thanks. I’ll have to try this.