How to Paint Those Wiggly Reflections

Water reflections appear spontaneous and gestural, but they follow definite laws.

As we learned in the first installment in this series, light objects reflect slightly darker in water. That’s why, in this painting from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, the sunlit wall appears a little darker in its reflected image.

Let’s look now at how the images are broken up by the wavelets. Edges with strong contrasts, like the brightly lit wall aga…