Studies of Water Reflections for my Paintings (1)

As an artist having a change of scenery does wonders for inspiration. 2020 was a write-off for me in most ways but in 2021 I learned to dig deeper into myself to find inspiration in the ordinary and mundane. 2022 has started me on a New Year Daily Drawing Challenge, and in the process of thinking about what I was going to draw I discovered some amazing things.

I had done a couple of portraits of my soon-to-be-lost Bird of Paradise plant for Day 2 and 3 but it quickly became apparent that I already had multiple portraits of all my plants.

By January 4, Day 4 of the challenge, I was truly stumped about what to draw. But as luck would have it Cee’s Challenge that day was ‘Water, Water Everywhere’. I quickly put together a post called ‘Shimmer Like Rippling Light on Water’ and in the process remembered that I had wanted to do studies of reflections on ponds.

A watercolour sketch I had done in the late spring of 2020 (10 Paintings in 10 Days Challenge) featured flag irises reflected in a nearby duckpond, where I realized that water and its reflections made an interesting addition to a painting.
I grabbed this image of a pond at Tanum, a UNESCO World Heritage Rock Art Centre in Sweden. Months earlier I had cut it up into heavily zoomed-in pieces which I started working from.

This crop, from the upper one third of the pond, contained white marks to the left and a green reflection to the right, both of which were quite intriguing to me.

I started a study of a pond by putting down watercolour washes over white crayon slashes. Then I realized it would have to be quite dry before I started drawing on it so I put it aside and did a pencil sketch focussing on the positive/negative interaction. I really had to think about what I was doing – thankfully all my erasures added yet another dimension to the drawing! (Day 4)

Day 5, January 5th, a sketch based on the left side of the blow-up. The colours were a bit dull in this particular sketchbook paper but once I added pencil it livened it up a lot.

At one point in prepping it for the web I accidentally scaled it disproportionately but thought I’d add it because it makes the water look as if it’s fast flowing.

The addition of pale yellow floating leaves.

At this point I was a bit disappointed in the colours in my small 5″ x 7″ sketch book. Not really designed for watercolour, the colours were immediately absorbed into the paper and turned dull, not at all like the shimmery blues and greens I wanted. I tried testing out the difference in watercolour between different papers, the bottom designed for watercolour, the top not. However, the book with appropriate paper was four times larger and I knew I would never be able to keep up doing a sketch a day at that size. So it was back to the small sketchbook.

Day 6, a sketch in crayon, watercolour and pencil. This turned out a lot darker than I was hoping for, less about reflections and more about the leaves floating on the pond; also the strange whitish markings at the top.

An impression of glimmers in the water of Tanum pond for Day 7.

Final Day 7 sketch.

Another small section of a pond in Tanum, Sweden, trying to capture the blue glimmer.

Final Day 8 Tanum pond sketch.

• My post of ‘Shimmer Like Rippling Light on Water‘ that inspired me.
• More of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fun with Water, Water, Everywhere that inspired me to write my ‘shimmer’ post.

More of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Water.

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