Water droplets in Watercolour

1)  Wait till your background (leaf, petal, etc.) is completely dry that you plan to add a droplet to.  Using the same colour as the background, paint a crescent shape....darkest at the side that is closest to the light source (in this example, at the top) and gradually getting lighter to where it will blend with the background colour.  You can clean your brush and use it damp to fade out the colour.

2)  Using the same colour, paint a second crescent to shape the bottom of your droplet and to create your cast shadow.

3)  Lift out areas of highlight (top and bottom).

4)  Darken around the top highlight area to make it stand out a little more and darken the area just beneath it.......giving shape and 3 dimension to the water drop.

5)  Continue to darken the values within the drop and the shadow till you're happy with it.

Note:  Allow each step to dry before proceeding to the next step.

Samples of different colour droplets

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Paintings, Tutorials & Text are © Susan Bronsak 2007