Water Study

Another study with another excellent watercolorist, Eric Yi Lin, whose YouTube channel is called Cafe Watercolor, a very low-key but very informative channel about – what else?? – watercolors. His demonstrations are clear, and especially compelling, is his narrative. How, why, how come – so many answers to questions not answered in a lot of demonstrations. Truthfully, I think he has some of the best “explanations” or reasons why this, or how to consider that. An example is in the video below, from which the above painting is derived, is his statement that “water is a surface.” Have you ever considered that when painting? Suddenly it becomes more comprehensible.

The major point of this study is to look at water and observe how to paint it. In his video, Eric describes how water “works” in different settings. In fact, he demonstrates and explains different ways to look at water – smooth and glassy, foggy and still, and the ways in which the ocean is not at all like a lake or river. This is all in the first half of the video. Then, from a photo he took, he spends the last half showing how he painted the photo. Takeaways include that the first wash is the color of the light, simplicity in the distance, more complexity in the forefront. Order of working is light to dark, soft to detailed.

I’ll let you look at the video to see what I mean.

I expect I will be visiting his site a lot for now!