I have another custom watercolor to share with you this month! This painting is based on a photo my mother took of a lake at the family farm in north Texas. The reflections in the lake were a fun challenge so I spent a lot of time researching and watching video tutorials to learn more about painting different kinds of reflections.

Here are some rules of thumbs I learned for this painting (from this article on the Artists Network website):

Whatever is dark on dry land will be lighter in the water.
Whatever is light on dry land will be darker in the water.
Colors become less saturated in water reflections. Even white will need to be grayed down in the water.
Details are left out. Only the basic smudges of color are needed.
Avoid all hard edges in water reflections.
Because water is denser than air, it will absorb light. Therefore do not repeat the same value of the sky in the water reflections. Water will almost always be darker than the sky it is mirroring.

Take a look at the photo and final watercolor below!