Ripples and Splashes

The effect of the water rippling is really starting to come together now, and the illusion of depth is quite convicing. Closer study of the original photo, which had previously been studied at arms length, as it was attached to the board, showed how much more detail there was to be found in the image, especially subtle, tiny ripples and reflections. This has added a lot more interest.

I used a softer sable mix brush for this stage, after having used a hogs hair brush up til this point, and started off with the larger brush to add the larger areas of reflections in the top of the painting, then a much smaller sable brush to add the tiny ripples of light on top of these larger areas. The section on the bottom right of the painting has particularly benefited from the extra ripples added there, because the detail in the top area of the painting was too dominant. The large splash at the bottom is also helping to equalize the interest in the different sections of the painting.

I've also added more definition to the figure, with more light and shade to suggest the contour of the limbs, though this is by no means finished, as it needs to be defined more clearly before it is then broken up by the refractions of the water.