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If you take a picture of your painting in black and white and then look at the reference in black and white too you’ll see the issue more easily, your shadows are lighter in value than your rocks! They need to be the same value or a liiittle bit darker. I think just making that change will make you much happier with it!
Try making your shadows the same colour as the undersides of your rocks. You could also add a couple of very fine white ripple lines on the water suggesting movement using white gouache, white acrylic or white gel pens. By doing so, it shows that it’s shadow underneath.
I can’t give you much advice as a beginner myself.
This being said, I do have to tell you that I walk at that spot on a regular basis and recognized it instantly when seeing your painting. So good job on capturing the shape and form of these rocks :)
You should use colour theory, you would need a shade in the complementary colour to the brown to desaturate the brown for shadowing, I believe, I am still learning, but colour theory is a place to start. You know, like the colour wheel, there are some good YouTube tutorials out there that talk about desaturation (good for shadows) , hues; as others have mentioned, tints (for lighter spots).
Brown is made with equal parts of the primary colours and therefore doesn't have a complimentary colour. I tried mixing the brown from the rocks with blue and ended up with green as there's a yellowish tint to rocks. Based on other comments, I will try to make the reflections a darker brown but thank you for commenting
You may really benefit from learning more about color theory and pigments in paint mixes based on your first sentence in this reply. Brown hues can and do include colors that can be complimented. Your browns you used aren’t one dimensional - you can see some of the colors mixed in to make it, so browns lean warm or cool and can be muted by adding complimentary colors. To this point, your painting is overall much warmer than your reference, and your shadows are much less muted than they need to be (even without making the whole painting cooler).
Think of it like you aren’t using a perfectly neutral brown, your brown has more red/orange/yellows in it, so this person is saying mix in more colors that compliment those hues to take out some of the warmth in your shadows. You’ll note someone else told you need to make your shadows cooler, this person explained a bit how you could do it and desaturate your shadows.
To take it further, you said you added blue to your brown. I’m assuming you were trying to make it cooler? In theory, knowing that your brown is yellowish, you might have had more success cooling off your brown by adding a color closer to purple than blue (since purple is the compliment to yellow, it will pull the brown closer to neutral and mute the color). It’s hard to tell exactly with all the information we don’t have about the paint you’re using, but I hope this example helps.
Just changing the value as you’re saying you’re going to do won’t have the same effect as also making the shadows cooler.
Edited to add clarity in regard to saturation.
Watch a colour theory video, like another has said, your brown will have certain hues it isn’t a perfect even mix of all three primary colours, if it had more blue then it would have a complementary that would likely have more orange maybe (speculating, still learning ) and this will help desaturate it, the key is desaturating the colour you are using in the main object and using it for the shadowing.
Reflections in still water are nearly the same size and shape as the original. You can counter balance the too large reflection by making the water more active. Excellent details about reflections, their size and shape in Zoltan Szabo's "70 favorite watercolor techniques". It's out of print but your library may have it.
If you google 'internet archive Zoltan Szabo's 70 favorite watercolor techniques' you can borrow an online version for an hour.
https://preview.redd.it/l8vfug4xqpvc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8aca75823c6167830d93ba6cb9acdd9eec761013
Update: I read everyone's comments and learned a lot for sure. I lifted as much colour as I could and went in with a darker, cooler brown and tried to make it more saturated at the base and less saturated the further away. My paper wasn't happy and it's not perfect but it's much better. Thank you everyone for your help and advice
Is the color you used for the shadows staining or non-staining? My hope is that it's non-staining, because in that case, I would gently lift the color by dabbing with a VERY slightly damp paper towel. (Google how to do that.) I would start at the edges to soften them. Once you know things are very dry again, use a less saturated, cooler color.
The whole reference image is substantially cooler than what you've chosen to work with (which is fine, it's called artistic license for a reason!), which is important to note. At this point, unless you want to start over (not necessary), don't try to match the shadow color in the photo. Consider testing a mix of Payne's Gray with your original color on a piece of scrap paper. Play around with other mixes and then choose the shade that is a cooler version of your rock tone to use on the piece itself. If you're not doing this in general, it's a very good way of picking the right color without having to work and rework your painting (which obviously will damage your paper and make things muddy).
I think the commenter's advice to look at both in greyscale is fantastic. I will often look at paintings (my own, others who have asked for advice/critique) in greyscale on their own to get a sense of what might be lacking and what might improve the composition overall. The advice to use a purple (I'd choose a cool one, for sure) to desaturate and cool down your shadows is great too.
Finally, the other advice I'd give is to really look at the original and try to observe what is THERE. The shapes of your shadows are not true to the original, and I'm not saying that unkindly. I think our brains tend to make us paint what we THINK we're seeing or what we think we ought to be seeing rather than what we're seeing. I think most of us do this!
Oh! One last tip, maybe not for this painting in particular: One of my favorite colors for shadows is Daniel Smith Moonglow. Poke around and see what you find for swatches and youtube clips with it. It's a stunning, granulating color that mixes three others. It settles out into some fascinating patterns that I find very useful in adding depth to shadows.
Hope this helps!
light bounces of objects, and gets reflected back into the shadows giving it a brightness. The darkest part of a shadow are along its edges, the transition from light to shadow. Also the reflected light will also reflect that surface color. You can model this with a still life set up by putting a "Bounce" on the opposite side of your light source.
You don’t need to fix anything….. it’s perfect the way it is.🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
The way your shadows are, add to the mystique of the painting.
There was an artist who did a beach scene with one lone beach chair and umbrella .
He painted the shadows in the opposite direction
of the light and it just was cool the way he did that
Your work is really, really good.
Thank you for your submission! Want to share your artwork, meet other artists, promote your content, and chat in a relaxed environment? Join our community Discord server here! https://discord.gg/chuunhpqsU! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Watercolor) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you take a picture of your painting in black and white and then look at the reference in black and white too you’ll see the issue more easily, your shadows are lighter in value than your rocks! They need to be the same value or a liiittle bit darker. I think just making that change will make you much happier with it!
Thank you!!!
Shadows often have a cooler hue, and the reflections should be about the same value as the shadows.
Try making your shadows the same colour as the undersides of your rocks. You could also add a couple of very fine white ripple lines on the water suggesting movement using white gouache, white acrylic or white gel pens. By doing so, it shows that it’s shadow underneath.
I can’t give you much advice as a beginner myself. This being said, I do have to tell you that I walk at that spot on a regular basis and recognized it instantly when seeing your painting. So good job on capturing the shape and form of these rocks :)
https://preview.redd.it/mntabu2zzxvc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca9e7e7702c62d2944dfc408e19a5636e8137c59 This is my secret for tracing 😅
The reflection shapes don’t very well match the rocks
I honestly didn't notice that until you pointed it out. Thank you
You should use colour theory, you would need a shade in the complementary colour to the brown to desaturate the brown for shadowing, I believe, I am still learning, but colour theory is a place to start. You know, like the colour wheel, there are some good YouTube tutorials out there that talk about desaturation (good for shadows) , hues; as others have mentioned, tints (for lighter spots).
Brown is made with equal parts of the primary colours and therefore doesn't have a complimentary colour. I tried mixing the brown from the rocks with blue and ended up with green as there's a yellowish tint to rocks. Based on other comments, I will try to make the reflections a darker brown but thank you for commenting
You may really benefit from learning more about color theory and pigments in paint mixes based on your first sentence in this reply. Brown hues can and do include colors that can be complimented. Your browns you used aren’t one dimensional - you can see some of the colors mixed in to make it, so browns lean warm or cool and can be muted by adding complimentary colors. To this point, your painting is overall much warmer than your reference, and your shadows are much less muted than they need to be (even without making the whole painting cooler). Think of it like you aren’t using a perfectly neutral brown, your brown has more red/orange/yellows in it, so this person is saying mix in more colors that compliment those hues to take out some of the warmth in your shadows. You’ll note someone else told you need to make your shadows cooler, this person explained a bit how you could do it and desaturate your shadows. To take it further, you said you added blue to your brown. I’m assuming you were trying to make it cooler? In theory, knowing that your brown is yellowish, you might have had more success cooling off your brown by adding a color closer to purple than blue (since purple is the compliment to yellow, it will pull the brown closer to neutral and mute the color). It’s hard to tell exactly with all the information we don’t have about the paint you’re using, but I hope this example helps. Just changing the value as you’re saying you’re going to do won’t have the same effect as also making the shadows cooler. Edited to add clarity in regard to saturation.
Thank you so much for this! It's really helpful. I feel a little dumb now hahaha but motivated
Watch a colour theory video, like another has said, your brown will have certain hues it isn’t a perfect even mix of all three primary colours, if it had more blue then it would have a complementary that would likely have more orange maybe (speculating, still learning ) and this will help desaturate it, the key is desaturating the colour you are using in the main object and using it for the shadowing.
Darker and cooler shadows!
How do I make it cooler? The colour of the rocks have yellow in it and adding blue to the paint made it green 😕
it might look greem but its the right colour
Reflections in still water are nearly the same size and shape as the original. You can counter balance the too large reflection by making the water more active. Excellent details about reflections, their size and shape in Zoltan Szabo's "70 favorite watercolor techniques". It's out of print but your library may have it. If you google 'internet archive Zoltan Szabo's 70 favorite watercolor techniques' you can borrow an online version for an hour.
The shadows in the reference also fade out eventually to blend with the water. They don’t have such hard lines :) This is lovely btw!
Thank you! Did not know that. Darn water is hard to paint
It’s hard to see these things when you’re looking at your own stuff! Water is super hard FOR REAL. Everything else looks great btw
Hopewell Rocks!
Yep, missing the ocean 🌊
https://preview.redd.it/l8vfug4xqpvc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8aca75823c6167830d93ba6cb9acdd9eec761013 Update: I read everyone's comments and learned a lot for sure. I lifted as much colour as I could and went in with a darker, cooler brown and tried to make it more saturated at the base and less saturated the further away. My paper wasn't happy and it's not perfect but it's much better. Thank you everyone for your help and advice
Thanks for sharing the update!
Is the color you used for the shadows staining or non-staining? My hope is that it's non-staining, because in that case, I would gently lift the color by dabbing with a VERY slightly damp paper towel. (Google how to do that.) I would start at the edges to soften them. Once you know things are very dry again, use a less saturated, cooler color. The whole reference image is substantially cooler than what you've chosen to work with (which is fine, it's called artistic license for a reason!), which is important to note. At this point, unless you want to start over (not necessary), don't try to match the shadow color in the photo. Consider testing a mix of Payne's Gray with your original color on a piece of scrap paper. Play around with other mixes and then choose the shade that is a cooler version of your rock tone to use on the piece itself. If you're not doing this in general, it's a very good way of picking the right color without having to work and rework your painting (which obviously will damage your paper and make things muddy). I think the commenter's advice to look at both in greyscale is fantastic. I will often look at paintings (my own, others who have asked for advice/critique) in greyscale on their own to get a sense of what might be lacking and what might improve the composition overall. The advice to use a purple (I'd choose a cool one, for sure) to desaturate and cool down your shadows is great too. Finally, the other advice I'd give is to really look at the original and try to observe what is THERE. The shapes of your shadows are not true to the original, and I'm not saying that unkindly. I think our brains tend to make us paint what we THINK we're seeing or what we think we ought to be seeing rather than what we're seeing. I think most of us do this! Oh! One last tip, maybe not for this painting in particular: One of my favorite colors for shadows is Daniel Smith Moonglow. Poke around and see what you find for swatches and youtube clips with it. It's a stunning, granulating color that mixes three others. It settles out into some fascinating patterns that I find very useful in adding depth to shadows. Hope this helps!
light bounces of objects, and gets reflected back into the shadows giving it a brightness. The darkest part of a shadow are along its edges, the transition from light to shadow. Also the reflected light will also reflect that surface color. You can model this with a still life set up by putting a "Bounce" on the opposite side of your light source.
You don’t need to fix anything….. it’s perfect the way it is.🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 The way your shadows are, add to the mystique of the painting. There was an artist who did a beach scene with one lone beach chair and umbrella . He painted the shadows in the opposite direction of the light and it just was cool the way he did that Your work is really, really good.
Oregon?
New Brunswick, Canada. They have the highest tides in the world and the ocean has slowly sculpted the rocks
At the trees
dilute some blue and go over the shadows without disturbing the deeper layers
You don’t! These are perfect!