The upcoming April/May issue of International Artist magazine has a four-page feature that I wrote on reflections and transparency in water.
The little branches on the far bank head in different directions, but it's the vertical branches that you see favored in the reflection.
The effect of elongation is increased with the strength of contrasts of the elements being reflected. Extremely bright lights, for example, are reflected in very elongated vertical lines. As 19th century British writer John Ruskin says,
"All motion in water elongates reflections, and throws them into confused vertical lines. The real amount of this elongation is not distinctly visible, except in the case of very bright objects, and especially of lights, as of the sun, moon, or lamps by a river shore, whose reflections are hardly ever seen as circles or points, which of course they are on perfectly calm water, but as long streams of tremulous light."
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International Artist magazine website
2 comments:
Those are really fascinating observations. I greatly appreciate your explanations of how reflections and transparency in water work; it helps me immensely in my renderings.
Awesome - I'm just starting to paint more coastal/ocean scenes so this will come in handy, thanks!
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