How to depict water in motion

Water is transparent, but will refract light passing through it, distorting and reflecting the light in weird ways. It will reflect light from every direction and focus it, causing bright specular highlights as well.

I start off with a completed background before adding water effects. I paint the main body of the thrown water using smooth curved lines of bright light, making sure to keep the background poking through in areas. I use hard-edged bushes.

Around where the water ends its journey it starts to break up into smaller blobs and drops. I render this with more random strokes, resizing the brush as I go along.

I then make a lasso selection around the water and put it on a separate layer. Now I use Liquify, Plastic Wrap and Glass filters to distort the water. It's best to play around with a combination of filters to get the right effects. I then finish up with adding white spray and droplets.

Words: Peter Stapleton

Peter Stapleton specialises in illustration and concept art. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 103.