Chapter 3 | MIRROR IMAGES IN NATURE
The kind of mirror images from top to bottom from the previous chapter can also be found in the reflection of trees or buildings in water. Reflections in the water can be enchantingly beautiful. Due to the ripples in the water, mirror images are often slightly distorted and sometimes blurry.
Exercise: Here’s a nice way to draw a view with reflections in a lake.
Draw each step before moving on to the next. Create another type of landscape if you like.
Step 1: on the top half of your paper, draw a waterline with some buildings, hills or whatever above it.
Step 2: first mirror the part closest to the water’s edge, here the hills. Draw the lines in the water slightly broken.
Step 3: draw the reflection of the city and the tree. Make outlines that run from top to bottom (here the sides of the buildings and the tree trunk) slightly wavy because of the ripple of the water.
Step 4: draw waves on the water, close up broader, far away smaller and smaller. Draw them in some open pieces of the wavy outlines as well.
Of course this type of drawing can also be colored with watercolor, using a nice soft brush. In that case I recommend the use of watercolor paper or at least thick paper. Dilute well if you want to keep it nice and transparent and let it dry if you don’t want the colors to flow into each other.