I received a record amount of feedback on my last attempt to paint water on skin. Thank you all! The biggest mistake I made was I was trying to paint water on a waxed surface like a car on skin.

I learned a long time ago light reacts with skin very different than hard surfaces. Only makes sense water would do the same. And several of you pointed that out. It also explains why I couldn’t find any famous artists who painted what I was looking for. Because skin isn’t car!

Oops.

How did I do this time?

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mqpccs4yis2q

Edit: There is supposed to be a small waterfall off screen to her left. The actual model was in the shower as a wet skin reference. I didn’t want to paint someone in the shower. And people in waterfall scenes mostly focus on the waterfall! So I adapted this one.

  • ViceversaEnglish
    4·
    8 days ago

    The water looks slimy, especially right of the nose.

    • BallShapedManOPEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      Maybe it’s just really thick water? 😁

      Do you think it looks slimy everywhere or in specific spots? If the second do you mind sharing which spots look that way the most to you other than right of the nose? And it is because I use a wide color range that brings in greens like to the right of the nose do you think?

      • XeroxCoolEnglish
        4·
        8 days ago

        Ooo just came across this one after revisiting the prior one. Agreed, much improvement. I went through comments first to see what feedback was provided already. I have to agree here, there’s a sort of slimy quality to the water. Water has pretty low cohesion, so the swatch over here nose seems a bit wide and the runoff from her chin has a bit too much of a tail. I could see it being from a sudden water balloon burst, though, where the shear volume of unstable water ignores surface tension limits for a moment. But some things to point to during more study is how different fluids behave between differences in surface tension, adhesion to surfaces, cohesion to itself, and viscosity. Alcohol is low in 3, high in adhesion. Water is close. Syrup is in the middle/other end. Hocked phlegm is the other end.

        The context of the scene adds some confusion for me as well. Where did the water come from? Seems like it’s a tropical beach on a sunny day. If she popped up from the water, the water lingered a little too long. If it’s raining, there’s no raindrops. If she’s a mermaid that shot out of the sea, there could be more water flying off to show the motion.

        But again, my buddy, I love the continued work and contribution to the community. I genuinely continue to enjoy your green grim reaper as it continues to rotate through my backgrounds. Please, continue.