Under the High Pier

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10 x 14 in  -  25 x 36 cm     Watercolor     In this painting is the result of a two-hour challenge. I cropped the original reference tightly to focus on the people. What I was after was getting their reflection in the wet sand. I ignored some of the pillars of the pier because otherwise the composition was far too cluttered. One problem I knew I would run into is that the wet sand is a great reflector but it is that dreadful thing "sloping water".

I tried to paint some of the reflections of the pillars as shown in the reference but I soon found that this was not a good idea as the brain and just does not believe that water slopes even though in this case we have exactly that, where a wave has just washed over the sloping sand and left it glistening.

I think the referece shows that the work would have been better if I have been braver and gone darker on the core shapes.