I have a wonderful oil painting tutorial to share with you today by artist Karin Wells. Hopefully you remember Karin. I conducted an interview with her not long ago. If you did not have a chance to read that interview, I recommend you take some time to read it by clicking here and become better acquainted with Karin. She is a very talented artist and I am delighted to be featuring her work here again.
The following oil painting lesson will demonstrate Karin’s 
oil painting technique for creating water drips on a vertical surface. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. The second part, “How to paint water drops on a horizontal surface in four easy steps”, will be published next week.
Enjoy!
Painting Drips and Drops By Karin Wells
How to paint water drips on a vertical surface in four easy steps.
This little 8″ x 10″ painting has a lot of water drops. I add these details to a dry painting surface at the end.
I posted the largest file allowed for this so you could see better detail if you click on the above picture.
Here’s how to do it when the light source comes from the upper left:
DRIP STEP 1
I use a dark color – raw umber works for me but any transparent dark will do. You are making the shape of a drip. A drip will occur on a vertical or slanted surface. A cast shadow will be on the lower right (i.e., Darker).
DRIP STEP 2
You will be looking through the water and it creates a soft shadow on the top left and the harder, sharper cast shadow on the lower right side of the drip.
Detail (above)
DRIP STEP 3
Light will be reflected on the top right and will define the top of the drop. I use Zinc White so the original color shows through. The light does NOT touch the shadow and we want to see the untouched color of the surface between light and shadow.
DRIP STEP 4
Lastly, add a highlight in the shadow area. I use Titanium White for this as I want it to be clearly defined and opaque.
Detail (above) from Apples Still Life (below).
Apples Still Life, 8″ x 10″ Oil on Linen
Go to Part 2: “How to paint water drops on a horizontal surface in four easy steps”
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james moxey on Fri, 15th Aug 2008 6:16 pm
Illuminating ! Its a technical detail whicha can always come in useful at some point, I love your painting, enormous talent, wonderfull, congratulations.
Julia Rathel on Fri, 15th Aug 2008 7:04 pm
Thanks – I wondered just how to make those water drops – you make is seem real easy. Got to try it now.
maruja saez on Sat, 16th Aug 2008 3:32 am
You paint the drops of water easily. I will follow your directions step by step to see if I can get the same wonderful effect. I want to ask you a favor. Could you please explain how to paint stones submerged in the water. Thank you very much, and congratulations. Maruja
Judy on Sat, 16th Aug 2008 8:24 am
Wow, unbelievable paintings, you really deserve every award you have ever received. Thank you so much for sharing.
M Kumar on Tue, 30th Dec 2008 8:16 am
how easily$nicely you put life in your paintings.thanx for a nice lesson. pl do continue your teachings
Delmus on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 12:50 pm
Very very nice demonstration. On top of this, her paintings are gorgeous. Very soft. The doily was done so nicely.
If of any interest, this site also has tips on dew drops.
http://easy-oil-painting-techniques.org/oil-painting-lesson.html
Thanks for a great blog!
Delmus’s last blog post..Canvas Preparation
Raju Sharma on Sat, 11th Apr 2009 6:08 pm
Hi Karin! There is no question you are a genius! I’m willing to be like you. I learned it and I request you please tell me how to soothly go from lighter to darker shades especially when we paint a portrait. In pencil sketching pencil can be used easily by appling a little effort on pencil tip to get it but in poster colors or oil paints I can not make a smooth darker from lighter and lighter from darker. It is to be painted with pixels or patches on it. Can you help me?
Sagay on Sun, 12th Jul 2009 9:07 am
That was greatly simplified thanks to you.Please if i may ask how do i achieve tranparency in paint and should it be after drying the work
Gregg from Oil Painting and Supplies on Wed, 22nd Jul 2009 4:13 am
That was great. Great lesson which I will try right away. I am an oil painter also. I love to find blogs like this that give instructions. Karin you have a lot of talent. Thank you very much
Gregg @ Oil Painting and Supplies´s last blog ..M. Graham Walnut Oil Painting Medium 8oz bottle
Nicky on Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 3:19 pm
Your paint the drops of water seem so easy, Thank you very much but I am also interested in knowing if its possible to see how to paint stones submerged in the water.Thanks again.