This is my attempt at explaining how I make water reflections. Tbh, I don’t know what I’m doing.

1. Making reflections comes usually pretty late in my drawing process, if you don’t count the very basic blocking work.

2. First I duplicate the reflected object and flip it upside down. Sometimes I play with a transform tool and make the reflection different proportions (didn’t do that here, which was a mistake). This will be on its own layer.

3. After that, I’ll play with the layer effect (usually multiply/darken + overlay/soft light) and slightly darken the layer and erase some parts.

4. Then I’ll pull out my favorite smudge tools and start smudging the edges. Depending on how strong I think the ripples will be, I’ll sometimes make really long smudges.

5. When I’m happy with the smudge, I’ll make another layer atop of the reflection layer and start throwing brush strokes randomly (I think I should be thinking how the ripples should work, but I usually just throw stuff until it looks agreeable to me.)

6. More layers over the reflection layer, playing with the layer effects.

7. Adding details and thinking about my life choices. Might Add more smudge strokes and merging the layers.

8. Finally, it all comes (somewhat) together when I start the final texturing phase. I might still do some detailing work after this, like add tree leaves somewhere etc.

So that’s how I usually do the reflections when working with this style. With my watercoloring style things work a little bit differently! I’m sure there are easier and better ways to do this, but this workflow works for me.