How does light behave when going through water?

[brokk]

Hi.

I'm studying from the Andrew Loomis book Figure Drawing For All its Worth, I've been doing every single exercise and page from chapter one and now I'm at chapter four, I just finished getting the basic idea on simple ilumination on chapter three.
I know this is way out of my leage, but I'm really curious, how does light behave when going through water? I know different surfaces reflect light in different ways (I dont really "know" how, both in a serious theorical and practical sense, I can only imagine it very vaugely).
The reason I'm asking this is because I'd love to do a lot of underwater paintings, but I'm not really sure how light affects a body under water.

Can anyone please help me out?
I'd really apprieciate it (sorry for my grammar I'm spanish).

[liam.c]

well thining about it ... some would penitrate if at the proper angle .. the rest would bounce around
so you would have a glow with some shards pokeing though .. sorta like a cloud ... look at a national geograpic .. allways have soem nice underwatter stuff
so glow neer the light and if its bright enough and from the right angle .. you would see some rays <just like in the sky<but a little more diffused>

[MadSamoan]

You could try treating it like very thick atmosphere. Like when you paint mountians in the distance, the colors in the distance become more muted, etc.. In this case, it would be even more exaggerated. Think of it kind of like a thing layer of smoke. I remember watching one of those Movie Magic behind-the-scenes special effects episodes that Christopher Reeves use to host and they were showing how some of the underwater scenes in a submarine movie (Crimson Tide, I think) were done by using a thin layer of smoke rather than actually shooting it underwater.

However, if you're getting into inventing from your head the refraction and the reflective qualities of the water's surface when below the surface, your guess is as good as mine. If you just want to be able to capture what you see from reference, that will come down to accurate observation.

[nafa]

Have you tried putting part of a stick into a glass of water? Do it and observe the bending of the stick. Agitate the water and see the change. To see how light affects a body, how about looking at some underwater photographs?
Plenty of them on the web.

['becca]

:teeth: Sorry, couldn't resist, but clear water magnifies what is beneath it if it is not too deep, and distorts like reflections sort of, if it is moving at all. The light reflects and penetrates, both and will cause light patterns, sort of like shadows from tree leaves, only light instead of dark,usually in a very distinct pattern; and in underwater, like diving you lose colors of the spectrum as you go deeper, losing blues first and reds last, just before absence of light. Put a few things in a bath tub and observe, changing the lighting for different effects move the water and watch and sketch. Find some streams,lakes, waterfalls, and a beach on the ocean if you can and try sketching and observing. If you don't dive, there are some diving books with under-water photos in them. Most of them use artificial light, but would show some other effects. Good luck it is a worthy subject to learn to paint well.'becca.

[knowmind]

its definitely not like smoke.........
imagine like a REALLY humid day times 100.....smoke is carbon particles-black
water is h20-blue
mountains in the distance can actually be more saturated than the foreground,because the water in the air turns them blue.....and lighter...

[brokk]

Thanks a lot you guys! This was really informative (and also quite a few steps ahead of me, for now!)

liam.c: yeah I imagined some would penetrate and the rest bounce around, good to know I wasn't just crazy thinking. I think I have some National Geographics lying aroung the house somewhere.

MadSamoan: I had no idea about the use of smoke to mimick the effect of water. Thats a pretty neat sounding trick, I'll keep it in mind.

nafa: no, I haven't tried that, but it sounds like a good idea! thanks.

'becca: the gradual loss of color was something else I wasnt aware of, many thanks. I did notice the light paterns in photos but I had no idea how to recreate or represent them without reference. I really need to start building up a proper photo album, and also more life sketching. Thanks again.

knowmind: ultra humid day, cool. Like a very heavy fog.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer guys, you've been more than helpful. Cheers.

[jfrancis]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/wonderquest/2001-03-07-deep-water-colors.htm