Painting Water Drops in 6 Easy Steps

World renowned airbrush artist at Airbrush Asylum gives a tutorial on painting water drops.

Step by Step to Painting water Drops

Things You’ll Need

  • Panel
  • Urethane paint in an airbrush, paint gun or spray paint can
  • Water in spray bottle, pump sprayer or your paint gun

Spray your base coat.

orange basecoat for water drops

Using a water bottle, pump sprayer, paint gun or even flicking your fingers to put water drops onto the panel. *The bigger the drops the longer they will take to evaporate*

water drops on an orange panel

Set the gun to about 10-15psi, mist your black from the bottom of the droplets. This gives the shadow of the water drops.

misting black over water drops

Using white, mist from the topside of the droplets. This will give the highlights of the ‘light hitting the water drops’

misting white over water drops

Allow all the water to evaporate. Do not disturb the panel or blow too much air across the panel as this will cause the water to move & destroy your work.

painted water drops

Once the water has dried, spray your clear (or intercoat clear) on top to seal in the water drop effect.

clear coated painted water drops
painting water drops on a harley gas tank

IG user @thievescustompaint used this tutorial to paint water drops on this Harley-Davidson gas tank.

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