How do you make your hull look wet?

[GazzaS]

I have seen a million tutorials on water bases...   ok...   maybe I exaggerate.  But they never seem to say how they make the parts of the ship that have been made wet by wave action, but aren't currently under water look wet.  I know it takes more than a bit of clear gloss.

 

Does anybody know of a tutorial on this?

 

[Bob Cleek]

I'm watching this thread. I can't imagine using anything other than clear gloss, if that. I'd love to see photos of what folks have done to portray "wet." At scale viewing distances, the difference between wet and dry isn't particularly noticeable in my experience. I've spent a lot of time on the water in small craft sailing in relatively close proximity to ships sailing in the shipping lanes on San Francisco Bay and I can't ever remember noticing that some of the hull was particularly shiny because it was wet at the bows or wherever in contrast to higher up on the topsides. 

[wefalck]

The 'wet' look comes about because a film of water fills any surface-roughness and sort of directs the incoming light deeper into this roughness, much like an optical fibre. As a consequence, less light is reflected from a wet surface than from a dry surface and it appears darker. Glossy surfaces don't look 'wet' unless there are water drops on them.

 

You can recreate this effect by applying a coat of clear varnish over the areas that you want to look wet. Depending on the situation, glossy varnish is not necessarily the best. Some satin varnish might be better. You don't want to look the area as rubbed with some lardon. The effect also depends on how matt or satin the surface has been to begin with. The glossier the surface is at the beginning, the less appreciable the 'wetness' will be (see comment above).

 

On painted surfaces I have started with satin varnish, perhaps mixed in some gloss varnish at places to create variation and sometimes added acrylic gel to show some water running off. Move the ship around to watch the effect from different angles.

 

[rwiederrich]

I tend to use a clear varnish for the larger portions of water to enhance the reflectivity.....and a mat finish for the white water spray....which tends to redirect and disperse the light coming off of it because of the multi surfaceness of *Ocean spray*.

 My 2 cents.

 

Rob

[MariusMi]

I would also experiment some paints on separate wood parts to see if this could bring something. Having some colour gradients could accentuate the shift from wet to dry. I'm not talking here from experience, just some ideas.

 

I see 2 cases:

- painted hull: use a darker tone of the colour for the wet area and you might even want some lighter tints on parts of the dry zones. I would also dry brush some light greys on the dry areas to mimic sun decoloration and dried salt. Then experiment with varnishes (gloss, matt).

- bare wood hull: paint doesn't really apply here. So probably only option will be the varnishes. Acrylic gels to mimic splashes but I wouldn't exagerate with them: due to the scale the thickness of the layer will probably not be realistic to render the wet effect. A light dry brush of greys on the dry areas would not hurt.

 

Marius