Draw an hourglass in Aquarell: align flow, remaining sand and the lower pile

An hourglass can easily become two sand-filled triangles with no readable route between them. This study uses an upright hourglass viewed slightly from the side, at a moment when sand remains above and a small pile has formed below. We do not calculate flow rate or minutes remaining, or assume Aquarell has particle simulation. The task is to make the hand-drawn route, frame and overlaps agree. Even with the glass highlights removed, the finished image should show sand moving downward.

Fix gravity and the glass silhouette first

Create an approximately 1400×1800 px portrait canvas with a pale blue-grey background, then draw a vertical centreline. Join the upper and lower glass chambers along it, narrowing their contours toward a shared throat without offsetting the opening. Give the upper and lower wooden plates shallow ellipses facing the same way, and locate the side posts with thin lines. Separate background, structural sketch, sand, glass edges and frame into layers, then lower the sketch opacity. Add no individual grains yet. Reduce the view to check that the object stands upright; if its base tilts while the stream remains vertical, decide first whether to correct the frame or deliberately adopt a different tilted composition.

Make the throat a real passage

Hide the frame and inspect the junction alone. The inner walls must leave a narrow, continuous passage for the stream, rather than sealing the waist with a horizontal line. A short darker edge at the bottom of the upper chamber may describe the glass turning, but must not cross the whole outlet. Trace from the upper sand surface into the lower chamber with a sketch stroke; the route should not jump through solid material. If the chambers resemble two inverted cups, erase the sealing line and reconnect their side walls; do not conceal the structural error with a brighter stream. A legible small opening matters more than describing every part of the glass thickness.

Shape the remaining sand around its outlet

Paint the remaining upper sand in muted ochre, bringing its side boundaries inward with the glass walls and keeping it connected above the throat. Its top may be nearly level with a slight central depression. Choose this one simple state rather than combining slopes, a vortex and several funnels. Darken the side against the glass slightly with brown while keeping the lit side part of the same mass. If the surface looks like an isolated floating ellipse, connect it with solid sand below toward the outlet. If sand crosses outside the glass, correct its boundary first. Do not lower the opacity so far that the solid pile reveals every rear post like water.

Connect both ends of the falling stream

Run the stream downward from the centre of the throat, much narrower than the chamber, to near the top of the lower pile. Begin with a continuous fine yellow-brown line, then break only a few small parts to soften its mechanical appearance. Do not make the entire stream a thick rope or leave an unexplained gap below the outlet. It may land slightly off the lower chamber centre, but that landing point must explain the highest part of the pile. Temporarily hide the glass reflections and check that the route remains traceable from the remaining sand to the pile top. If a bright edge interrupts it, move the reflection or reduce its opacity; do not attribute the break to automatic particle rendering.

Give the lower pile a supporting base

Lay a small sand layer along the curved lower interior first, then slope outward from the landing point to form a pile with width. Keep its peak below the throat rather than blocking it, and do not place the peak beside the stream. Use a slightly darker colour to distinguish the rear and front slopes, and curve the front edge with the chamber so it does not resemble a flat triangle pasted onto the glass. We require a plausible shared state, not an exact volume balance obtained by adding two visible areas; differing depths affect appearance. If the lower pile floats like a cap, check that it actually touches the bottom rather than adding more grains to its peak.

Keep glass cues away from important connections

Use short, interrupted cool-grey edges at the sides, with one or two narrow highlights toward the upper left, allowing background colour through the empty chambers. Glass edges need not be equally bright everywhere, and a white lump at the waist must not conceal the outlet. Compare three regions: empty glass should be closest to the background, sand should retain a stable colour, and the frame should appear more solid. If all three look equally transparent, reduce reflections inside the sand and strengthen the continuous colour of the wooden plates. These are hand-painted glass cues, not computed refraction; in particular, do not arbitrarily displace rear posts into positions that contradict their connections.

Keep the frame overlaps traceable

Restore the side posts, placing the far ones behind the glass and near ones in front, each connecting both plates. Leave the area around the stream fairly open. If a post conceals the full stream, adjust its position in the composition rather than making wooden material transparent. Add only a little grain running lengthwise along the posts. Light both plates from the upper left and place a short contact shadow under the base. Hide the glass to check that the frame stands independently, then hide the frame to inspect the complete chamber silhouette. These separate checks reveal connection and contour errors; do not skip them because the combined image looks busy.

Leave readable empty space around the stream

Keep narrow background-visible areas on both sides of the lower stream instead of letting the pile slopes immediately crowd the glass walls. Temporarily reduce the image and inspect whether the two sand masses remain clearly connected. If the stream touches the right inner wall, move it toward the centre or slightly reduce pile width instead of making the stream increasingly dark. Compare versions with and without reflections; the empty chamber should retain enough value separation in both. This negative-space check reveals crowding that enlarged editing can hide: lines may separate at high zoom yet merge at sharing size.

Verify the state against another moment

In a separate copy, change only the sand amounts: reduce the upper remainder and enlarge the lower pile while retaining the glass, frame and lighting. The second version needs no seconds label and must not claim accurate correspondence to a real timer; the comparison concerns depicted states. At normal size, identify which version is nearer completion while keeping a continuous sand route in both. Export a PNG and check that reduction has not sealed the throat or merged the stream into a glass highlight. Keep the editable original and turn one observed problem into the next practice target, such as correcting bottom support, rather than vaguely asking for greater realism.

Related tutorials and sources

Paint a glass bottle in Aquarell: suggest transparency with background and edges; Paint a thread of honey in Aquarell: keep viscous liquid connected.

Sources checked on 5 November 2026: the official Aquarell App Store listing and Apple Lookup show version 1.0.7, requiring iOS / iPadOS 15.0 or later. The drawing uses the publicly described brush, colour, layer and saving capabilities manually. Sizes, shapes and colours are practice suggestions; confirm controls against the installed version. Keep the native artwork for further editing and use PNG for previews. This batch does not claim step-by-step device testing.