How to Paint Clouds Demo

When I make full-length tutorials like this one, my hope is that you watch it once through to get a feel for my process, and then you watch it again as you try your hand at it.

You’re welcome to come back to it as many times as you want, focusing on different aspects of the painting and honing your watercolor skills little by little.

Watercolor Techniques: Clouds

Enjoy this Post? Like this Pin!

What Supplies Do I Need for this Watercolor Sky Painting?

I am painting on Saunders Waterford Cold Press 140lb paper, and I have my surface tilted to 35 degrees.

I use a variety of brushes, but mainly stick to a large mop brush, a medium round brush and a smaller synthetic brush with a point. If you want more information about brushes, check out this guide about brushes. If you want to purchase some of the brushes I use, visit my Amazon Affiliate Link.

Here are the list of pigments on my palette:

Burnt Sienna

Cadmium Red

Cadmium Yellow

Medium Cerulean

Blue Cobalt Blue

Cobalt Teal Blue

Cobalt Turquoise

Lavender

Neutral Tint

Payne’s Gray

Quinacridone Gold

Raw Sienna

Raw Sienna Light

Raw Umber

Rose Madder Permanent

Ultramarine Blue

Here is my simple drawing I drew before starting my first wash. Feel free to print this off and use it if that is helpful.

First Wash – Summer Sky Painting

For this phase of the painting, I concentrated on the lightest values of the scene and preserving the white of the paper in places I want to do so (like that front part of the building). This phase should be pretty abstract. Think about the colors you want to shine through the subsequent washes, and consider where you want the lightest, brightest focal points of your painting.

I wet down my paper on both sides and paint this as a wet-into-wet wash. This allows colors to mix on the page.

Second Wash – Summer Sky Painting

The second wash is all about finding that large, connected shape and adding the middle value colors. Notice how the lightest values operate under this wash. We want this rich complexity of color and shades.

Third Wash – Summer Sky Painting

The third wash is for the darkest values and the details that really defined our shapes and subjects in the painting.

Watch Video for Full Watercolor Sky Painting Tutorial

I hope that you take the time to watch the full video. It is full of tips and tricks that are much easier to convey via an audio-visual medium. Try your hand at this scene – or a similar water scene you’ve been wanting to paint – and let me know how it goes!

Simple Watercolor Landscape Tutorial – Flint Hills

Painting Light in Watercolor: a Tutorial

Source link