Acrylic Class Project Week 2: Cloud Study

We are making good progress on our cloud study and we should be close to finished with it this next class so I want you all to start looking for something you would like to paint for the rest of the semester and I can help you get started on you own projects.

While some of you may not really be into clouds, there is a lot to learn from doing a study like this. You are learning how to mix wet into wet (wet paint into wet paint) to create subtle blends, wet on dry and dry brush blending when working on a dry surface. These techniques are used in a variety of situations not just for clouds. You can use these techniques on everything from rocks to distant trees to soft backgrounds and everything in between. You are learning how to use your brush, how to use different pressures to get different effects, creating shapes as you blend between different colors and you are learning how to use value – dark against light – to create drama and excitement in your painting. There is a lot more than just clouds being created here, you are learning a lot of valuable lessons that you can use on other projects. Will you make perfect clouds this time out? Probably not, I don’t expect anyone to create their masterpiece in class, but you will learn so the next ones you do, in a project you want to paint, will be better and that is the point of taking classes so you can learn and improve, it is a lifetime challenge and I know you are all up to it.

I can only give you some general instructions again this time because the nature of clouds is very fluid and that is how you need to be when you are painting your clouds. You should all have the darker underpainting for the clouds based in and if you have some of that medium dark gray left over that is great if not you will need to mix some more (ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a tiny touch of purple with white to lighten it). Try to keep the gray in the medium value range because it will be easier to make it lighter if you need to or darker if you need more dark. You will also need to mix up a light color consisting of white (I use gesso) and a very tiny amount of orange, you just want a tint to the white. This tinted white will look softer and less chalky than using just straight white; remember that there are a lot of colors in clouds so we may be adding more colors as we create the shapes in the clouds.

Use a #6 to #10 flat bristle brush and use the side of it. The strokes will be mostly dry brush but there will be some wet into wet and a lot of brush blending, meaning that you will blend the paint on the canvas no on your palette. Remember pressure on your brush will be important: The more pressure you use on your brush them more paint will come off it. The lighter the pressure the less will come off. To get soft edges and soft blends you need to use less pressure.

We are not going for the bright whites just yet, we are still working on the lighter gray areas

of the clouds so pick up a bit of the white color and a bit of the gray at the same time (this is called double loading), starting near the top left sides of the clouds using a scumbling or circular motion with the side of your brush apply the paint creating soft interesting edges and shapes in the clouds.

Please have your reference photo in front of you so you can see where you are going with your paint. I saw a lot of same sized outlines all around the clouds and that is not how the clouds are and you need to see that so you can paint it. The light is coming from the upper left hand side so the left sides of the clouds will be lighter than the right sides. Some parts of the clouds are more in the sun than other parts so the light areas will be bigger than in other areas. Little wisps of lighter clouds may be in front of darker parts of clouds all these things help create interest in your clouds.

Don’t be afraid to pick up touches of other colors to mix in with your gray and white. Touches of red or green, blue or purple in the darker areas and touches of yellow or orange in the lighter areas will bring life to the clouds. It is best if you can see this in real life, so the next time we have some big puffy clouds go out and really look at them and you will see all kinds of color in them from pale greens to lavenders to pinks…Even in the middle of the day those colors are there. If you have polarized sunglasses, that is even better, the more you see what is going on in the world around you the better you will be able to paint it.

Keep looking at your reference photo and do the best you can. We will be finishing up with the highlights and the foreground probably in our next class so try and get your painting up to the same point as where I left off with mine. I will see you all in class.