How to Paint a Cloud above Clouds in Acrylic

Clouds are very beautiful to me.  I really enjoy looking at them espeically during twilight or earily evening.  They then to take on a more remarkable beauty of colors.  For example, lavender, pink, orange, yellow just to name a few.  In this art blog I want to discuss my approach at painting a clouds above clouds. 

 
The first step is to do a thumbnail drawing of what you plan on painting.  After a very small thumbnail is completed with its over all values of at least 4 then it is time to move forward to doing an underpainting from the thumbnail drawing. 

Here as you can see from the photo above is the underpainting of a cloud.  An underpainting is done in a monochromatic color scheme like the one above in the photo.  For this underpainting I used yellow ochre to place down my composition and values.  I also used a #2 bright brush to apply the paint.

Next I added color to the underpainting.  For the darkest values of color I mixed in phthalocyanine blue, permanent red and a little amount of gray.  For the middle value tone of color I mixed in medium yellow, yellow ochre and orange.  Now for the highest value for the clouds I mixed medium yellow, titanium white and a very small amount of yellow ochre. 

I used the same brush from my underpainting a #2 bright brush which has short bristles unlike a flat brush which has longer bristles.  I mixed in two values of blue for the sky to give it a more atmospheric depth of illusion.  For this final mix, I used for the darker value of blue titanium white with a very small amount of sky blue. 

Finally,  I mixed in for the lightest value of sky with titanium white, a small amount of sky blue and a trace of yellow ochre.  Like orange and red to name a few colors they are very saturated and can easily dominate or take over the color value and intesity.  The technique I used is that I used the tip and side of the bright brush to paint in my clouds.  Last for painting in the sky I used a #8 filbert brush. 

I hope this process post on painting a cloud above clouds in acrylic has been helpful and inspiring.  If you are pleased with this post feel free to comment below and perhaps share with me your approach or your personally feelings about this post.  Thank you very much.










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Landscape Painting of Red Barn and Storm Clouds

Approaching Storm

"Approaching Storm" is a painting that I'am pleased to share.  This painting depicts my intrest in storms and barns.  I really like storms and barns.  Partically, old run down barns.  However this painting shows a red barn in good condition. This is a painting I finished this past weekend. It took me a week to complete it.  Althought about 5hrs went into it.  "Approaching Storm" was done on an 18x24 inch canvas with acrylic paint.  I painted this from imagination something I really don't do. I usually go by a image. I had a lot of fun like most of my art work.  This painting is the only one I have this at this size.  I do plan on painting more at this size and larger.  I wanted to share with you my process in creating this peice. 

Sky and Clouds

I first drew in the barn mountains and tree.  This created my blueprint for what and where I need to paint. I started out with a flat brush with blue acrylic paint to create the sky.  I preped canvas with water by spraying water on it with a fine mist.  I applied the paint with a large 1 1/2 flat brush and went in a horizontal motion left to right to smoothly coat the canvas.  Next I mixed some blue, black, and white to create the clouds. I used a filbert brush to paint the tones and values of the clouds.

Base of the Cloud

Next I mixed more of the blue black and white to apply and blend in the darkness of the base of the cloud.  I still used a filbert brush to apply the paint mixture.  At this point you can see the contour of the horizon line of the mountains and the barn. 

Underpainting of Landscape

Well here I am. Next I used brown acrylic paint with a light wash to create the underpainting.  At this stage and with most underpaintings I just wanted to block in the dark tones and mid tones.  Now at this stage you can see the mountains the barn and the paths layed out.  Whenever I do an underpainting I alway use most water into my brown paint.  This is how it creates a very light tone. Usually I allow this to be the highlight tone in other paintings.

Adding Hue and Details to Landscape

Finally this is the last process picture showing most has been painted except barn being painted.

Whenever you do a landscape paint you always paint sky background to the fore ground.  I laid down the tones of color for the distant mountain.  The atmosphere away form the sun has a cool tint to it when the sun is out of object from a great distance.  This gives your painting depth (the illusion of distance) on a flat 2 dimensional surface.  I used a flat brush to paint the mountains. The furtherest mountain I used more blue and white in my mixture of green.  The mountains more upclose I used more green and this created a tonal contrast of the 2 mountains. Next I used my filbert brush to apply yellow paint to give the illusion of yellow flowers.  Next I used the same filbert brush and apply brown paint and darkened the paths in the meadow. Next I used a fan brush to paint in the peaks of grass.  I only applied green paint on the tip of the fan brush.  Next I used a small liner brush and created the trunk and branches of the tree.  Finally, I used my fan brush once again to apply different shades of green to my tree to create leaves. Note whenever you paint leave make sure you have a sense of light direction.  If your light is coming from the right then let your leaves be the brightest on the same side of the light source and vice versa.  I hope you like my painting "Approaching Storm". Please feel free to like, share, or comment on this blog. Thank you.