Whenever I start trying to explain how to paint something, I realize how very complex it is. Clouds are very complex, but so important in painting a landscape. The sky defines the light and mood of a landscape. Albert Bierstadt, the famous landscape painter completed daily cloud studies as part of his training. These were small quick sketches done with pastels.
My next several blogs will be about clouds. I have taught my students some very basic techniques for painting clouds, but I am taking these lessons to a more advanced level. When painting clouds, the artist has to be sensitive to form, color, and perspective. In this small painting, I am showing a stormy sky with a variety of forms, colors, and perspective techniques. I will talk more about form in my next blog and then cover use of color and cloud perspective in later blogs. There are two ways to paint skies: one is a very loose wet-in-wet technique and the other a more controlled rendering of cloud shapes. The painting shown here is the loose wet-in-wet and works great for these stormy skies. But the artist has to work very rapidly and then at a certain point let go of what he or she has painted. Yes, just one more way to add stress into your day!
