Painting Skies
Painting Skies
I love painting skies in watercolour. Using wet-on-wet technique it is so easy to get various clouds formations. A simple sky is just a gradient blue and then swipe some colour off with a brush or tissue for some simple clouds. Sunsets can also be so beautiful in watercolour. There are some challenges though and I have learnt some tips along the way.
Tips for Painting Skies
Last year I took an online course through Artefacto by Andy Evansen. One module was on skies. He taught to paint the lights first. He also taught to really look at the clouds and all the colours in them. I’ve seen yellow, pinks, oranges and purples besides the white and greys.
The sky is always darker at top and light near the horizon. This you can observe just by going outside and looking. Also, in terms of perspective, clouds are generally smaller and thinner closer to the horizon and larger and billowier closer to the top of the page.
There is always a challenge in painting sunsets and sunrises. There is often yellows next to blues. In painting these we can easily get greens. A hint I learned from Matthew White is to add some pink to either the blue sky paint, or to the yellows or alone as a buffer between the two. I have been doing this and it is an amazing way to avoid green skies.
December Art Challenge
The Ashcroft Art Club had a challenge of “skies” for the month of December. I couldn’t decide on just one painting so I did four separate ones on a sheet of 11 x 15″ watercolour paper. I was pleased with the results.
I so very much enjoyed it that it got me thinking. We have such beautiful skies were I live. Once it gets a little warmer out I am thinking of filling a sketchbook just with skies. I could go out at various times of the day and do either plein aire of from photos. It would be a good exercise. I wouldn’t need to worry about composition at all – just paint the sky. I’m excited about it already!
