Anatomy of Painting Clouds
Nicole Palmer
Ok, quick question……how many colors do you think it took to paint the clouds in Manitou Passage?
If you guessed 11, then you are correct!
To get impressive cloud paintings, you need to begin by applying the dark values of the shadows first. I use Severs Blue and Cad Red light, mixed with Fastmat Titanium White. I use three whites in my clouds and the Fastmat designation lets me know that this is a fast-drying white. The purpose of this paint is that when I get to the grasses in the dunes 45 minutes later, the sky will be 90% dry and I can safely paint into it.
Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson make up my darker puddle of purple. This is always on my pallet in the upper right-hand corner, as I use this in lieu of black because it has more life to it. These two purples make up my shadows in the clouds, which get laid in at the very beginning.
Then I mix two puddles to pull from; one which is mixed with Portland Grey Medium and a bit of Portland Grey Warm. The third puddle is Titanium White with just a touch of Kings Blue. I build 98% of the clouds from these three puddles. The blue sky around the clouds is white and a larger percentage of Kings Blue.
At the very end I use Warm White for the highlights of the clouds, and in this instance, it is mixed it with a touch of Cad Orange. On the color spectrum, our brains see orange as a very ‘warm’ color. These are my accent colors
Let me know if you enjoyed this tutorial.
Cheers!
