Sample extract from

“Paint Your First Watercolor
 This Coming Weekend”

6. How to Paint Skies

There’s an old saying, if you can’t paint skies, you can’t paint landscapes, and it’s true because skies can take up anywhere between 40 and 80 percent of a landscape. But skies are a joy to paint; you have at your disposal so many exciting options for execution.

Wet-On-Wet

Cumulous skies

Atmospheric skies

Cloudless skies

Climatic skies

Daytime

Nighttime

Abstract

Let’s look at these options in practice…

In each instance I will disclose the color combinations I used and how I executed individual effects.

Wet-On-Wet Technique

You can create superb skies using the wet-on-wet technique by wetting the paper first with clean water applied with a sponge or brush; then painting your sky colors and allowing them to run together. Experiment with this technique frequently and you will learn to exercise control. The overall effect should be planned but it is the unpredictable wanderings of the paint that add unexpected interest and beauty.

Wait until each wash in turn is drying before applying the next

and you will have total control over the paint..

Composition and Execution

1st wash: clean water all over

2^nd wash: Payne’s Grey medium strength

3^rd wash: Alizarin medium strength

4^th wash: Payne’s Grey light strength

I waited until each wash was half way dry before applying the next and because the effect I had planned was to have the dusky cloud formations falling downwards onto the mountains, I tilted my drawing board on each wash to allow the colors to run accordingly

Cumulous skies

Creating cumulous skies can prove tricky for the beginner but with deft light strokes of the brush, watering down the paint here and there, and using your sponge or the edge of a tissue to produce soft highlights, you will soon get the hang of it.

Composition and Execution

All over Raw Sienna wash to begin

Subtle light applications of Payne’s Grey and Cerulean Blue

I used liberal amounts of clean water and a sponge to create the highlights

Plan in advance what you want to achieve with cumulous skies

-  then just go ahead and do it!