Painting clouds entails more than just putting white swirls on a blue background. Clouds are made of many different shades and hues. Muting your colors is the trick to painting realistic clouds; using vivid solid colors does not depict a naturally appearing cloud. Washing paint onto a surface with a sponge allows the paint to blend; this replicates what you see in the colors of nature.
Preparing the Canvas
Start your painting with a background of grays and blues muted together. Do not use high gloss paint; use a satin or eggshell finish when blending colors. Before painting a cloud on a wall or ceiling, it's a good idea to practice on a piece of discarded plywood, sheet rock or any scrap piece that acts like a large canvas.
A technique for doing this is using water to dilute the paint. Use a large brush and paint the background with different shades of blues and grays. You can lightly wash the paint colors together with a damp cloth once you have applied a few brush strokes of each to the wall or ceiling. Paint the entire area that you will be using to paint the clouds. Let it dry for 24 hours before starting the next step.
Painting
Use a regular kitchen sink sponge for the majority of the painting. You want no sharp or exact edges in clouds. Dampen a sponge. Dip it in the gray paint and then in water. Lightly wipe it off on a rag or paper towel. Slowly swirl the paint in the area you want the cloud to be. Less paint and more water is used for this technique.
Use a pattern that resembles the shape of a three leafed clover, but very loosely done. Swirl one up, one down and then one up when making a cloud. Make the swirls different sizes. After every few swirls, step back and look at your work. It is going to look different from far away.
Continue doing the swirl application for the cloud, but each time, go a little lighter by adding more white to the gray. All the swirls should be transparent so the colors underneath show through. If it is looking too dark, use white on the sponge with water and wash it thorough.
Finishing Details
Walk away and let the paint dry once you have finished with the final white layer. Once the paint is dry, go back and pick a point that the sun would be shining its rays. Use white paint to highlight the area of the clouds with pure white wisps made with a paint brush.This will give the illusion that the sun is hitting the clouds in that area. Do not overdo it; highlight a few spots. In the spots that the clouds should be shaded, do the same with darker gray.
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