Painting Watercolour Clouds

Shows how to paint watercolor clouds in a few simple steps, covering the most common problems and how to avoid them.

Spray Artist 1

I love science fiction art. Here is one of my favourites.

Watercolour Painting "Porlock Weir" Part 3

A few dabs here and there help to represent the boats and buildings in the middleground.

The water is put in as a reflection of the sky colours, remembering to keep the reflections exactly opposite.

A mix of Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber completes the foreground with a simple sweep of the hake brush.

I put the figure against the lightest part of the near building for maximum counterchange.

A few grasses done with the rigger and the painting is complete.

Watercolour Painting "Porlock Weir" Part 2

To create more recession in the hills from right to left I used a dry brush to remove some of the paint on the left and make them lighter.

The trees were put in just before the hills were dry using a mix of Lemon Yellow and Payne's Gray.

I put in the sandy area around the boats using a mixture of Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber leaving plenty of white paper for highlights and contrasts.

Watercolour Painting "Porlock Weir" Part 1

I started with a flat Raw Sienna wash to lubricate the sky area.

I then put in some Ultramarine Blue, painting around the clouds.

The darker clouds were quickly put in with a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Payne's Gray.

Before the sky had completely dried I started putting in the distant hill using the sky colours.

Watercolour Painting "Lake District" Part 3

I painted the two smaller trees on the left hand side using the no3 rigger and a really dark mix of Burnt Umber and Payne's Gray.

For the leaves, firstly I dried the hake brush, splitting all the hairs so they were frayed out all over the place.

Then, using the same dark mix I used for the trunk and branches, dipped just the tip of the brush in the paint and then lightly painted in the leaves.

Afterwards I strengthened the tree trunks - don't paint your trees like lolly pop sticks!

Watercolour Painting "Lake District" Part 2

The foreground trees are made up of various mixes of the sky colours.

Amongst the trees I scratched out one or two trunks and branches with my little finger nail, trying not to overdo it.

I made a quick foreground sweep with Raw Sienna and Lemon Yellow to reflect some of the light in the sky.

The shadows are the same colours as the clouds.