Who doesn’t like painting soft clouds out of white paint? Moreover, the beauty of the blue sky is unmatched. However, many of you are just mere beginners at painting. Painting can sometimes be a tough job, especially when you have to paint the ceilings of your house. Having said that, you can also paint clouds on a ceiling. Hence, in this blog, we have developed a super easy tutorial on how to paint clouds. Now, you can also bring your inner painting artist alive.
How to Paint Clouds
Learning how to paint clouds can be like beginning to paint the wind: it’s fleeting, big, and always changing. The canvas turns into a playground where the sky’s drama plays out, with each stroke a dance of light and shade. Different colored and shaped clouds offer both a task and an opportunity to artists of all levels. This guide will help you find your way through the huge space above, whether using brushes wet with acrylics, oils, or watercolors. From the calm blues of a calm day to the dramatic mix of stormy skies, we’ll take you through the process step by step, making cloud painting less mysterious. Let’s paint the sky together. Get your paints out and dip them in the pots of white and blue paint.
Tips Before Painting Clouds
Before drawing clouds, you need to understand a few basic rules that will help you take your work from average to outstanding. Before you start, here are three important things to think about:
Find the Light Source
Figure out where the light in the scene is coming from. This will determine which parts of the clouds look brightest and darkest. Figuring out the light source is important for making realistic cloud shapes, whether it’s the sun above, behind, below, or a mix of the three.
Keep the edges soft
Clouds are ethereal and always changing, so their edges aren’t clear. It is very important to soften the edges, especially when using acrylics, which can make it hard to get smooth changes. Allow the flow of clouds to inspire you by keeping the edges of your picture soft and blended.
Mix palette colors
Prepare your palette by combining mixed colors for highlights, half-tones, and shadows. This ensures that the colors stay the same and are easy to find while painting, especially when drawing big skies. Having enough pre-mixed paint helps keep the colors in balance and the edges smooth, which makes your cloud picture look better overall.
By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to painting the fleeting beauty of clouds, filling the gap between what you see and what you paint. Now that you know these things, let’s start our journey to paint the sky’s constantly changing canvas.
How to Paint Clouds with Acrylics
You can do many different things when drawing clouds with acrylics because this paint is so flexible. Acrylic paints have just the right thickness and clarity, so artists can try new things and make changes. If you want to paint the airy beauty of clouds, acrylics are a great choice, no matter how experienced or new you are to painting. Acrylic painting lets you make beautiful cloud formations with a lot of depth and volume because they can be layered and blended smoothly. For more reference, you can also take a look at Pinterest cloud painting ideas.
Get the paper Ready.
Use gesso to cover the paper. Pick out different shades of acrylic paint.
Base Layer
Cover the paper with Cobalt Blue. When you mix Titanium White with water, you get a thin wash that you can use to draw in cloud shapes.
Clouds Formation
To make cloud groups, use white paint that has been thinned slightly and change the opacity to give the painting depth.
Direction of Light
Think about the direction of the light and use a small brush to add highlights. For closer clouds, put thicker paint on top of the thinner paint.
Make Contrast
Use a darker shade to add shadows under the clouds, giving the picture more volume and depth.
Finishing Touches
Look over forms, highlights, and shadows and improve them. Let it dry before putting it on show or varnishing it.
With these easy steps, you can use acrylics on paper to show how beautiful clouds are.
A Step-by-Step Cloud Painting Tutorial
Materials Used
- Surface for Painting or Acrylic Paint
- 3/4 Wash water brush for the gradient background
- 12 Bright Colors: Titanium White, Cerulean Blue
Step 1: Get your workspace ready to Paint clouds
Place your painting or fabric surface in a room with good lighting and airflow.
Get everything together and make sure the brushes are dry and clean.
Step 2: Make the sky background.
Dip the 3/4 Wash brush into the Cerulean Blue acrylic paint.
Start at the top of your board and paint down in broad strokes, adding more water to the paint as you get closer to the bottom.
You want the blue to fade into a lighter shade as it approaches the horizon.
Step 3: Draw the clouds.
Once the background is dry, use a pencil to draw your clouds roughly.
Keep the shapes easy and focus on making fluffy cumulus clouds.
Step 4: Paint the bottom shell
Put Titanium White acrylic paint on your 12 Bright brush.
Start filling in the cloud forms, covering all of the sketched lines.
Use light tapping motions to apply the paint to get a textured look.
Step 5: Give it depth
Add highlights to the tops of the clouds with Titanium White paint that has been slightly watered down.
Adding texture and depth can be done by pressing or stippling.
Leave some of the base layer exposed to add contrast and make it look like the way cloud densities naturally change.
Step 6: Polish and add details
Use a clean, dry brush to blend and smooth the edges if you need to.
To make the clouds look more three-dimensional, add more colors and shadows.
Watch the light’s direction to ensure your highlights and shadows look the same.
Step 7: Fill in the blanks
Take a step back and look at your work again. If necessary, make any last changes to balance the composition.
Let the painting dry completely before putting it on display or varnishing it to protect the surface.
You can use acrylic paints; this is an easy method to make beautiful, puffy cumulus clouds against a calm blue sky. Try using different brush strokes and layering methods to get the texture and realism you want in your cloud forms.
Now following the same method, you can learn how to paint clouds in water color, and you can learn how to paint clouds in oil, using oil paints. Moreover, you can also make cloud shapes with any kind of paint.
Final Thoughts on How to Paint Clouds
In the colorful world of painting, getting good at painting clouds is a journey that artists of all kinds are drawn to. Painting clouds is as unique and amazing as the sky, which always changes. You can use brushes wet with acrylics, oils, or watercolors. Understanding how light, shade, and form work together is important for capturing beauty, from a calm blue sky with puffy cumulus clouds to the dramatic dance of storm clouds. With each brush stroke, the whispers of white paint against the deep blue backgrounds take us on a journey through the skies.
In conclusion, the blog teaches you how to use cloud shapes and textures through step-by-step tips and tutorials, turning blank canvases into sky-high portals. Therefore, whether you want to learn how to paint clouds on the walls or ceilings with celestial wonders or add a touch of the stars to your art, remember that learning to paint clouds reminds us how creative we are. Here, it is all about learning how to paint clouds easily.