Use photos to decide the cloud shapes you plan to paint.
Faux painting a ceiling is a little challenging, mostly because the ceiling is over your head -- and whether you use rollers, a brush or sponges, your arms still get tired. The reward for your hard work can be a bedroom ceiling that looks like someone took the roof off the house to reveal the sky on a bright and sunny day. Such a ceiling is likely to lift the spirits on glum days. To create a good sky takes some work but when you finish, your child will love it.
Instructions
1. Collect a group of photos of the type of clouds you want to paint. This is very helpful since most people never closely look at clouds. Clouds have a direction, which means they have a leading edge and a trailing edge. Clouds look darker underneath and lighter on top. Some streak. Some are fluffy. Tape your cloud photos to a large piece of cardboard and tape that to your wall so you have easy reference once you start.
2. Remove everything from the room. Place plastic sheeting on the floor and tape over anything you can't remove. Use tape and paper along the corner from the ceiling to the top of the walls to protect the walls from paint drops and help create a straight edge. Bring in a tall ladder. If you removed the window coverings, look out the window to see what direction the clouds are moving in relation to the room. Note this direction and keep it in mind for when you begin to paint clouds.
3. Set up a folding table (with plastic sheeting over it since you will be mixing paints). Select a dark shade in a color of blue you like. Pour the blue into an empty quart can until the can is about half full. Pour the same amount into a second can. Use a disposable plastic cup to scoop up a cup of white paint; add that to the second can. Mix it well with a stir stick.
4. Paint the ceiling so that it is darker toward the edges and lighter toward the middle of the ceiling. Paint with the darkest blue starting in a corner. Use a 3-inch brush. Brush away about 18 inches from the corner and 6- to 8-inches from the wall. While the dark blue is still wet, pick up the second can and paint the lighter color in another 18 inches or so. When you have painted what you can easily reach from the ladder in that position, take your brush and blend the two colors so that it is hard to see where one starts and the other stops. Repeat this around the entire room.
5. Mix two more quart cans with the dark blue base adding more white to each mixture. Repeat your painting technique of painting from dark to light inside the area you already painted. When you reach the center of the ceiling, work with two colors and blend them well. This will provide a backdrop for the clouds.
6. Mix white paint with glaze at a ratio of three parts glaze to one part paint. Mix gray paint with glaze using the same ratio. Pour gray/glaze paint into one half of a roller tray and white/glaze paint into the other. Recall the direction of clouds you noted earlier. Look at your reference clouds to see how the front edge looks.
7. Moisten the sea sponge with water and squeeze it dry. Dip it into the gray paint and squeeze it until it has paint but isn't drippy. Press the sponge against the ceiling and sponge out the shape of your cloud. You want the cloud to be somewhat random with darker and lighter areas, so move your sponge around and let some of the sky shine through. Pick up some white paint on the same sponge and highlight the cloud. It doesn't matter where you start on the ceiling. Move around and paint big and small clouds. If you don't like how one looks, cover it with your sky color mixtures and try again.
8. Go up and down the ladder to check your progress. Add highlights with unglazed white paint. Add shadows with unglazed gray paint. There will be a point where you understand how the clouds in your room should look. They should be puffy here, and streaky there and brighter here and darker there. After you are reasonably satisfied, it's time to finish.
9. Pick up the can of pink spray paint. Spray the pink on some plastic sheeting to get a feel for how big the spray pattern is. Then, pick a spot and while standing back from the ceiling (at least 2 to 3 feet), spray some pink. It will look as if bits of sunlight are splattered about. Add a few other bits of pink around the ceiling. Use white spray paint to soften the edges of some of the clouds. The more color layers you apply, the more brilliant your sky and clouds will look.
