Working from a photgraph is the easiest way to start out.
The sky is an important part of any outdoor scene, even if the main interest of the picture is something completely different, such as a house. No matter how well painted the main feature of the picture is, if the sky is a forgotten blue patch, it will ruin the whole painting. Similarly, it is not that common to see a completely cloud-free sky, and there is little point in having a beautifully painted sky with a few white splodges painted on top. Painting clouds is a fairly simple technique that can add quality to the finished painting.
Instructions
1. Experiment with oils and acrylics, to decide which you prefer.
Select your materials. Oil paints take a long time to dry, so they are good for an extended project which may take several days. They can also be mixed with a little turpentine to bring them back to life when they have started to dry. Acrylic paints are more suited to much shorter projects as they dry more quickly than oils. However, acrylics are easier to clean off brushes than oils. When using oils, it is important the brushes are cleaned thoroughly after each use, using a special brush-cleaning solution. If the brush is left in the solution, it will lose its shape. Acrylics can be cleaned off the brushes with soap and water.
2. Clouds are never just completely white.
Paint the sky onto the canvas, beginning with a base color of blue. Start at the top of the canvas, moving the brush in horizontal strokes. As you move down, the base color needs to lighten towards the center of the canvas. Experiment with mixing colors until you have a very grayish blue. This time, start at the bottom of the canvass and lighten the color as you move up towards the center. This is the sky base for your clouds, and the gray adds a slightly cloudy sky to work on.
3. Note how the clouds feather out into the blue sky.
Create clouds by applying a base coat of white around the top area of the canvas. Move the brush from one side to the other, so there is a sharp edge on one side, feathering out and vanishing into the blue sky on the other side, as the brush runs out of paint.
4. Overlap your clouds, don't give each cloud its own little space.
Continue until you have a good build up of clouds across the sky. Overlap the clouds, so that the bright, sharp edge of one set of clouds overlap the feathered, softer edges of the previous clouds.
5. Use the same technique but different colors to create a stormy sky.
Mix a very light gray color and apply it over the base coat of the clouds, leaving the white tops and working down to the bottom of each cloud.
6. Adding color to the bottom of the clouds gives a 3-D effect.
Mix a small amount of yellow into the light gray to create a warm, sunny glow. Start at the bottom of each cloud and move towards the center, getting lighter as you go.
