CLOUDS and SKIES; Creating Volume and Light:

CLOUDS and SKIES; Creating Volume and Light:

Build up with washes

Find darks and develop light out of the darks

Build volume with lighter/ brighter tones and color in layers

Do not build light (or dark) on edges only, as this will tend to flatten an image. Build light within the area too, some of which comes out to the edge. You will sometimes see light on the edge of a “thing“, perhaps a cloud; this is often caused by particular lighting. Reflective light: When observing light on an object; the eye may “think” there is a light “line” around the edge, only to discover, upon further inspection, that after the light line, there is a darker line again before the “end” of an object (from one‘s perspective). One can sometimes see this on a vase or figure more easily. Try to show this when possible, it adds to the quality of “realism”. After creating the light, one can enhance the image with a subtle darker area, in part, in an uneven manner toward the edge.

Paint has very different qualities than photography and nature. To create your best painting, one can use photography, paintings by others and nature as references and then must ultimately judge the piece by it’s own merits and make choices which best suit the piece one is working on, allowing all references to finally be set aside.

Even if your photo has elements which appear “disconnected“, you can make your painting cohesive by knowing you are not confined to the reference only. Bringing your spirit, intuition and knowledge to the canvas is the ultimate means of expression. Your painting will not look just like your reference. Be proud of it‘s differentia and your unique qualities!

Bold contrasts, light and dark, create drama. Be sure to transition with gradation of tone, even when dealing with high contrast, so areas do not appear to end abruptly.

Keep things uneven. When creating light areas, be sure they are not equal distance and or completely circular, but rather, elongated and closer to the edge in some areas, further in others. This creates an organic, free form natural look.

Keep all elements “connected” somehow, through color, shape and or tone. Build darks and lights with directional intent to keep the eye circulating within the canvas. This sometimes means judging if your eye wants to roam off and if so; how can you lead it back in with subtle tonal changes?

You may like to build texture in some areas, as the piece progresses, to accentuate the effects of volume.

Additional notes:

Change up size of stroke

Change up size of brush

Keep direction consistent but change up size of cloud
So, if you have a two inch cloud with and inch of space before the next one, make the next cloud three inches long with an overlap transition into the next cloud or a one and one half inch space in between.

Highlight your clouds to varying degrees in varying widths and heights.

Be aware of each cloud individually and stand back for the big picture; seeing how they relate.

Keep all things varied for a natural look. Nature does have patterns but we can’t know all elements of wind and light that result in what we see so in most cases; variety is what our eye perceives of as natural. Most clouds do not line up in a neat row (although this does happen on occasion) so random light and size should be your mantra here.

Remember bright will come forward, darksand muted tones recede. So as you build your cloud forward; build light, allowing shades to gradate and recede as the cloud diminishes into the distance. Muted tones also tend to recede and help create distance.

Look, look, look! Studying your resource VERY closely is key. Try to find small nuances. The brain wants to paint what it knows, the eye wants to paint what is. Taking the time to really look closely at your resource pays off! Even if your painting does not look like your resource in the end, you have made variations based on your eye and new knowledge, not old thinking patterns.

All the best and enjoy your happy, cloudy, stormy, dreamy, elusive, powerful, wispy cloud paintings!


Bonny Leibowitz
bonnyfineart@aol.com
www.thebonnystudio.com
214-405-5993