The Secret to Loose Atmospheric Clouds in Acrylics

the reason your clouds look awkward or unnatural even is because you think of clouds as physical objects and that's okay many painters do but let's look at some ways to fix that right now and have you painting great clouds in no time looking at this photo of some clouds we see both soft and hard edges on the left hand side the edges or transitions are softer and as we move towards the right side of the photo the edges get much harder and more defined let's take a look at it in black and white and this becomes even more clear using a large brush and loose brush strokes i paint a mixture of yellow ochre and prussian blue to create a simplified foreground using a very thin mixture of burnt sienna and water i create a warm based layer in the sky area here i'm using a negative painting technique which means that i paint everything or the whole sky around the cloud in a darker color thereby making sort of an outline of the cloud it can take a bit of practice to paint like this but i find it's very effective notice how i paint around and moving in from the sides i also like to use a paper towel to soften edges and create subtle shifts of color this almost looks like an ocean so i think i'll enhance it and see what happens i want to use a bit of that blue color from the sky and add it to the foreground to create a bit of color harmony in general a blue sky tends to be darkest the darkest shade at the top and gradually it gets lighter and lighter blue towards the horizon and again i'm using some crumbled piece of kitchen towel to soften the colors and the edges to enhance the atmospheric feel i'll spray a little bit of water on the damp paint and let it sit for half a minute or so and then wipe off using a paper towel i want to create a very soft look and clouds now i'm switching painting technique and using a mixture of burnt sienna and titanium white i make the cloud shape larger and i start to mold or build up the shape that i want for my cloud i am going for more of a in my opinion a more pleasing shape than i had before this is just to show you that you can change the shape of your cloud over and over until you are happy don't ever feel that oh we made a mistake and you can't change it you just need to add some more layers i changed my mind and i don't want the ocean instead i will cover it up and make it in to part of the clouds and the sky changing the shape of the hills here and adding some light colors in the distance to give a feeling of mist and an atmospheric feel in theory you could stop the painting now and it would have a soft light and summery feel but i want to push the clouds even further using the edge of a painting knife or you can use the end of a brush handle as well scrape into the paint while it is still wet if you get too many marks or make some marks you don't like simply take some paint and cover them up or you can soften the marks using your fingers i am not using a reference photo because i want to show you how you can change things you are not happy with it's more important that you get a nice feeling of clouds in your painting than copying exactly what's in your reference photo try and keep the brush strokes big and loose so that you have room to change things along the way and if you are interested in more tips to keep your painting loose i want to give you something i have a free guide called five proven ways to loosen up your painting style i'll put a link to that in the description below if that's something you are interested in to create a feeling of depth i add some cool blue towards the horizon line and i also use it to create a bit of definition to the foreground hill looking at the photo again we can see that there is a softer transition between the horizon and the sky so i want to darken the clouds near the horizon to create a softer edge between the ground and the sky areas that certainly helped but i don't feel that it's dramatic enough so i'm going to take it even further with some darker paints i am painting this on a thick watercolor paper but you can use these exact same techniques on canvas as well use a slightly moist paper towel to soften those edges the clouds still need to be a bit darker down here notice how the bottom of the clouds seem to recede into space as i add a darker color down here i feel the cloud looks a bit too symmetrical at this point almost like a pyramid so i want to change the shape on one side of the cloud to make up for that i'm not using a whole lot of paint here especially when using darker paint and again i like to add some lines with the painting knife i feel it gives the impression of distant clouds to enhance the feeling of depth i'll add some lighter and warmer color in the foreground it will help to give the eye also a path to travel into the painting i use my spray bottle and spray a bit of water on the foreground paint while it's still moist and then i'll wipe it off again with the paper towel i like the texture it creates this light streak up here reminds me of a distant lake and i really like that so i will make it a little bit bigger to enhance that idea if i had been painting solely from a reference photo i might not have seen this as an opportunity but rather as something i needed to cover up so i would like to encourage you to use your reference photos by all means but let them guide you use them but stay open to small chance encounters like this one i'm just going to plant a few bushes here a few low bushes here in front my best advice to great atmospheric clouds is to make sure your clouds have a nice balance of soft and hard edges and transitions up here we have very very sharp and clear edges and they get gradually softer as we move down over here the transitions are even more subtle and you see how this gives the cloud a different feel so depending on the type of weather and the type of clouds you want to paint you can employ some of these techniques another thing to keep in mind is that clouds tend to have different sizes and different shapes and they also tend to overlap we very rarely see clouds dotted around on the sky like this it even spacing and even size let's peel off the masking tape and have a look if you want to see another loose landscape painting tutorial i'll put a link to another one at the end of this video i hope this video was helpful and useful to you and i look forward to seeing you in the next one

Channel: The Danish Painter

Views: 99,045

Keywords: semi abstract landscape painting, Cloud painting with acrylics, acrylic abstract landscape painting tutorial, how to paint loose landscapes in acrylics, modern acrylic cloud painting, modern landscape painting acrylics, how to use acrylic like watercolor, acrylic painting like watercolor, how to paint loose clouds in acrylics, advanced painting in acrylics, clouds in acrylic paint, painting clouds using acrylics, professional artist painting tutorials, the danish painter YouTube

Id: abE7IIV9OxA

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021