In preparation for my Open Studio tomorrow (it’s in our front yard tomorrow – I’ll give more details at the end of this post). I painted many teeny tiny watercolor seascapes.
Painting Clouds in Watercolor – Tips, and Resources
If you’ve tried to paint clouds in watercolor, you know one of many tricks is to preserve the white of your watercolor paper.
Have you tried to paint skies around your white clouds, or shade in the cloud underbellies?
Have you painted clouds wet into wet with bold colors?
How about filling your entire paper with a field of blue sky, and then using crumpled tissue to blot clouds out while the pigment is still wet?
Preserving the White of Your Watercolor Paper
The white of your paper represents the clouds, so your brush and hand may have to exercise restraint to leave areas clean and clear.
We also have to avoid hard edges, since the cloud boundaries dissipate in layers of soft, feathery transparencies (see below).
I think this is the biggest challenge in white cloud painting with watercolor, and that’s why I’ve harvested some great photo examples and video tutorials on painting clouds in watercolor in this post.
Cloud Painting in Watercolor
Painters see everything in paint, color and values. But when painting white or bright reflections in watercolor, the painter has to stack strategies that will preserve the white of the watercolor paper. Additionally, we want our clouds to look natural, and not like a cut-outs from the pigments around them.
Using masking film or frisket will preserve the white of your paper, but very often, that leaves a hard edge, which doesn’t read like a puffy, gossamer cloud, right?
No wonder watercolor painters are perplexed about how to proceed with painting clouds!
How to Paint Watercolor Seascapes (Two Ways)
Here’s a little video of the process and I’ll detail the materials you’ll need below.
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What You’ll Need
- Watercolor Paper – I like to use this one because it’s affordable. I also like using these cards.
- Watercolor Brush Size 4
- Washi Tape
- Paper Towels
- Water (two separate containers for cool colors and warm colors)
- Watercolor Paints (Blues – Indigo, Cobalt, Sennelier Blue, Tans – Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Payne’s Gray) I mostly use Daniel Smith Watercolors and Windsor & Newton
- Gelly Roll Pens in white in sizes 10 and 5
If you already have paints you enjoy using you can use those! No need to buy more stuff!
2 Ways to Create Seascapes
In the video I’m showing you two ways to paint the ocean – one as if you’re standing on the beach looking out on the horizon and the other is from above lapping waves.
