I've Looked At Clouds from Both Sides Now

Sunday, August 23, 2020

I've Looked At Clouds from Both Sides Now

"Build Up" 8x10 Oil - $200 unframed
Cloud as subject

Joni Mitchell was clearly speaking about one's life experience in her song, “Both Sides Now,” but every time I hear it, I think of painting. (Did you know Mitchell is also a painter?) I, too, have looked at clouds from both sides—and from every possible angle a painter can.

I often get the question: How do you paint clouds? Because there are so many different types of clouds, there are so many answers. Meteorological classifications like stratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, etc., aside, it all really comes down to what one's goal is in painting clouds. Are you painting clouds as the subject—or are you painting them as just another set of elements in the composition?

Painting them as a subject requires you to know and understand them. How they build up, how they move, how they vanish. Painting them as just another set of elements doesn't require such an intimate knowledge, but it helps.

I love to paint clouds and have a long relationship with them. Lots of beginning painters, however, don't really look at clouds but often just put something white and puffy in the sky, hoping to fill up all that empty blue space. Many times, they remind me of airborne sheep.

To paint clouds realistically, you really have to go out and, well, paint them. Or sketch them. Make them the subject of the painting. I like to go out with a pencil and sketchbook to sketch the cloud shapes. Here are some clouds I sketched with a 6B pencil from my back deck:

When you sketch or paint clouds, you have to remember that the sunlit portions of the clouds are brighter than anything in your scene. And guess what? So are the shadowed parts. If you squint, the sunlit and shadowed areas merge and look like simple, big, bright blots against the sky. If your goal is to make the clouds look menacing, you might push the shadowed areas darker, but I still would avoid going so dark that they move into the light/dark range you have established for the rest of the painting. (I do this sometimes to push the effect.)

The more you sketch—and thus, observe and learn about—clouds, you'll start to see a rhythm or a dynamic quality to the patterning of groups of clouds. Even ones that at first seem like they are randomly placed will have some movement to them. It's the wind that pushes them, and pilots will tell you there is always a wind aloft.

If clouds aren't the subject of my painting but are there to serve as supporting characters, I feel free to redesign them so they make a pleasing composition. I'll also feel free to change their direction of movement. I often like to include opposing diagonals in my paintings; this makes for a painting with more energy. Also, make sure the direction of movement of your clouds doesn't parallel some other major direction in your painting. If the slope of a mountain goes down, I like my clouds to move on a diagonal going up.

And what about that blue, empty sky? Should you invent a cloud to make it more interesting? Well, why not? You're the creator. But remember, the cloud or clouds need to support your design in some way. Also, watch the color temperature of your shadows in the land area when you begin to invent clouds. Clouds will bounce light into the land-based shadows. The more clouds you have, the lighter your shadows will be—and also the warmer. The clouds will block that cool, blue color of the sky light from spilling into the shadows, thus resulting in a warmer effect.