Sunny Day Oil Demonstration: Ebbing, 8x10 Oil

View in browser

*Never AI, always human. Any errors are my own.*

Here's a sunny day oil demonstration for my paid subscribers: Ebbing, 8x10 oil. https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/demo-ebbing-8x10-oil

Gamblin's Whites Set

View in browser

*Never AI, always human. Any errors are my own.*

Here's my report on the Gamblin "Whites" set: https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/gamblins-whites-set

Useful Color Sets for the Oil Painter

View in browser

*Never AI, always human. Any errors are my own.*

I'm about to start playing with three different sets of oil paints from Gamblin. Here's a free column in my Substack about them. https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/useful-color-sets-for-the-oil-painter

Demonstration: "Rhodora & Alder" 8x8 Oil

View in browser

**Authentically Human! Not Written by AI**

Now that my summer studio is set up again, here's an oil demonstration for you! https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/demo-rhodora-and-alder-8x8-oil

Canyon Abstraction: Crevice

View in browser

**Authentically Human! Not Written by AI**

"Crevice" 16x20 Oil
Available

Not long ago, I sold a large painting from my Canyon Abstraction series.  It was one of a trio that I had hung in the bedroom, and I have been missing it like an old friend.  This past month, I had some free time and decided to paint it again.

I pulled out my pandemic gouache journals, which had most of the color studies I needed.  I also printed out a copy of the painting I sold, plus a few photos of this particular part of the canyon.  Interestingly, the only reference I ended up using was the photo of the original, and I used that just for the composition, not for color or form – all this other information was conveniently held in memory, thanks to having spent much time sketching in the canyon over the last few years.

I started off by toning my 16x20 panel with Gamblin's Transparent Earth Yellow.  This is a beautiful, luminous yellow that served well as a base color for the canyon wall.  After that, I used Burnt Sienna and Viridian to create a warm dark for the shadows and cracks, and Cerulean Blue Hue for reflected skylight.  Finally, I used touches of Naphthol Scarlet and Cadmium Orange to indicate hot spots of reflected canyon light in the shadows.

After my first pass at color, I shot a photo of the panel and used my photoediting app (Krita) and a Wacom Intuous tablet to do a little digital painting.  I wanted to experiment with color and get a sense of where I might go in the next stage.  I liked the result, and I used some of it in the finished painting, such as the cool pinks in the edges of the wall and the cool, blue-green stains on the rock.  But as much as I enjoyed my digital painting session, my preference is for using a real brush to push around thick oil paint.  Even so, I found the detour useful, and I'll probably do it again.

Another tool I used was the new "gesso and ground blade" from Gamblin.  Neat tool, which I also used in this painting for spreading paint over large areas and also scraping back areas.

Gamblin's Transparent Earth Yellow

Initial Drawing

Blocking in Darks plus a Few Lines

Adding Some Color

Wacom Tablet and Digital Painting

The "Digital Version" of the Painting
(Note that in the final version of the oil, I
departed slightly from this.)

Scraping with the Gamblin Tool

The Gamblin "Gesso and Ground Blade"

Encounter: Interview with Calvin Liang

View in browser

Watch it here

I recently had the chance to chat with California artist Calvin Liang for my ongoing series of interviews of artists from my new book, Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air. Originally from China, where he studied at the prestigious Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and did theatrical set design, Calvin moved to California once his country opened its borders. Soon employed by Disney and Nickelodeon, he worked on many animated films including “Little Mermaid” and “Spongebob Squarepants.”  Always eager to return to fine art, he finally did so full-time, and since then he's won many awards and has been featured in many exhibitions. He has Master Signature membership with Oil Painters of America—a very distinguished achievement indeed.  (Visit www.CalvinLiangFineArt.com.)

I was pleased to meet Calvin several years ago when each of us was invited to participate at the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, one of the country's premier plein air painting competitions. And so it was my pleasure to talk to him again, this time in his studio in southern California. You can either watch the video below or through this link: https://youtu.be/UTF8rZEgvKM

You can view the entire playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7uFe0ZxvExKRxn2kGrTa4ChYzd44sPJt

In case you haven't heard about my book, it features 15 master artists who share their tips and techniques for plein air painting. This 160-page book is packed with demonstrations, illustrations and, of course, beautiful paintings. The book, which will come out March 2022, is available for pre-order from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can get details at the following links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1684620457

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beautiful-landscape-painting-outdoors-michael-chesley-johnson/1140004875?ean=9781684620456

New Color: YInMn Blue

"YInMn Cliffs with Sunflowers" 9x12 oil / plein air
YinMn Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna,
Hansa Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Deep,
Titanium-Zinc White
AVAILABLE! - $300

How often does a brand-new color come along? For blues, not very often. The last useful blue for artists, phthalocyanine blue, was created in 1928, But as luck would have it, some scientists stumbled across a new one in 2009 while engaged in research on semiconductors: YInMn Blue.

It's a clumsy name, to be sure. It's composed of the symbols of the components: the rare-earth elements yttrium (Y) and indium (In), plus manganese (Mn). Someone should have a contest for coming up with a better name. Perhaps get rid of the uncommon capitalization, throw in another vowel to make it easier to pronounce, and add an “O” for the other component, oxygen: Yinmino Blue.

It's an expensive pigment not because yttrium and indium are “rare”—yttrium, for example, is 400 times more common than silver—but because they are expensive to mine. The start-up costs for a rare-earth mining operation can edge up to a half-billion dollars. And this is why a 37 ml tube of YInMn Blue from Gamblin lists for $75. (You can get your tube here: https://gamblinstore.com/yinmn-blue/)

How does this color compare with other blues? As primarily a landscape painter, I enjoy a blue that is easily greyed. YInMn Blue fits that need perfectly. In fact, the first time I added a bit of it to a dollop of titanium-zinc white, I immediately got a grey. My initial thought was, “Oh, I must not have cleaned my brush thoroughly.” But then I took up a “known clean” brush and got exactly the same results. Although YInMn Blue looks very intense right out of the tube, it does grey down quickly, making beautiful, soft blue-greys.

YInMn Blue also possesses a weak tinting strength. If you're used to the tinting strength of ultramarine blue and cobalt blue, you'll be surprised how easily YInMn Blue gets lost in a mixture. But as a plus, if you have a heavy hand and tend to add too much color to a mixture—a real problem with something like pththalo blue—you won't have that problem with this blue.

Finally, the color plays well with an earth pigment palette. Earth pigments make mixing the predominantly muted colors of the landscape a snap. (Other than flowers and garishly-painted manmade structures, there's very little rich color in nature.). YInMn Blue is a fitting companion for yellow ochre and burnt sienna. For my test paintings of some of our Southwestern cliffs, the blue cooled the burnt sienna gently, giving me just the right “tweak” on coolness.

I've included here some of my test paintings and color swatches—all of which are, of course, at the mercy of my camera and your monitor. You'll want to make your own tests and see the results with your own eyes.

Masstone/Undertone/Tint
You can see how the tint of YInMn Blue
is distinctly greyer than the other two.

Color Chart
Out-of-the-tube colors are at the top
Tints of YInMn Blue on the left
Other two rows show what happens when  you mix
YInMn Blue with Yellow Ochre and  
Burnt Sienna + tints of same mixtures

"YInMn Cliffs" 9x12 oil / studio
YInMn Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna,
Titanium-Zinc White
AVAILABLE! - $300

"YInMn Sky" 9x12 oil / plein air
YInMn Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna,
Titanium-Zinc White
AVAILABLE! - $200

My Article on Color Temperature for Gamblin

Final Step of Color Temperature Demonstration
"Winter's End" 9x12 Oil

If you've ever taken a workshop with me, you know I've enjoyed using Gamblin oil paints for many years.  Well, Gamblin Artist Colors recently invited me to contribute a technical article for their web site.  I get a real pleasure in writing this kind of article.  It's not only an opportunity to share what I know, but I get to learn a bit, too.  The articles always involve research, experimenting and creating demonstrations.  Okay, let me be honest—I just love to play around with paint!

The article is about color temperature.  Again, if you've ever taken a workshop with me, you know that I stress using color temperature effectively.  It is key to creating a realistic sense of light and shadow, of form and distance.  If you'd like to know more about this vital topic, you can read the article on Gamblin's web site:   https://gamblincolors.com/understanding-color-temperature/

On the Road: Downeast Maine Plein Air Painting Workshop and Retreat

End of Bar Road, 9x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Lubec, Maine, where I taught a workshop one week and then ran a retreat the next. Normally, I'd be there for the entire summer, but because the Canadian border was closed to me, I was unable to occupy our family home on Campobello Island, my usual base camp for workshops.  Having rescheduled these two events from last summer because of the pandemic, I didn't want to disappoint anyone yet again, so I decided to fly up and rent car and lodging.  Despite the extra expense and trouble, I had a fantastic time and enjoyed working with everyone.

Because of the unusual heat wave baking New England, a good deal of moisture pushed toward Lubec and the cold waters of the Grand Manan Channel, making for some foggy mornings and drizzly afternoons.  Even so, we had some stunningly brilliant hours.  Of course, one of the charms of Downeast Maine is the fickle weather, and as plein air painters, we are all used to rolling with whatever comes along.  We painted at a variety of locations, including West Quoddy Head, where the cliffs and the ocean swells are most dramatic; in Lubec itself, where we enjoyed a bounty of ramshackle fish buildings and fishing boats; and in spots nearby, where we lingered on quiet beaches or near tidal streams that created interesting patterns among the seaweed-cloaked rocks.

For the workshop, students lodged where they pleased, but for the retreat, we all lodged at West Quoddy Station, just a mile from the lighthouse on West Quoddy Head.  A beautifully-renovated US Coast Guard campus, it gave us immediate access to some of the best scenery and provided a comfortable place where we could be together and build the friendships that are so important to the retreat concept.  I am scheduling this retreat again for next summer.

I wrote that the Canadian border was closed.  This is not entirely true, as it did open up while I was at the retreat.  Fortunately, I was able to fulfill the requirements for entry, and I went over for an afternoon, which was all I had time for.  (The border agent asked, “You went through all that trouble just for a few hours?”)  I checked on house and studio—it'd been two years since our last departure—and I'm happy to say all is in good order.  I hope next year will be better for international travel.

In this post, I'm sharing some of the work I created while in Maine.  They are all for sale at $200 each, shipping included to the lower 48 US states

By the way, if you are interested in my plein air painting retreats, here are two coming soon that I still have space in.  Please let me know if you would like to join us!

Taos, New Mexico.  September 26-October 1, 2021.  $300, lodging and meals not included.  Join me for some of northern New Mexico's best scenery!  We'll paint at such beautiful locations as the Rio Grande Gorge, the scenic village of Arroyo Seco, the aspen-clad slopes near the ski area and, of course, in Taos itself.  Our retreat will include visits to such historic sites as the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, the Nicolai Fechin House and the Couse-Sharp Studio.

Sedona, Arizona.  November 2-5, 2021.  $300, lodging and meals not included.  I lived and painted in the Sedona area for over ten years, and I'm eager to share some of my very special painting spots with you.  We'll paint among Sedona's stunning red cliffs and explore its rich riparian areas.  At this time of year, we should have some good color in the cottonwood trees, which make for a beautiful pairing with the red rocks.

Unlike my all-level workshops, the retreats have no formal instruction.  However, we'll have daily critique sessions, informal art talk, and I'll demonstrate my painting methods in both oil and pastel.  The retreats are a great way to connect with the other participants and to learn from them.  And, of course, I will be your in-house expert and happy to answer any questions!  (You can learn more about my retreats here.)  The retreats will be held entirely outdoors, and we will follow CDC guidelines for masking and distancing.  Let me know if you're interested in any of these retreats.

Fog in Purples and Greens, 9x12 pastel/paper

Fog in Greys and Greens, 9x12 pastel/paper

Low Tide, 9x12 pastel/paper

Bay View, 9x12 pastel/paper

Fish Buildings, 9x12 pastel/paper

Standing Tall, 9x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

The Village, 9x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

Fog and Rocks, 9x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

Staying Put, 5x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

Reaching Out, 9x12 oil/Multimedia Artboard

Pirate Cove in Fog, 9x12 pastel/paper

Should I Clean my Oil Palette?

I removed about two tubes' worth of dried paint off this palette.

I think it's a point of pride among studio painters to leave thick slabs of dried, leftover paint on the palette. If your palette covers enough acreage, why not preserve these coprolitic remains?  You have worked hard to get where you are today, and these are the trophies to prove it.

But for the plein air painter, not cleaning one's palette thoroughly can cause problems down the road.  First, the mixing area on most palettes is small.  You can run out of room fast if you don't keep things tidy.  Second, dried-up paint adds weight to your gear, and if you like to hike a distance to your painting location, you want to pack like a long-distance hiker, for whom every ounce counts.

I'll admit—I'm a terrible one for keeping a clean palette.  As the above photo shows.  It seems that my mixing area just gets smaller and smaller.  It's the Incredible Shrinking Palette.  But now and then, I'll take out the gloves and the putty knife and scrape off those fossilized piles as best I can.  It's not a pretty process.

Palettes basically come in three flavors, and each requires a different approach when cleaning up at the end of a painting session.

Wood palettes.  These can easily be scraped clean of wet paint with a razor blade.  But you don't scrape it by pushing the business end of the blade forward.  That would just cut into the wood, ruining it.  Instead, you drag the blade across the wood with just a little pressure.  This takes off most of the paint, and a little OMS on a rag will finish the cleaning.  If you forget and let the paint dry, you can apply a putty knife to work off the big hunks and then use a sander to get back down to the wood.  To help with clean up, make sure you prep a new wood palette (or a newly-sanded one) with linseed oil first.

Acrylic palettes.  You don't really want to use a razor blade on these, as you will gouge the surface and make it even harder to clean.  Instead, use a plastic squeegee tool to scrape off the wet paint.  Follow this with a rag dampened with OMS.  If you make the mistake of letting paint dry, you can take a putty knife gently to it—but that's about as far as you can go.  I really don't like acrylic palettes for this reason, but they are much lighter than the next palette.

Glass palettes.  These are the easiest to clean, wet or dry paint.  Dry paint just takes a little more effort with the razor blade.  Unlike with wood, you push the blade forward.  But the glass can be heavy, and it can break.  I love my glass palette for the studio.  But for plein air, I prefer wood.

I should mention one positive to leaving those piles of paint:  They serve as a memory jog for where to put out your different colors.

Honestly, I'm not fastidious about cleaning the palette other than the mixing area.  I do try to keep the mixing area clean enough so I can properly see the color of my mixtures.  But as for the areas where I lay out fresh paint, if there's a pedestal of dried paint, I just put fresh on top of it.  I don't clean these areas until I have trouble closing the lid—or need to worry about weight.

Demonstration: Big Cliff Painting

Morning at the Lake
36x36 oil/gallery-wrap canvas
Available

In my previous post, I shared how I start a large painting with oil sticks. Here, I want to show you how I continue the painting, using Gamblin paints plus Gamsol and Solvent-Free Gel to deepen the block-in and to finish. Above is the finished piece. 

Watch this short video (Can't see it? Here's the link):

Oil Stick Demo

(Can't see the video? Here's the link.)

I recently decided to make a large painting of one of my favorite scenes—one of the candy-striped cliffs that tower over a nearby lake. I've painted the scene many times in a smaller format, from different angles and in different seasons, but I had a hankering to do something much larger. In my studio, I had a 36x36 gallery-wrap canvas that seemed just perfect. So, I got to work, pulling out reference paintings and photos and playing with design ideas with vine charcoal on newsprint.

You might ask, How can a square format be suitable? The square is, indeed, foreign to the landscape. Usually, painters feel that a wider format—3:4, 1:2 or even 1:3—suits the landscape better. After all, the landscape is full of horizontals, and the wide format permits a vista and gives the viewer some room in which to breathe. But for my painting, I wanted to do a more intimate view of the cliff, and I saw all kinds of possibilities with diagonals and verticals that would divide up the square in dynamic and interesting ways. Here are a couple of my design sketches:

A 36x36 takes a lot of paint for the start. For paintings of this size, I like to begin with oil sticks rather than a brush. Oil sticks (or oil bars or paint sticks), which are simply pigment mixed with just enough linseed oil to form a crayon, are perfect for the initial drawing and block-in. Completely compatible with oil paint, the sticks, with the tips softened by dipping them in OMS briefly, let you create a beautiful, soft line. As for blocking in shapes, it's just like when you were a child, filling in between the lines in your coloring book, and then you can take a brush, dampened with OMS, to spread the color around.

At the top of the blog is a video demonstration of how I used Shiva Paintstiks to draw and block in. (In my next post, I'll continue and finish the painting.) Can't see the video? Here's the link.

By the way, there is still time to take advantage of a good discount on Plein Air Live. I will be demonstrating in gouache on Beginner's Day. For more information or to register, go here. https://www.pleinairlive.com/2021?affiliate_id=2989212

Prussian Blue: Peril or Promise?

Some Common Blues
Top row: Draw-downs showing transparency
Bottom row: Tints
From left to right:
Prussian, Phthalo, Indanthrone, Cobalt, Ultramarine
(all from Gamblin)
(From The Artist's Magazine, October 2013)

I've always been a fan of Prussian Blue.  Although many landscape painters like Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt Blue for their skies, in my view these always seem a little too intense and need to be muted.  Prussian Blue already seems more muted, more natural.  It also greys down other colors in the landscape well, especially the reds, and produces a wide range of greens with yellows and oranges.  And I love the way it mixes with earth colors.  One of my favorite palettes:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue.

Rain over the River, 12x16 Oil (Available)
Prussian Blue is great for storms, too.
Painted with Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue.

In my recent demo for Eric Rhoads' daily series of artist demonstrations, I used Prussian Blue.  Someone observed that the pigment is poisonous, and that I should be careful.  Well, yes, it contains a compound of cyanide, but it is not poisonous.

A student of mine, Charles Eisener, who has a long history with pigments in the medical field, explained this to me, and with his permission, I want to share it with you.  His qualifications: “Over a period of almost 50 years, I worked with dye powders and stains, solutions, solvents and chemicals that most folks do not even know to be part of our medical care system.  Mutagens, carcinogens, caustics, poisons and potential explosives were all part of the mix.”

Regarding Prussian Blue, he writes:

Prussian Blue is a double iron salt complex with cyanide and is a commonly used pigment in many areas, including Histotechnology.  I have used the pigment over more than 40 years in that capacity and have yet to see it labeled as a poison.  Most safety references did not list ANY physical hazards associated with skin contact unless you are referencing the basic chemical "powder."  Like many other chemicals, the bets are off when ingestion or injection is involved.  Even flour can be a hazard when injected.  Chinese white is a close chemical relative; after oxidation it also turns blue.  Ferrous ferrocyanide salts are widely used in many product areas as pigments and carry no explicit hazards to the product user.  Personally, the cadmiums pose far greater health hazards to the user than a worst-case scenario with Prussian Blue given the same type of exposure.

The cyanide is so tightly bound to the iron salt in this pigment that a reaction to the iron salts is far more likely than any potential exposure to what is left of the cyanide molecule.  The other factor is that many manufacturers do not even use the ferrous cyanide salts for their "Prussian Blue."  Some of the synthetic pigments are much easier to produce and thus much cheaper to include in the end product.  As always, it pays to carefully read the labels, so you know what you are paying for, or being exposed to.

He goes on, more generally:

Our primary risk from chemicals, solvents, and pigments occurs during the actual act of mixing and applying paint or cleaning our materials and tools.  Residual risks from artists pigments are very minute, particularly if due diligence is taken with disposal.  Rinse water containing pigments can be precipitated and disposed of as a solid.  Dried paint films are at very minimal risk of releasing cadmium.  Far more heavy metals are released into the environment through household disposables than from artist studios.  This does not mean we should not exercise caution, but rather that risks are quite relative. Some of the pigments currently in use show "unknown" under various risk categories on their official MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) forms.  Nobody has done research to determine that potential risk.  Does that mean it is safer than a cadmium color with known risk?  Hardly!  Should we not take more care with an unknown than with a known?

Many common food preservatives and colorants carry health risks if one cares to examine their MSDS data.  OSHA guidelines mandated that gloves and face protection be used when weighing out sodium chloride, yet the cafeteria provided saltshakers on every table.  Risks and safety are relative.  Ingesting too much water or too much table salt can cause health issues or in extreme cases, death.  So can too little!   Safety is a relative term and simply implies the use of common sense and reasonable care based upon our current knowledge of the specific chemical/product.

Here in the US, we have labeling requirements.  It pays to read the label and to know what we're painting with. 

By the way, I am on the faculty for Plein Air Live.  If you haven't already signed up, there's still plenty of time.  You can find out more about Plein Air Live here.

Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Exhibition

 I'm happy to announce that two of my paintings, "Path to the Shed" and "Near Los Gigantes," are in the annual Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Juried Member's Exhibition.  You can see these two 9x12 oil paintings in the postet above, and also below.

The exhibit runs from November 7 - 29, 2020 at the Wilder Nightingale Fine Art Gallery in Taos, New Mexico.  Although the opening reception has been cancelled due to the pandemic, the awards ceremony will be held via Zoom.  For details, visit www.papnm.org.  TO PURCHASE THE PAINTINGS, visit www.wnightingale.com.

Near Los Gigantes, 9x12 Oil

Path to the Shed, 9x12 Oil

More on Making Copies

Rolling Fog 7x9 Oil - Copy (studio)

Rolling Fog 7x9 - Original (en plein air)

I pity the sweatshop workers at the Chinese painting mills, the ones on the assembly lines who copy Van Gogh's “Starry Night” and other paintings endlessly for people who crave “originals”—but at a very, very low price.  Their goal is to make as close to an exact copy as possible.  Many of these workers, I understand, are highly-trained artists.

But other than a paycheck, where's the satisfaction?  Where's the creativity?  Yes, it's a job, but I can't imagine that these artists don't wish that, just once, they could add their own, personal touch to the Van Gogh.  I imagine the copyist saying to himself:  “Wouldn't it be better if I added a flock of crows flying against the moon?”

Recently, a patron purchased from my website a nice little painting.  But alas!  That painting is currently under lockdown on Campobello Island in Canada, tucked away in my summer studio there.  Because of the pandemic and the fact that I live in the US, there was no way I could get the painting for him.  So, I offered to make a copy, but with the caveat that it would not be exact.

I've made copies of my paintings before.  (Here's an earlier post on that.)  And I do try to be exact.  But despite my best intentions, as I put brush to canvas, a little voice always says:  “Wouldn't it be better if...”

I usually listen to that voice.  If the change doesn't improve the painting, I scrape it out.  But most often, the change stays.

I always send a photo of the completed copy before shipping it.  If my patron doesn't like it, I'll put his money toward the purchase of any other painting.  (Whenever possible, I try not to give refunds—I like to keep a sale.)  If he does like the copy but, upon arrival, the painting doesn't please, I tell him he can exchange the painting.  Or, in the case of my recent patron, if he doesn't like it, I have offered to swap it for the original, if I'm ever allowed back into Canada to retrieve it.

For the copy I just made, I felt that crisper edges and a little more seaweed in the rocks plus some other, more subtle changes would make the painting better.  And they did.  Creativity came into play, making the work much more pleasurable.

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.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

With practice, you can get to know clouds pretty well!

Here are more clouds.  First, cloud as subject:

Clouds I - 6x8 oil - $100 unframed

Clouds II - 6x8 - $100 unframed

Buildup - 6x9- $100 unframed

And now, clouds as supporting actors:

A Summer's Idyll - 9x12 Pastel - $300 unframed
A gentle "scrim" of clouds in the distance seem peaceful

Evening Cliffs - 12x16 Oil - $700 framed
The upward diagonal of the cloud opposes the downward one of the cliff

Lifting Fog at Dawn - 11x14 oil - $700 framed
The clouds almost become the subject...but not quite!

Morning in Mallaig - 14x18 Oil - $900 framed
Again, opposing diagonals

Paso Por Aqui - 9x12 - $400 framed
A pleasing patchwork of clouds

The Watchman - 9x12 oil - $400 framed
A single cloud to give distance behind the peak

**Prices good until 1 Sept 2020