How to Paint a Beautiful Sky in Oils
A beautiful sky can be painted by combining warm, bright and highlight oil colors. Tinge the sky with bright violet or pink, and warm it with yellow and gold. Some oil painters take digital photos of a breathtaking sky to analyze light and color. Sunrise can be a mixture of blues, crimson and viridian. The purity of white reflects light and assists in blending other colors. Oil paints blend beautifully, so use strong colors --- such as pink and fuschia --- sparingly. Capturing light and the movement of clouds creates an ethereal gift or memento of a beautiful day.
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Things You'll Need
- 8-inch-by-10-inch prepared canvas
- Titanium white oil paint
- Cerulean blue oil paint
- Sap green oil paint
- French ultramarine oil paint
- Permanent rose oil paint
- Filbert brushes
- Easel
- Palette
- Paint cup
Instructions
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Coat your canvas with titanium white paint, according to Draw-n-Paint.com. Add sap green and cerulean blue. Cerulean blue pigment, originally introduced in the 1860s, derives its name from caelum, meaning heaven or sky. Use a number 12 flat brush or 25 millimeter (1 inch) flat to add the colors. Start adding the colors from the bottom of your painting and proceed to the middle of the canvas. Blend the colors with titanium white, mixing with a drop of water or paint thinner. The thin application of color creates a misty appearance, but is not as faint as a wash.
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Mix titanium white and French ultramarine to create the sky's top. Slowly mix the colors with cerulean blue as you paint. Then use a fresh brush to blend the colors again, from top to bottom. Your result should reflect a lot of light in the upper third of the canvas, and appears misty around the center.
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Add clouds using titanium white, sap green, French ultramarine and cerulean blue with a number four or 8 mm filbert brush. With a light hand, blend a bit of permanent rose. Kathleen Staiger, author of "The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted," suggests blending the colors again with those of your sky. Clouds and sky do not have clear demarcations, and your technique aims to capture weightlessness and light.
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Darken the clouds by mixing sap green, French ultramarine and cerulean blue with less titanium white. The resulting blue-gray color can be used to add shadows to the clouds. Try dabbing this contrast color to your clouds' bottom left area. Assuming your light source appears at the upper right portion of the canvas, the result will feel like an overcast and slightly blustery afternoon. Add more dark colors to hint at a thunderstorm, recommends author Stan Smith in "The Oil Painting Workbook."
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Touch up the clouds with titanium white to add brightness and light. In this example, paint the upper right portions of the clouds to reflect the canvas's light source. Use a fresh brush when applying white at this stage to avoid accidental combining with darker or duller oils. To give the appearance of bright light in the clouds, highlight the right portion of the tops of the clouds closest to the light source. Avoid blending any colors when highlighting the clouds, recommends Dorothy Dent, author of "Painting Landscapes Filled With Light."
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Use warm colors at the base of the clouds, concentrating more color at the center of the canvas. Addition of warm colors hints at a sunset. Since your canvas does not include the horizon or landscape, use earth tone colors. Combine lemon yellow, burnt umber and yellow ochre to make a warm gold cloud base.
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Tips & Warnings
Develop your own techniques when painting a beautiful sky.
Experiment with blending. Too much strong color can take over a sky or landscape.
References
- Welcome to Draw-N-Paint: Painting Clouds Art Page
- Pigments Through the Ages: Cerulean Blue
- "The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons For Beginners"; Kathleen Staiger; 2007; Page 120
- "Oil Painting Workbook: A Complete Course In 10 Lessons"; Stan Smith; 2007; Page 84
- "Oil Landscapes Step By Step"; Wendon Blake; 2001; Page 4
- "Painting Landscapes Filled With Light"; Dorothy Dent; 2005; Page 14
Resources
- Photo Credit Oil Painted Canvas Background with blue image by PixAchi from Fotolia.com
