How to Paint Skies With Acrylic Paints

Skies tend to be a common element in painting whether using acrylics or oil paints.

Despite the fact that most of us know what the sky looks like, painting skies with acrylic paints is not necessarily as easy as it seems. Painting skies is much more than simply putting a large block of blue at the top of a painting. A technique that works well for painting deep, rich skies is the use of glazing. Glazing is painting with thin layers of color and building up color so that you get a vibrant, almost glowing result with realistic color depth as opposed to a flat expanse of solid color.

Things You'll Need

• Stretched canvas
• Palette
• Assorted paint brushes
• Assorted acrylic paints
• Acrylic matte medium
• 2 empty jars
• Water

Instructions

1. Fill your jars with warm water. These will be used for thinning paint and cleaning brushes. The jar for your brushes should be large enough to hold your brushes without them falling out or tipping the jar.

2. Squeeze your underpainting colors on to your palette. Good colors for sky underpainting include pthalo blue, Payne's gray, dioxazine purple, raw umber, mars black and titanium white. Use white to alter the shade of the darker colors here.

3. Paint your areas that are to be darker using the darker colors. Good brushes to use are either a large, flat brush or wash brush. Mix a little water or matte medium on your brush to help thin the paint. Matte medium will help colors show through each other better and make your paint less watery. This will allow you to create thin washes of color. Avoid hard, crisp edges.

4. Allow your first layer of paint to dry fully. You will be building your colors up using thin glazes of paint working from dark to light. You can work wet colors into wet colors on each individual layer, though; a process referred to as wet into wet.

5. Squeeze your lighter colors on to your palette. Lighter colors may include titanium white, cadmium yellow, cerulean blue, cadmium orange and possibly a quinacridone violet.

6. Paint your lighter colors over the top of your underpainting colors. Remember to mix some matte medium or water on your brush to keep your layers thin. Allow the edges of your paint to blend a bit, skies don't have hard edges. Allow your layers to dry completely before starting a new layer.

7. Continue to build your colors using thin layers. Build your colors from dark to light. Keep adding layers of lighter colors until you get a color arrangement you are happy with, and then fine tune anything else until it looks the way you want.

8. Wash and rinse all your brushes with soap and warm water well once your sky has reached a point you are content with. Use brush soap if you choose to keep your brushes in good condition.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep the brushes you are using clean. Switch brushes if they become too saturated with paint.

• Use a clean brush for new colors to keep from muddying your colors.

• Acrylics dry quickly, which allows for rapid overpainting, so if you want to work "wet into wet" you will need to work quickly.

• Remember, there is no right or wrong with this process. It is your sky. Although, some practice with technique may be required to achieve your desired results.

• Some acrylics might contain harmful pigments or other chemicals. Use caution with any paints.

References

• Oil Painting Techniques: Painting in Layers
• Utrecht: Advantages of Acrylic Artists Paints