Advancing with Watercolor: "Cumulus Hippopotamus" Creating Clouds with Brushwork

"Beginning with audacity is a very great part of the art of painting"
- Winston Churchill

Description

This is the third episode of an 8 part series on painting the sky. For landscape painters it is a integral part of each painting and can be done in many ways

The Project

This weeks project is an extension of last weeks painting of clouds. This time however we focus more on creating the cloud and its form through a use of dry into wet technique. The connection of these projects is based on the edges we create, the qualities of our paint mixtures and the timing in our watercolors. The exercises this week are focused on the technique of dry into wet technique used to create the clouds form. The Cumulus Clouds are best represented by this technique

The Design

Much like the painting from the previous week the design is based on simple shapes. In the design we have several repeated shapes that create a sort of  refrain or theme in our design. These shapes are the sides of the field, the foothills and the Cumulus cloud - all angled shapes that converge on each other at different points in the composition.

Finding the reputed shapes, lines and angles in your subject can create a more unified painting in the end.
There are some compositional tools at work -

1- A large area in the upper painting for the the rising cumulus cloud as it grows over the pains

2 - The foothills them selves which connect to the bottom of the cloud and create the sort of Z composition that we are familiar with

3 - The path is a lead in towards the horizon.

The Technique -Wet into Dry Technique

The technique in this painting is an extension of the drills of clouds the we practice in the beginning of this lesson. The technique in this painting is an extension of the drills of clouds we have just finished practicing. This begins without much drawing - perhaps a few directionals.

We pre-mix a good amount of color that we plan to use in the painting. We paint the clouds with a light hue and then immediately start to paint the underside of the cloud. Shaping the cloud closest to us and diminishing the shapes and strength of color as the cloud recedes

A watercolor will paint itself... if you let it

Drills

Todays drill is an extension of the drill we practiced last week with more emphasis being placed on the creation of the clouds form. The cumulus cloud  is the white billowing cloud that we like to watch move through the sky , finding  shapes of animals , fish and monsters.. We will practice this drill twice before moving to our project today..

The Tonal Study

I almost always proceeds each project with a tonal study - a watercolor in a single color - to better understand the light and dark relationships and composition...

The Challenge

The Challenge in this painting is in paint consistency - the “Feel” of the paint, the size of the brush and the timing of each application. The drills are a great way to explore these subjects and internalize the qualities of the paint, brush and paper

The Skills We Develop

Once we become aware of the qualities of paint , paper, and timing - we can bring into play a more expressive brushwork, we can play with the various elements of sky and clouds and extend this project into our paintings of various types of skies.