How to Paint Cumulus Clouds in Watercolor Video Lecture - Master the Art

hey there Lindsey here the frugal
crafter and today we're gonna do some
painting I had a request to paint clouds
this is one of the little beach
paintings I did last week and I thought
well maybe I kid amp it up a little bit
and make a scene out of it so what I've
done is I've taken some thin practice
watercolor paper the same kind of
stretched in the stretching video last
week and I just used some masking tape
to tape it onto my cutting board so
you'll be able to see how it wrinkles
when I use it on just regular tape down
but it's gonna be fine for a little
practice like this um so the first thing
I'm going to do I'm gonna have a piece
of paper towel handy and I'm going to
use a different type of brush today I'm
going to use some filbert's and they're
kind of like a cross between a flat and
a round brush so they're a real flat
brush for the round tapered end and
every once in a while I like the
Majestic and the aqualen brushes by
royal and langnickel and every once in a
while the sets go on 50% off at a seam
or and so I grabbed this set for ten
dollars and I was really happy because
you know you can easily pay ten to
twenty dollars for a quality brush just
this size just one brush so I'm going to
begin by wetting my paper I'm just going
to give it all over wet here and I'm
going to be using some ultramarine blue
and I'm using my little cotton
watercolor palette if that's what you
have now the problem you have and this
was discussed on the Facebook page is
that if you have a big brush like this
and you've got the little half pans of
paint here it can be a little tricky now
of course you could mix it up with a
smaller brush but the advantage to these
filbert's is I can get the tip of that
brush in there and I can get out my
color so I've got the full width of my
brush when I want to when I want to
spread it out on the paper so you know
there's just a little a little way to
deal with it I tend to use on mostly
round brushes too when I'm out and about
painting and that works out though that
you know any even a huge round brush
will still fit new half pan quite well
so I'm just making some of this kind of
a little bit duller and grayer so I have
two puddles of color and we want them
fairly light oh my gosh or two minutes
in and I haven't even baited anything
yet oh boy and I also had a question
about my water bucket this is a divided
bucket so I'll use one side to clean my
rush on the other side to grab fresh
water and or we can simply use two
buckets this is by Lowell Cornell and
it's just called the brush tub I assume
I know there's comparable ones still
around and you should be able to pick
that just about anywhere all right so
I'm going to start with my ultramarine
blue at the top of my sky here and you
can see my paper starting to buckle a
little bit um it's not really that big
of a deal because um you know it's just
just a practice but if this is something
I want to spend an hour on or more I
would definitely want to have stretched
it um and then I'm just going to bring
it down almost all the way down my paper
because this is going to be
predominantly clouds I will have a
little bit of a beach under there but
not much and this will make sure I have
a darker area at the top and then I'm
going to use my paper towel to lift off
the tops of my cloud areas because the
bottoms will shadow so I just really
need to lift off the the tips and the
reason I'm using ultramarine blue is
because I'm you know it's a very main
sky color you might have more of a you
know a greener blue if you're more
tropical but it's also very easy to lift
so if you want more of a greeny blue
that will be easy to lift you may try
cerulean so it's also fairly submit'
sedimentary phthalo blue is going to be
a little bit more staining so it'd be
very hard to to do this effect so now
I've got the tips of my clouds and um
and then I've left in kind of some
shadow now I want to put just a little
bit of a maybe a little sand bar and
Beach down the bottom I'm just going to
take a yellow ochre like so with some of
my grey just kind of do that along the
bottom there and I will throw in just a
little bit of a uh of a watery horizon
line with the ultramarine blue but I'm
really I mean really this is the bottom
of my paper you can see there I don't
really want to do too much they just
want to have that in there for a little
bit of a interest I guess
I'm still using that a one-inch filbert
you can use a flat brush if you prefer
but see the wrinkling in the paper okay
you see how that's keeping it so that I
can't really draw a very straight line
it's kind of um throwing off my my
ability to do that so that's just the
other reason you stretch thin paper this
is know if I had one hundred forty pound
paper that I was practicing on here
wouldn't be a problem um but I like to
do my little practice sketches on the
thinner stuff because you know it's less
expensive and you know a lot of times
these old practices just they're gonna
go in the bin or they'll be turned into
bookmarks or something and also in those
little dips where it is wrinkled paint
is going to collect so what you want to
do if that happens is um clean your
brush blot it off and you call it this
is called a thirsty brush and when you
set it in here it's just gonna suck up
that uh leftover the extra okay and if
any of you guys actually went out and
stretched your paper after the last
video and want to tell me about it I
would love to hear about it in the
comments below just go ahead and let me
know how you made out now the cool thing
about the filbert is that if you look at
my sketch it kind of like the shape of
the puffs of clouds almost kind of match
the filbert's already so I'm going to
start with a bigger brush and I will
work smaller as I go I'm just going to
slide it down so you definitely see the
entire uh sky and so I'm taking this
gray and I'm actually going to start
with some of these clouds down here at
the bottom where they're gonna be a
little bit darker the further away from
the Sun remember I'm going to keep we
want to keep in mind and I'm using the
edge of my brush because I don't want
really big details here the further you
the closer you are to the horizon line
the smaller things are going to be
whether they're clouds or trees or
what-have-you if they're closer to the
horizon line they'll be smaller that's
just a perspective so I can press down
more with my brush as I go up higher
into the sky can really you know put
some of these bigger shadows in here a
nice sunny day so get these nice big
puffy Q's we have a beautiful sunny day
here today main and
actually we had a credit yesterday was
beautiful today looks good tomorrow
looks good it's very hard to settle down
and to to work properly when you have
good weather because it's just like
let's go to the beach I think my kids
all have plans to hang out with friends
today so I guess I better hunker down
and get some work done so that I can uh
it's like have a beach day tomorrow
maybe alright so what I'm doing is just
kind of softening some of these edges
and I don't even have to block my brush
by just I don't have to rinse if I just
blot it off I can soften the edges and
just give it a gentle blend upward so
the tops of the clouds really what we
see as puffy and bright and all this is
shadowy and the nice thing about going
in with a big brush and I know it can be
a little intimidating is that you cover
a lot of ground and you can't fuss and
mess around with small details when
you're using a big brush so I'm really a
big advocate of using a brush the
biggest brush that you can handle now
because of the wrinkles in here I have
hard time seeing what I've painted so
that's another reason another reason to
either stretch of paper or use a heavier
weight paper but I really I was going to
go ahead and use some of my nicer paper
but I thought you know what I really
want to illustrate why or why you know
the pros and cons of this thinner paper
I want to you know if you stretch it
it's going to behave like a more
expensive paper that's heavier weight
that cost more so it kind of really is
worth that you know ten minutes of
effort you know you do have to plan
ahead of time a little bit but I think
it's really worth it to get that ease of
workability I've somehow got a little
crimson onto my brush big brush small
pallet that would be the that'd be the
downside there but um that's alright I'm
not going to worry about that too much
alright so again I'm just going to go
add a little bit it's it's hard to
figure out your um your value and some
of these because you're doing with the
clouds you know clouds are white but to
get the drama that you want in the sky
it's you do have to go a little bit
darker so I'm going in here with some of
this a purple darker but it's kind of
purply now because I did get a little
crimson in there but I turns out I kind
of like it so I
going to leave it in there maybe just a
few more tiny clouds down here I'm gonna
clean off my brush blot it off gently so
there's still a little bit of water
there to help me blend and I'm just
going to go in and soften some of the
edges not all of them I want some hard
edges and I want some soft edges and I'm
basically tipping it so that I can see
around the glare as to what I have and
really I don't know if I need to gonna
go with the smaller brush now if I feel
like a little more texture on my clouds
I can blot it with a paper towel and get
that in there and the toughest thing
about clouds is really just knowing when
to quit because it can get very um well
it can get very addicting to paint
clouds but then also you could be
looking at alcohol that just doesn't
look right it just needs a little
something before you know what you've
kind of like completely messed up the
illusion of clouds so and just little
taps like that with the edge of the
filbert will give you that nice cloudy
look - now I feel like I'd like my sky a
little bit more a little bit more vivid
so I'm just going to go with a straight
l-taurine blue I'm just going to get
myself a nice puddle of that it spits
dry enough up there I think and I'm just
going to go in there and paint around my
clouds don't be afraid to go back in and
adjust if you're not happy with them
with your color generally your skies
darker at the top so if you're going to
add more color add it to the top first
and then bring it down
and run uh rather than trying to blend
it in with your clouds go back in with a
paper towel and just blot if you need to
if you need to kind of stop the paint I
think you'll get a much more cloudy look
if you do that the nice thing about that
masking tape is once I peel it off we'll
have a really nice um have a really nice
edge I'm gonna go with a smaller brush
here I make sure it's clean it looks a
little uh looks little sketchy there and
the ultramarine blue and I think I'm
actually gonna turn my painting around
for a minute because I really want to
get in there and kind of carve out some
of my edges here because I feel like
I've kind of lost them and this is it's
really a great example to paint clouds
from life because when you're out
painting and you're sitting by the beach
or whatever the clouds are moving so you
know you really need to capture it
quickly if you're going to and I'm going
to go in a little bit here and there
make some little breaks in the UH in the
clouds here and I just find it's a
little bit easier to do this upside down
for whatever reason I think probably
because the shape of the brush I'm
trying to get around the the tips of the
clouds so I just find the shape of the
brush a little bit easier to go in
upside down and make a few just breaks
here and there maybe wet it down a
little bit more make a little bit
lighter and I can do some more breaks in
between the clouds down at the bottom of
my paper to where they shouldn't be as
dark and really just try you know you
want it's it's a fine balance between
the contrast and indefinite and making
it look realistic without making it look
too painted on it's kind of a UH
kind of a little bit of a balancing act
but I find clouds to be um a great
exercise something you really ought to
try if you do desire to do some
landscape painting so you know beyond
this if you want you could add you could
add some details to the beach you could
add like some
um you can put a couple little palm
trees or some beach Gro beach grass
would be really great I think if we did
that while we do that won't I pause it
dry this up and then we can do some
beach grass and you could uh we could
see how that looks
all right I've dried it up with my heat
gun pretty much I just really needed to
get the bottom and so what I'll do now
is go to my smallest Dilbert brush now
of course use a round or flat or
whatever you have that small and will do
the trick for you but I really wanted to
I'm not I haven't used filbert's that
much for water color so I've used of a
lot oil oils but um I kind of want to
play with my with these brushes quite a
bit too so what I'm going to do is take
a little bit of SAP green and you know
what I'm gonna here's all trick I'm
gonna actually mix it in to this area
here where I've got the where I had been
mixing my other colors that will kind of
give me that dirty brush but what it's
going to do is also um make sure MOT
that greens gonna harmonize I'm using
I've got it mixed in with some colours
have already been there so it's just
automatically kind of going to harmonize
since we're introducing a new color late
in the game and what I'm gonna do is and
I have no idea how this is going to turn
out so I made males wanna stop the video
you edit the video down stop it here but
you know what Peck let's just give it a
try
I'm just going to throw in some little
beach grasses and what I like to do is
actually just kind of flick it and start
I'm starting on the tape and I'm
dragging it up and actually I think I
want to go a little small if you just do
a little bit of a pressure on there you
can get some really tiny grasses and
this will also help us um get a little
bit of perspective and scale so remember
how I said if it's further away from the
horizon line it's gonna be bigger so
these clouds way up here are big ok
these grasses way down here they're
closer those are going to be tall
because it's and it's going to give us
that perspective so things that are
closer to the top and bottom edge of
your paper are going to be the biggest
things close to wherever you put your
highs align whether it's way up here
whether it's in the middle they're going
to be smaller if it's next to that line
so just keep that in mind and so this
could be I mean you could be laying in
the grass if you picture you can picture
somebody laying in the grass taking this
photograph I mean this is from my
imagination and looking at my reference
pictures but you know think of that as
your you know as your painting what's
the you know where's is taken from
what's up
and the best way to learn these things
is to actually grab your paints go out
into the world and do some painting and
it doesn't have to be a production it
could just be like my little look my
little baggie here my baggie with my
travel palette a few little scraps of
paper that's all it has to be or you
might prefer like a little um make a
little postcard pads of a watercolor
paper actually I just ordered one
because I didn't have any more and
they're kind of fun um you know you
could do something like that just keep
it in your car and you know maybe you're
out with the kids you're gonna have a
picnic you know at a park and they're
you know playing on the playground and
you know you could sit down the bench
and do little sketches and I know you
probably thinking well you should be
watching you kids running the playground
but you know what you're gonna be able
to watch them it's so different in like
trying to check your email and phone or
Facebook or whatever it's a complete
different thing you're going to be
completely submerged in whatever's
around you're going to be taking in all
of those sights and sounds and you're
going to be really paying attention
where if you're like looking at your
smartphone you're you're because that's
a screen and it's it's a you have things
that are moving and your brain is just
wired to kind of look at that it's
different when you're when you're when
you're painting your ear I would make
this little piece of wheat like it's in
that yellow ocher there to use I'll make
that weedy you know how some eyes you
see those little bits of wheat um you
know it's you'll actually you'll be
paying good attention so I wouldn't you
know obviously if you have two-year-olds
or you know really really tiny ones this
is not practical but you know if your
kids are you know seven eight or nine
ten I think it's totally totally doable
maybe bring an extra set for them bring
their Crayolas and they might want to
you know join in with my mom their dad
painting on the paint at the park that's
fun keep some sketchbooks in the car for
them it's a really great gift you can
give them the gift of loving to be
creative when she's a little dead
grasses in here too the yellow ocher
what are we doing for time Oh
sixteen minutes we're doing great I
really didn't know how long these uh
clouds are gonna take me so it's kind of
like oh can I do this in 20 minutes um
turns out I can I think it's one of
those things where you know you just got
to stop when it's done make this one the
kind of what's that called Beach wheat
or something somebody actually asked I
did it asked for tutorial on that and
there here we go
person I can't
remote wasn't I can't remember exactly
what they called it but it's like a type
of grass that goes on the beach I think
it's called Beach wheat or something
like that I don't know what they go in
in a vert and request tutorial actually
double requests cuz somebody had asked
for clouds - all right I just want to
kind of maybe keep it open and the
mother would have a little bit more on
one side than the other dote just so
it's not matchy-matchy I don't like the
matchy matchy it looks a little bit
better if it's not matchy-matchy mixing
again in my in my dirty well here and
since I did just recently lay out my
colors they're a little bit juicier than
normal and keep it a little denser at
the bottom and taper them up as you go
that way you'll have a little more
visual weight that's the other thing
adds that will add some visual weight to
the bottom if you want to add some
darker grasses you can do that by adding
some of the ultramarine blue into your
green maybe I'll do a few of those just
to show you me always clean your brush
before you go into your fresh pot color
that way you won't UM contaminate your
paints so I'm just gonna grab a little
bit ultramarine mix it in almost once
they dry in your palette though you know
you don't have to worry about that quite
so much but until they're completely
dried pans you want to be careful of
that that's another reason why I think
it's a good idea to go for pans or at
least you let your paint dry I know a
lot of people is a controversy there are
a lot of a water colors just an adamant
about going straight from the tube now
but not letting it dry in your palette
saying the colors aren't vibrant I don't
know I look at my paintings I think
they're very vibrant and maybe it just
depends on the brand of paint but I've
never had a problem with that alright so
there we have it a cloudy beachy scene I
hope you enjoy it please if you did give
me a thumbs up and subscribe share it
tell your friends leave a comment and I
do appreciate that and thank you so much
for watching
oh I like magic trick magic Jack this is
so cool um so when you're done your
painting and if you did take the time to
tape it down this is just dollar store
masking tape assignment painters tape so
you know so it's obviously not very good
masking tape it's not very strong but
that's obviously perfect for watercolor
because you don't want it to be very
strong just pull it off and you have
like an instant matte and then I always
love that when I was a kid because my
watercolor teacher would have me tape
down my paper and so then when you
pulled
your tables like oh it's medic its frame
it's beautiful ha ha
I think it's magical got a little
seepage under there I may be able to
blow that off so there you have it I
hope you enjoyed it I do hope you try it
thank you so much for watching until
next time happy crafting