A Beginner's Guide to Drawing and Painting Skies & Clouds

(Also available on Skillshare)

In this class you will learn how to get started drawing and painting skies and clouds using graphite, watercolor, gouache, and digital paint. I’ll walk you through my process of how I observe, learn, strategise, and paint clouds with these mediums as well as what I think as I go.

I’ll also show you ways I experiment in order to expand my understanding of watercolor skies, which are in my opinion the most fun!

Class Outline

• Intro
• Drawing Tools
• Drawing Clouds
• Painting: Watercolor Basics
• Painting: Watercolor Clouds (2 Demos)
• Painting: Watercolor Sunset
• Painting: Gouache Clouds
• Painting: Experimental Clouds (3 Watercolor demos)
• Painting: Digital Skies
• Final thoughts on continuing your growth (Also Homework for Skillshare users)

Materials Used in This Class

Drawing:

• Mechanical Pencil
• 2B Graphite Pencil
• Derwent Charcoal Pencils (Medium and Dark)
• General’s (and) Derwent White Charcoal
• White computer paper
• Strathmore 400 Series Toned Paper
• Hi-Polymer Eraser & Soft Kneaded Eraser
• Blending Stick
• Tissue

Watercolor Materials:

• Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed Paper
• Arches Cold Pressed Paper
• Silver Black Velvet #12 Round Brush
• Daler Rowney ¾” Aquafine Flat Brush
• Colors: Schmincke and Sennelier Brand
• Mainly Ultramarine Blue Finest, Neutral Tint, Potter’s Pink
• For the experiments: Windsor and Newton Ox Gall Medium (and) Granulation Medium

Gouache Materials:

• Holbein Artist’s Gouache
• Cheap Flat Brushes
• Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed Paper
• Small Palette Knife
• Colors: Cerulean Blue, Titanium White, Black

Digital Paint:

• iPad 12.9 inch
• Procreate 5.0
• Apple Pencil

My Teaching Style

My goal as a teacher is for students to take away a deeper understanding of the topic rather than just copying what they see. I always try to give repeatable strategies that are easy to remember. That way, students can go off on their own and find success within their own practice.