Painting Clouds. - How?

Saved this a while back. Clouds by CSX Al.

I will have to order these!

There are cloud wall papers.   My sweetheart is pretty good with a paper towel and paint. Clouds were done by dipping a paper towel in white acrylic paint, and applying lightly.  She talks a lot about dry brushing.

Right is cloud wall paper.  Left is main mural, hand painted clouds.

Left is a different cloud wall paper with the mountains painted on the wall paper. Right is hand painted.

Wall papers were from Sherwin Williams. Link this thread from January/15.

Available through Walthers/dealers...  Currently in stock...$14.98...   FWIW, always.

Cloud wallpaper is an excellent option. Many styles.

Clouds about to snow sound hard: they need to be darker gray and perhaps darker on the bottom than top?

I did not use a airbrush to do clouds, although I have one.  I used a 1" rather stiff bristled paint brush and what paint to do the clouds on the blue-sky in the photo below.  I dabbed the brush in white flat latex paint, squeezed most of the paint off, and dabbed it on, working more onto the blue until I got the clouds I wanted.  I painted some scrap wood blue first to practice.  Worked well, but these are white clouds on blue, whereas . . 

After a snow, the sky is often blue. Remember K.I.S.S. I am a great believer in "lack of painting skill detracts from the layout".

Cold winter day, Western PA

Same day less the 1/2 hour between photos.

HELPFUL TIPS FOR PAINTING BACKDROPS

1. When painting the sky the blue should be brighter at the top of the backdrop and gradually soften (lighten) as the sky meets the horizon. Very often the sky is a very light gray or a "warm" pale yellow very near the horizon depending on the time of day.

2. When adding clouds the size of the clouds are larger near the top of the backdrop and are smaller and fainter near the horizon. Clouds should be painted in subdued grays rather than pure white.  Blend the images of the clouds into the blue sky to imply perspective. Clouds near the horizon are not very well defined and should be blended into the background.

3. Mountains and trees near the top of the backdrop (which are farthest away) are faint and less defined.  Mountains and trees which are close to the horizon are darker in shade and a bit more detailed. Subdued colors are best to imply perspective.

4. In general subdued lighter colors are best for any backdrop to give a hint of perspective. 

Some examples attached.

Pro Hobby Designs, Kansas City 

I grew up in Buffalo, NY and believe me I know early winter snow clouds. You'll want to capture that distinctive bluish-gray color--sort of like the two-tone colors of a junco. You almost don't see distinctive clouds individually but rather an amorphous bank. Oh I'm glad it's Spring ;-)

Painting clouds...

As an artist I've been doing that for some 20 years.

Pro hobby's suggestions above are good.

I would add, if you are trying to add depth you need to accent the shadows on the bottom of the clouds to imply a plane or "ceiling" that is the bottom layer of the clouds.

And I think what pro hobby means by "the blue should be brighter at the top of the backdrop and gradually soften (lighten) as the sky meets the horizon..." is that the color of blue should be stronger (i.e. closer to full chroma) towards the top and get "lighter" (less chroma, i.e. white added to the blue) towards the horizon. Actually, to accentuate this you can even mix the colors of blue. If you look closely at a real sky the actual color of blue (chroma) changes from zenith to horizon. I could go on...

As for clouds about to snow... I grew up in Michigan and I'd call that sky solid grey.

My suggestion would be lake effect clouds. During the Winter in Michigan, it could be a nice clear or partly cloudy day, but come late afternoon there would be that line of clouds forming over the lake looking like a big white mountain range. That might make an effective and somewhat dramatic backdrop.

Here are a few pics of the sky mural backdrop I'm painting for my STDG tinplate layout of NYC. Be aware that it is still a work in progress and meant for a toy layout, so the colors are somewhat exaggerated. And FYI: That is oil paint on canvas panels.

More pics here.

http://tinplatenewyork.tumblr.com/

Lake effect is exactly what I am looking for!  Right now the walls are painted a solid gray that is called "overcast sky" and to me looks exactly what an overcast sky looks like.  I just want a little depth in the sky with some clouds.  Maybe like you said a line of clouds in the distance along with the gray sky will get the effect I want.  

Another effect that might work with the lake effect ridge is a very pale blue sky with high wispy clouds. That might have a "wintery" effect and some blue in the sky is always good. People really "see" the sky as blue. Plus in reality, the sky would have to have some visibility other than overcast for the lake effect clouds to be seen.

And as for grey, I'd suggest a blue toned grey. From a color theory viewpoint, there is no such thing as the color black (it is the absence of color), and so no such color as grey. Black/grey pigments will most likely be red/brown in actual color. Some blacks are green. This becomes visible when you thin out the black with white. Suddenly, you have a tan, blue or green. The most common black pigments are brown (iron oxide). So a blue will need to be added for a good sky reference. Or if you choose a premade grey, try to get a good look at it in natural light to determine if it is red or blue. To the human eye blue equals sky, so a brown grey sky "just won't look right".

Good luck and have fun!

Other painting hints:

Use "foam" brushes and "sponges" used for painting walls. These provide a better result than when using a regular bristlebrush.

Use water based Latex flat paints for easy cleanup.

Make paper templates that can be traced on to the backdrop. First lightly tape them in position with painters tape to get an idea of position.

Recommend larger cloud sizes near the top and smaller cloud sizes toward the horizon.

Clouds near the horizon tend to be closer together due to perspective.

My technique is to cut out and paint "prefab" clouds and use rubber cement to apply directly to the backdrop.  This allows easy removal and replacing if necessary.

The clouds that I make are painted onto Watercolor paper which has a pebble finish.

Pro Hobby Designs, Kansas City

Also order the DVD, it shows how to use  them. Some great tips also.....

Here's what I did.  After painting the walls a sky color, I used a sea sponge (found at Lowe's / Home Depot paint departments) and dipped it into a pan of flat white latex paint, wiping off the excess into the pan and just dabbing and swirling the sponge onto the wall.

For storm clouds I'd use a light gray color with your gray sky.

I've never known clouds to stay still enough to paint them plus they are so high up in the air.

Cut a piece of shirt cardboard along the edges with a pattern like this:  UUuuu or mmmm. Grab a can of black, grey and white spray paint. Put your pattern against the wall, hold the black can back about 2 ft and dust the edges. Then move the pattern slightly and do the same with the grey. Then hit it again with the white to make it like the sun was shining on the tops and the  Voila. Clouds. Less is more.  

I use spray cans. White and gray. Don

Stratocumulus and Nimbostratus clouds would be the type you are looking for. Your grey sky already represents a cover of Stratocumulus. They then form Nimbostratus when precipitation starts. Both of these are low level clouds.

I like the less is more. You only needs hints of cloud outlines. I think the templates would do that for you.

Search cloud types and find a photo of the detail that your looking to show. here's a  link which discusses cloud color and types. There are more, but this was direct.

test somewhere not on the wall.

I think you will need a really, really long-handled brush.  They're pretty far away.  

Can you still get cadmium based colors/paints?  Been too many decades since I did any painting like that.....

Here is a shot using the stencils.

"Cadmiums, cobalts, and any high end pigments will define your work."

The metal based pigments are not the only useful quality pigments.

Some synthetic dye pigments can be just as light fast and have other useful properties. For example, the cadmium metal based pigments lose chroma and grey out when white is added, whereas a synthetic pigment will not grey out but stay "hot", making a stronger color. The same applies to blues. Cerulean and cobalt will grey out when tinted, but pthalo or ultramarine will not. So a pthalo or ultramarine gives a stronger chroma blue when tinted with white. This applies regardless of medium (i.e oil, acrylic or water).

And actually, most of the synthetic dye pigments are more "powerful", i.e.have more tinting strength than metal based pigments.

"Do NOT dumb down the color with white. You add white to any color and you desaturate it; make it flat." Not sure what you mean by that... Full strength cobalt/cerulean/pthalo/ultramarine blues will be way too dark and strong of a color to represent a sky without tinting with white, plus the color will need to fade as it reaches the horizon by adding white. Desaturate... Flat... As pointed out above, you may be experiencing this with metal based pigments.

Using violet to darken a color can be a good practice, but that really depends upon the color. Adding violet (or any color) will change the original color... Another technique to darken a color without using black (and without changing the original color) is to add it's chromatic opposite, thus pushing the color towards grey.

I'd suggest reviewing a few books on materials, specifically pigments and their properties.

And lastly... "Try a neutral warm tone and pull your colors up from there?" If you are painting a sky, which is blue/cool, why do you want to start with a warm/yellow base? When blue is painted on top of the warm yellow base the blue color is immediately both pushed towards green and dropped in chroma/color.

I apologize for going way off topic, but I've spent my life studying color and composition, and there is a lot of misinformation in Erik's posts.

As a retired high school art teacher, I find this thread to be interesting. People are speaking my language! I agree with MOST of the advice given here but am also confused about the suggestion to stay away from white paint. In water color I would never use white, using the white of the paper and the translucency of the pigments instead. I have to assume that is what he meant. With Acrylic or latex I would use the white paint especially as it nears the horizon.

Mikki

Let's all paint happy little clouds.  

Just purchased the blue sky paint when the first MR video Dream,Plan & Build showed up at the house many years ago.  Used flat latex white paint and followed the video on making clouds.

My G gauge outdoor club members change their clouds hourly, change the layout lights from day to night every 24 hours. 

HOW ABOUT PHOTOS OF REAL CLOUDS? April 16 in the midwest.

Reminds me of an interesting construction job once.  Beautiful chapel with stain glass windows.  I met the artist at the time and referred to him as a glazer, one who installs glass.  An interesting 20 minute discussion/lecture about the difference between a glazer and artist followed. 

Lost in the clouds this morning.

Mike CT

I always refer to my life long artist friend, and wife, as sweetheart

For Moon Township, I did the opposite of what one might expect. First, I trusted my own powers of observation and figured I knew what clouds looked like. Secondly, I painted the wall surfaces white (flat, indoor house paint), not blue. Then, I took blue (flat indoor house paint) and painted blue into where I "saw" a cloud forming and let myself be free and non-self-paralyzed about the whole process. I let it all flow. Some places, I put the blue on heavily; others less and less, at times feathering the blue here and there into the white areas until the paint ran out of the brush. I never used white paint.

FrankM.

Here are some results around town at various moments during the life of the layout...