Little Traverse Bay
When painting a normal sky, I start out with Cerulean Blue in the middle of the canvas and then bring Cobalt Blue in from the top of the canvas, blending into the cerulean blue leaving the areas I want to be clouds. Figuring out the direction of the sun, I then paint the clouds in with Titanium White and use a small amount of Burnt Sienna with the Cobalt Blue for the shadows opposite the side where the sun is shining. I blend shadows to make the clouds in the shape I like. Also as the clouds recede into the distance, make sure they are smaller as they go back and have a little less detail. This gives a lot of depth into the painting.
I have found the best way to paint a sky is to study the sky on location and then place the colors on the palette you see. I did not want to make this blog too complicated, so I left out some of the finer details in color and atmosphere. One of my favorite things to do is to paint on location (Plein Aire). This gives us a true knowledge of color and detail that is right in front of you. Sometimes I paint a small canvas on site and then return to the studio to paint a larger painting right away. I find in doing this, that the image of the painting stays with me in my mind, along with the help of the smaller painting, enough to be able to paint the larger painting. Have fun in our beautiful outdoors and keep those brushes wet. Gary W. Odmark
