Clouds are typically difficult to paint in any medium.

Watercolour can be especially finicky, especially because there’s no real takesie-backsies when you lay down the watercolour pigment.

Well kind of….

Hear me out. There’s a little trick that watercolour artists can use to make painting a cloud a little easier. Keep reading to find out.

What You Need to Paint Fluffy Watercolour Clouds

To try out the technique I’m about to describe, you’ll need:

• Paints:
  • Find a blue you like. I like to use teal (as in the photos below), ultramarine blue and indigo (for darker areas)
  • Add a pink-hued colour to mix with your blue. I like to use rose or magenta.
• Watercolour paper and clean water;
• Watercolour brushes - a thick moppy brush and pointed brushes;
• Paper towel (for the trick).

Set up your workspace before you start since you’ll have to move quickly.

Step-by-Step: Painting the Sky

1. Water wash: First add a light brush of water across the sky to allow the colour to blend.
2. Add Blue: Start by brushing blue across the sky, going a bit darker at the top of the sky and lightening up closer to the horizon.

Step-by-Step: Creating Watercolour Clouds

1. Lift off the colour: When the paint is still wet, crunch up the paper towel in your hands and start blotting the blue sky leaving a space just above the horizon.
   
2. Create the cloud shape: Drag the paper towel just a bit near the base of the clouds. You want to the tops to be fluffy, but the bottoms to be flat.
   
   
   
3. Add the shadows: Take the blue and add it back into the cloud to create some shadows. Some inside the cloud, some near the base of the clouds.
   
4. Deepen the shadows: Mix indigo with a pink colour to create a deep purple - perfect for more shadow work. Use this to build on your cloud base and a bit on the interior of the clouds.
   

 

Other Cloud Shapes and Types

The cloud technique I described above are for those fluffy daytime clouds that you see on a nice summer day. These are called cumulus clouds. There are other clouds though that you’d like to paint in a watercolour painting.

Rainy or Dreary Watercolour Clouds

These are called stratus clouds and basically don’t have the “fluffiness” of cumulus. You can use the same technique but just drag the paper towel across the page to make them look flat and blended into the background.

Sunset Clouds

Whether it’s a cumulus or stratus cloud, sunset clouds are actually not white, they’re closer to a gray colour. To make these clouds, you don’t blot out the colour, but instead add a purple/gray colour over the sunset colours to make these clouds.

Observe and Experiment

The best part about painting cloud is that they can be any shape and still look good! Take photos and start experimenting with different cloud shapes.

Now it’s your turn. Get out your blue watercolours and paper towels to try this watercolour cloud technique.