Stormy rainclouds

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1. Paint a patch or two of yellow ochre, then surround these

with a watery mixture of ultramarine blue and cadmium red

(it should be a dull purple). Also add in a mix of ultramarine

blue and burnt sienna (a blue-grey). Keep everything very

wet and allow the colors to mingle naturally on the paper.

3. While the paint is still wet drop in some other dark

blue-greys made from the same mixes as before and

allow the paint to run down the paper (remember to

have your paper on a slope).

Just allow the sky to develop by itself, and although you

may need to prod and poke a little here and there, try

not to mess with it too much.

2. Continue painting until the whole sky is covered with a

wet wash of color.

Dark clouds

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1. Using a flat brush which creates sharp edges, paint in a couple of patches of yellow ochre, and then surround these

with a roughly painted area of a dull purple made from ultramarine blue and a hint of cadmium red. Brush it on

loosely, leaving white areas.

You can soften the edges of some of the clouds

towards the horizon if you like.

Leave it to dry completely.

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2. Dampen the bottom half of the sky with clean

water, and then use a slightly darker mix of the dull

purple to paint in some darker cloud layers. They

will have crisp hard edges towards the top of the

sky and soft edges where you paint them into the

damp paper below.

3. Tidy up any edges that need to be tidied, but

don’t overdo it!

Here are two more examples of stormy skies