Watercolor Skies with “Confidence”

Hello everyone thanks for joining me.

            Today we will talk about the importance of skies in watercolor art.

The Sky tells all.

         To get started, let’s prepare our minds for learning something new. To do that, you must forget what you have heard - forget what your friends have told you, and remember that the simple fact toward achieving success in watercolor painting, is through its “simplicity.’’ No other medium can boast such a claim. 

Superb! If we tend to always hold onto what we think is right, we make it difficult for ourselves to learn new perspectives. Learning new perspectives allows our capabilities to expand.

            It is my mission to expand your capabilities in watercolor, but, expand them with confidence. Confidence is what takes us into the unknown. The unknown is where the creativity within us will be found. And it is through creativity that will set you apart from everyone else. It is a path that all successful artists must take.

           

Do you feel that Emotion?

 

        Skies are one of the most important elements of realism in art. I am not talking about realism as portrayed in a perfectly recreated photograph painting. No, I am talking about realism as an element of feelings, emotions, and life. 

            Before we go any further, there is one thing I want you to do right now. And that is to stop using the word sky. I know, you think this is a strange request, right? However, instead of using the word sky, replace it with the word mood. Mood suggests a state of mind. It is through the sky that exhibits the greatest sense of emotion and feeling within a work of art. Look at any painting that offers a glimpse of the sky, and decide if that sky sets the whole mood for the rest of the painting? Yes, if that artist truly understood the significance of the sky, as portrayed as mood, emotions, and feelings, then that mood (the sky) should have set the tone and atmosphere of the entire painting.

Without the sky, what other element would create mood?

           

       Often times the mood (sky) is not thought of as something so delicately required. Instead, artists get so caught up into over-expressing a material object within their work, and that object had no impact on the paintings overall tone, atmosphere, emotion or feeling. Ask yourself, what emotion would you feel from a stormy sky? What emotion would you feel from a bowl of fruit? I hope that the stormy sky invoked the strongest of emotion. 

             Now that you understand the real significance of the sky, you should also understand how to respectfully present it. Artists have many ways of painting in their skies. Some paint them in before anything else, and others wait until the end. Whatever method you choose to use, there are a few techniques that you can employ to strengthen the mood. Skies do not need to be created with such realistic detail, as can be found in photographs. Sometimes you will lose a lot of potential mood by overstating something, especially the sky. Skies are full of color, that color creates the mood. An angry sky has deep dark colors, and a weak sky may have just one simple soft color. Whatever colors you choose to use, must be reflected throughout the rest of the painting. This is the one key element that helps mood flow. For instance, a painting of a white house in winter, with a sky colored in the shades of orange and yellow tones makes no sense. Is it summer or is it winter? Create the mood, but do it realistically. It has to make sense. Yes, a summer sky in a winter scene is creative, but the mood gets confused. 

The sky sets the mood for the entire painting.

            The best practice for creating skies with perfect mood is by observation. Observe what looks real, add some strengthening mood elements to it, and let those elements flow throughout the rest of the painting. For creative and imagined skies, any color works, but again, those colors used in the sky should be reflected throughout the rest of the painting. Through my personal experience, I paint in my skies immediately, before anything else. This gives me something to follow, the mood for the rest of my painting. I highly enjoy creating my skies with tones of indigo. I often mix in some shades of raw sienna, cobalt blue, cobalt violet and a hint of light reds. For my all blue skies, shades of cobalt blue, cobalt violet, and shades of raw sienna are used. Whatever colors you choose to use, just be sure that you emphasize the mood of the painting using the sky. It is a very important element.

The Mood, the Atmosphere, the Emotion.

            Good luck, enjoy, and create some spectacular moody paintings.