Paint a cloudburst with pastels

One of the great things about pastels is the versatility of the medium. It can create delicate transparent colours or layers of energetic textures. In this piece we are going to use it to create a dramatic cloudburst of rain over hills. A limited palette can give you an opportunity to get to grips with blending techniques and creating movement in your work – something pastels are wonderful at doing. To do this, we don’t want to try to colour-match the clouds and then apply that single colour for each area, we actually need to gather a variety of shades for each area and then create the clouds using these mixed together. This will give you lovely subtle shades plus create the desired movement and texture.

Ideally, for the sky you need three very pale blue/grey/lilacs; three mid to dark greys; three mid to dark blues; and a white. I use Unison Colour pastels as I fi nd the combination