The term ‘to paint’ conjures in most beginners’ minds the application of paint with a nice brush and gentle strokes, a bit like laying an even watercolour wash. The truth is, painting in most media needs a controlled roughness of application, and even the more genteel methods of watercolour painting must use the texture of the paper to break up some of the brushstrokes to achieve effect. With opaque media we can use slightly more aggressive methods of application and these can be wonderfully effective.
In this month's painting project, I want to take you through the methods and colours you can use to paint effective skies, using the reference photograph. Next month, I will paint using water-mixable oils a dramatic early evening sky using the colours and techniques discussed in this article and inspired by the photograph.
Setting the mood
As a would-be landscape artist many years ago, I thought that if I could create convincing skies and
