Cloudscapes

Artist John Constable (1776-1837) started painting as a young boy in England.  Constable loved to spend time outdoors and paint landscapes of his daily outings.  His parents and neighbors encouraged him to become an artist, and he became one of the best known landscape artists of his time.   When asked what inspired him most, he responded “The sound of water escaping from mill dams, willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork.  I love such things.  These scenes made me a painter.”

When clouds are the main interest of a painting, it is called a cloudscape.  Incorporating John Constable’s style we set out to create our own cloudscapes.

You will need a pencil and eraser, watercolor paper, watercolor paints, water, paintbrushes in varying sizes and a few facial tissues or paper napkins.

First, lightly sketch your landscape with your pencil. 

Use your watercolor paints to fill in all of the painting, leaving the sky until you’ve completed everything else.

Once you’ve finished filling in the land portion of your painting, you’ll need to squeeze out a heavy amount of blue paint.   Using your biggest paintbrush, and a heavy amount of paint & water, quickly cover the sky heavily in blue.

Quickly (before the paint dries) ball up your tissue or napkin and press it into the blue paint, pulling off large sections of blue.  These leaves behind the impression of billowy clouds in the sky.  You have just created your cloudscape!

Happy painting!