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Video: A Painted Sky As A Design Element. Sky Painting: Fair Weather Clouds

The sky painting is a widespread technique in the field of interior design - whether built into a wall picture, as an independent object in the frame or on canvas. In the seventh episode of the wall painting series, Friederike Schulz shows how a perfectly painted sky is created .
Author: Friederike Schulz / Photos: Lars Krüger
For sky painting there are some essential features that need to be considered. The blue on the horizon is cooler and lighter than what appears nearby. One works therefore over three blue levels from warm to cold in soft transitions. All shades of gray are warm and are never mixed with black and white, but always with ultramarine blue and natural Siena. The brightest spots that are illuminated by sunlight are not pure white, but yellowish warm white. The clouds are getting narrower towards the horizon.
Tools and materials required for sky painting
The basis for the painting is a white or light blue primed, slightly absorbent surface. Tools required are a glaze brush, a wide modler, a cat tongue (if possible synthetic hair, because it is softer) and a badger distributor. On large areas, it is advisable to work with oil paints instead of acrylic paints, since working “wet-on-wet” is highly recommended with this technique.
The work is carried out on the palette, on which the following acrylic colors can be found in the specified order: Natural Siena, White, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue and Coelin Blue. In addition, you create a glaze from white, binder and water in equal parts. To prolong the drying process, you should add 30 percent drying retarders for acrylic paints (so-called "retarders").
A painted sky emerges
The entire surface is quickly painted with the white glaze. In the upper third of the surface, add ultramarine blue from the palette with the glaze brush. The blue is spread with the white to a uniform tone and distributed evenly both lengthways and crossways. In the middle third, cobalt blue is also mixed with the white glaze instead of ultramarine blue. The color is evenly distributed and combined with the blue of the upper third by painting diagonally across. These steps are repeated with the coelin blue in the lower third, but remain a little brighter.
With the modler you distribute the entire surface from top to bottom and then smooth the brushstrokes horizontally. The final image should be a homogeneous surface that slowly develops from a warm shade of blue to a light, cooler blue without hard transitions.
Clouds appear in the sky
Now clouds appear in the blue sky. With white the clouds are “drawn” with the tongue of the cat and then smoothed with the badger distributor. The clouds on the horizon are narrower and warmer. Here the white is mixed a little with natural Siena and very flat streaky clouds are painted in. A warm gray tone is finally mixed on the palette from ultramarine blue, natural Siena and white in order to structure the clouds in the lower area. In this step too, the surface is always smoothed with the badger hair distributor.
Finally, the clouds are formulated more precisely and "softened". The bright areas, strongly reflected by the sun, are highlighted with a mixture of white and natural Siena.
Other episodes of the decorative painting series:
Three-dimensional painting
Wall in a tartan skirt
Painted mahogany wood
Painted fabric
Not quite in white: imitation brèche grise marble
Black gold: imitation of Portor marble