How to Paint Clouds - Acrylic Painting for Beginners
By: DecoArt
February 4, 2021

Whether you're new to painting or just looking to refresh your skills, clouds are a wonderful subject to have in your acrylic painting arsenal. These simple, fluffy clouds are gorgeous and easy to make using only a few basic colors.
Acrylic painting is a fun and accessible hobby even for beginners! Our learning center Art For Everyone has several videos on how to get started. Be sure to follow DecoArt® on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more painting tutorials like this one, and leave a comment down below if you created your own clouds. Now, let's get started!
Items needed:
- Americana Acrylics 2oz - Baby Blue
- Americana Acrylics 2oz - True Blue
- Americana Acrylics 2oz - Lavender
- Americana Acrylics 2oz - Snow (Titanium) White
- Paint brushes
Instructions:
Start by painting your sky with the desired colors. I used True Blue, Baby Blue, Lavender, and a touch of white to get a pretty sky color. Try experimenting with your own favorite colors of the sky!
For the best results when painting clouds, softly layering the paint is key. Start with a thin layer and build up color to create depth and shape.

Load a small dome blender with some Titanium White and wipe any excess paint off on a paper towel. (A little can go a long way, and you can always add more paint.)
Using a light touch paint small, circular motions to create a very loose circle shape on the sky. Continue to spread the paint out as thin as you can in all directions to create a wispy, soft cloud. You want the edges to have a hazy, transparent look to them.
Avoid going straight up like a mountain or leaving harsh edges or lines on the clouds. Try not to make them too uniform either, think of the many shapes clouds take and get creative. Loosening up on the brush as you paint clouds helps as well.
The soft circular motion will help keep the paint soft and airy. Keep pushing the paint out as far as you can. As you’re almost out of paint on the brush, dry brush some clouds in the sky here and there.

Painting the thin, wispy, and mostly transparent layer allows the background to help create shadows on the clouds. Doesn't that look neat?

Think about where the light source is coming from and use that to determine which part of the cloud will be the edge. On these clouds, it’s coming from the left.
Reload the brush, wipe off the excess, and loosely draw in an edge on the cloud. Wipe off the brush and using a soft circular motion, fade out the right edge.
Skip a little space, and add another edge with a brighter white. Wipe off the brush and again, softly soften the right edge out into the cloud. The space you leave in between will create shadows which in turn creates depth to your clouds.

If you lose the shadows, don't be worried! You can simply add a touch of blue and white to your brush, wipe off the excess, and using the soft circular motion paint them back in like so.
Acrylics are a very forgiving medium which is what makes them great for beginners. If you're struggling to picture where shadows on a cloud should go, try looking at a photo as a reference.

And there you have it! You're ready to start painting your own fluffy clouds. All you need is a canvas, your favorite colors of the sky, and some paintbrushes.
The best part about clouds is no two are alike, so feel free to practice painting all kinds of clouds using this painting tutorial as a guide.


If you liked this tutorial be sure to leave a comment down below! Let us know what other painting tutorials you'd like to see and be sure to check out our learning program Art For Everyone for some amazing painting videos. Happy making!
Comments
Vera
February 6, 2021
Deborah McDonald
February 6, 2021
Lisa Wells
February 8, 2021
Sandy Cavalier
February 8, 2021
Phyllis
February 8, 2021
DecoArt
February 10, 2021
Phyl T
May 30, 2021
Catherine
June 10, 2021
Donna Brown
June 27, 2021
Catherine Hansler
June 30, 2021
DecoArt
June 30, 2021
Diana
July 4, 2021
Zakiyyah A McGrr
July 5, 2021
DecoArt
July 6, 2021
Shelley Mcbride
July 9, 2021
Arlene
July 19, 2021
Terri Harland
July 20, 2021
Marcia
July 21, 2021
Marcia
July 26, 2021
Roz Harris
July 27, 2021
Linda Rauen
July 27, 2021
Laurie Brigan
August 2, 2021
Gia
August 4, 2021
Bonnie Barron
August 6, 2021
Linda
August 15, 2021
Yvette
August 18, 2021
Katrina
September 7, 2021
Anne kinnear
September 9, 2021
Wanda
September 16, 2021
Sharon Oglesby
September 16, 2021
Stacey
September 24, 2021
Mary
September 30, 2021
Liza Goya
October 1, 2021
Jane Watt
October 2, 2021
Viv
October 3, 2021
DecoArt
October 4, 2021
DecoArt
October 4, 2021
DecoArt
October 4, 2021
DecoArt
October 4, 2021
Wanda
October 8, 2021
Marian
October 8, 2021
DecoArt
October 11, 2021
DecoArt
October 11, 2021
Tashia M Schwoch
October 17, 2021
DecoArt
October 18, 2021
Katie
January 21, 2022
Thom
February 9, 2022
DecoArt
February 24, 2022
Lisa Marie
April 10, 2022
freddy
April 29, 2022
DecoArt
May 4, 2022
Dawn
June 15, 2022
DecoArt
June 20, 2022
Leave a comment: