This came up on another thread and I was going to reply there. But the subject is actually off-topic for that thread. So unlike my normal modus operandi, I am starting a new thread.
What do you think of clouds painted on backgrounds? What are some techniques for doing so?
My original reply to the topic of clouds in this weeks(11/18) “weekend photo fun” ----------> Since the topic of clouds came up. I have an observation to share. It is easy to refute or confirm with ones own eyes and a few years of just looking at real clouds.
When I got into painting clouds and watching others do it I was not satisfied with what I saw. So I started just looking at real clouds. That has been about seven years ago. The thing I have noted most often is, “If someone had painted a cloud that looked exactly like that, I would have said it wasn’t realistic.” I have seen for real every possible form of white and gray blotch on a background of every shade of blue, yellow, and red possible. I have even real clouds that look like the ones Kindergartners draw and ones like the Coyote painted in Road Runner Looney Tunes cartoons…
It is almost impossible to paint an unrealistic cloud?
I loved the effect with the stencils demonstrated on the Working on the Railroad show on DIY this staurday; I will try that for a simple back drop. I have also thought of doing a photo backdrop of just the sky, very easy to put pictures together for.
I have a very simple technique that has produced very credible results. I just take a can of white spray paint and make little swirls against the sky blue back drop. By varying the distance from the backdrop, I can get thick puffy clouds or thin wispy ones. I can make the clouds as big or as small as I want. I try not to make them too big because with really thick clouds the bottoms would shaded and you would need to mix in a little gray to make them realistic. I’m not very artistic but with this technique, it is hard to do it badly. If you think about it, a cloud is nothing more than a mist which is what comes out of the spray can. The only think you have to be careful about is to make sure the can is shook up well and you don’t let too much paint accumulate on the nozzle. If you do, the paint can suddenly splatter instead of coming out in a fine mist.
If you use spray paint buy the brand Montana it is a specially pressurized can.They have low pressure and a hybrid which allows high and low depending on how hard you press down on the nozzle. Also there are several differnet types of nozzles(interchangable) you can get them to be eight fingers wide to the thinness of a pencil line. With the Montana paint and the nozzle you will never have to worry about splatters, just smooth transitions. Oh they also have about 180 colors to choose from. Check out www.montanapaint.com or www.artcrimes.com even pearl paint carries some. Deffintly the thing to use to make realistic clouds. Just a little practice and your golden!
That’s www.montana-paint.com there is a minimum order but, I’d figure you would want to order several shades. Don’t forget that skies are not always blue or grey, they can be off white even tan sometimes. it all depends on the surrounding terrain.
I’ve tried using my spray can technique to depict haze on the lower part of the back drop.
The result are OK but not quite what I had hope for. I think the problem is when I try to do haze, I hold the can farther from the backdrop but the result is the hazy portion near the horizon is that much different from the brighter blue over head. I think my technique would work if I got a little closer but that would mean the spray would cover a smaller area. I’d probably have to do two or three bands of white of varying density and blend them together to really simulate a summer haze and the cost of that would be prohibitive given that I have a large layout. I’ve decided to it’s cheaper just to depict a lower humidity summer day when the sky is a brighter blue. I think the best way to do haze is to brush paint several bands with varying shades of blue/white mix with the white bands near the horizon and blending them together. I saw this technique in one of the scenery manuals but I can’t remember which one.
I dry brushed the clouds on my backdrop. My clouds are white with grey bottoms. The clouds are bigger in front and smaller on the horizon.
Also, I had fun with it… I made some figures out of the clouds to make daydreaming easier. I painted in a rabbit shape for my daughter and a dragon shape for my son.[swg]
I remembered reading this thread earlier in the year:
Posted by JPM335 Posted: 26 Apr 2005, 21:38:57
I showed some pictures of my backdrop in my post about my new layout and people wanted to know how I made the clouds. So here it is![:D] This is a very easy and cheap method, there is no need to buy stencils and in my opinion yields better results. All you need is a blue wall and a can of cheap white spray paint.
Step 1: Real clouds have flat bottoms. Hold the can at least a foot from the wall and paint a fuzzy horizontal line
Step 2: Keep the can at least a foot from the wall and start spraying circles. dont move the can in circles, just hold the can still and briefly spray. You should get a faint circle. Keep spraying overlapping circles and make the basic outline of your cloud.
Step 3: Once you have your outline. Keep spraying the circles to fill in the cloud. The small spaces between the circles look like shadow and make a real nice looking cloud. As you can see I changed the shape of the cloud. So the outline is not set in stone.
But the best part: I did this whole room with one $3 can of paint and it only took about an hour[:D] You can see I also did some cirrus clouds up high. This is just a simple quick stroke with the can.
Keep in mind that these are terrible pictures and the real thing looks much better. Also, while spraying have some fans blowing out an open window and wear a breathing mask. The fumes get really strong. Any questions, comments, criticism are encouraged and appreciated. Good luck on your clouds![:D]
I was impressed by a clinic years ago by John Lowrance who makes “New London Industries” cloud stencils. I didn’t buy his stencil set but stole his idea and made my own from RECYCLED poster board from an old school project. I simple tore the poster board by hand to get uneven edge like cloud. Painted sky blue background with latex wall paint, then sprayed clouds with stencils sometimes close to Background and sometimes A COUPLE INCHES AWAY to keep cloud edge a little undefined and hazy. John’s method does not use any gray for shadow but simply lets a little of the blue background show through where a shadow is needed.
This background is shown looking directly into the corner of the room, over the courthouse tower. (Room corner was curved.)
Thanks Antonio! I’m glad to see that all my posts aren’t ignored. LOL Yup, they both enjoy helping out. My wife Kitty, even wants to help when I get set up for parts casting.
MMR Harold Russell did a clinic here using stencils available from Walthers (brand??). He made very convincing clouds in a very short time using common spray paints by rearranging the stencils and tacking them in place with masking tape. I would estimate that you could paint 40 feet of wall in a few hours after applying your basic blue sky. He also had stencils for city skyscrapers and mountains which were less convincing.
Here are some clouds I photographed this weekend. They looked like two rows of cresting ocean waves. This photo taken out the dirty windshield of a moving automobile, doesn’t do them justice. If anyone had painted clouds like this I would have thought they didn’t look real.
I think I will have to paint my own. It may not look as good as these fine examples but a couple cans of spray paint is a whole lot cheaper than buying some of the commercially available backdrops I’ve seen. (and yall’s are taller than 18")
This backdrop is curved and the joint between two 8’ panels is shown in the photo. It is a work still in progress as the first two of three background layers of forest has been done. The cllouds are partially done with New London stencils, and partly freehand. I used White, light gray, and a dark grey on a blkue background. The panels are 1/8" tempered Masonite. It is supposed to be an August thunderstorm forming in the Finger Lakes.
Those are called billow clouds. They’re formed by Kelvin-Helmholz instability (that’s the instability created by shear across two layers with different stability gradients). It’d be hard to get into why they look the way they do without delving into fluid dynamics, but although they look like ocean waves they’re formed by a different process.
Great shot, by the way. I’m an Air Force meteorologist working in the field of wave mechanics, and have only seen K-H billow clouds maybe half a dozen times in my life.
