I’ve been watching lots of instructional videos on painting with acrylics (well, painting in general) and in one of them the artist demonstrated painting dark rain clouds over a mountain scene. The trick to making this easier with acrylic paint was to put down a layer of retarder first. I used inexpensive canvas paper and my Silver Brush Grand Prix brushes, which I’m completely loving.

The cloudy sky was so much fun to paint that I kept going and completed the scene with a simple mountain shape in the distance. I used what I’ve been learning about landscape painting and made it cooler in the distance and warmer in the foreground. And this canvas paper has a slightly creamy tint to it which is peaking through in some spots. It made me want to do another study with a pale yellow toned ground.

It was a great lesson in something that’s easy for me to forget when learning something new: it’s really fun to paint!