my 1st painted sky

[Philip H]

1000  's to you
100  's as well

and -10000  's to the rest of us who are too chicken sh!t to try this out.

[Flagler]

I think in general it works pretty well.   Aside from the sky itself, can you change the lighting to reduce the effect of the model shadows on the backdrop?   That I think would increase the effectiveness.

Ed

I think the flash caused that,I will have to check it out today

[Flagler]

+4 Flagler!  I think it looks like a front rolling in from the distance.  Classic view, really nice.  Saw that alot on my trip to Wyoming.

Thank you to everyone for all the feedback,I was surprised what it looked like when I steped away from it.Its 12 ft long by 4 ft tall.
I have about 40 more feet of wall to paint,so the  more simple the better,I plan to refine my skills as I keep painting.I added some cloud
features last night.

[Flagler]

after a few clouds and the news paper removed

[Philip H]

honestly . . . the cloud stick out too much form the background.  Your success up to that point was rooted in the layering and blending.

[UP4-8-8-4]

    The clouds really adds a lot !
What i've learned doing airbrushed clouds is by takeing pics, then copying on photo paper as a reference to go by.
From Sunup:

To Daylight:

To Sunset:

Have taken many styles of cloud formations, never the same from day to day.



Ernie

[sizemore]

"For he who models with buffalo shall always be prosperous...." - American Indian proverb


The S.

[MichaelWinicki]

I think your first renditions look great Flagler!

Much better than most that I've seen that seem to be nothing more than horizontal brush strokes. 

The colors are terrific and the background doesn't appear to be the least bit shiny with a little light on it.

The clouds aren't quite up to par with what you did earlier.  The blue/white background looks very natural.  The clouds don't match the background.

[tom mann]

I would drop the clouds!  I think the less is more approach works better here!

[Scottl]

This picture that was posted by Ernie is a good guide to these fluffy cumulus clouds.  The shapes are often more elongate that round, and there usually a prominent shaded underside.  I've used white/paynes gray for this color (to get that purple-gray look of the real thing, but white/blue works too.  As the clouds become more distant, they are darker and lower to the horizon.




My first efforts were not great, but I kept at it. 





I even tried a sunset with four mixes of blue, paynes gray, white and orange.



I had to erase by repainting the background color in a few cases!

[Philip H]

Scottl,
I like your first one the best.  Second one is OK, third looks like pulled apart cotton . . . .

[Scottl]

Thanks, the sunset was a bit of a stretch but I was aiming for something different.  It is a pretty tough thing to try and the final version is better.

Anyway, I'm not an artist, in the least- I just did it by trial and error.  My first clouds looked like something from a Monty Python animation.  That is when I put the brush away and used my air brush.

[Flagler]

Scott,I like the the first two,I plan to make the clouds better.

[TiVoPrince]

Cloud 
blobs are too distinct.  The original photos look like a distant sky on a pleasant sunny train watching day.  My eyes read the original blended sky as 'just right', although I would personally be more likely to be painting a simple foggy gray backdrop myself.  Getting the feeling of distance is important, and fewer details to focus the eye in the background means that the foreground gets more attention, as it should be...

[PAL_Houston]

Cloud 
blobs are too distinct.  The original photos look like a distant sky on a pleasant sunny train watching day.  My eyes read the original blended sky as 'just right', although I would personally be more likely to be painting a simple foggy gray backdrop myself.  Getting the feeling of distance is important, and fewer details to focus the eye in the background means that the foreground gets more attention, as it should be...

+1.  I liked it better without the puffball clouds.