 Hello, and welcome to Monet Café. I'm artist Susan Jenkins, and today I'll be bringing you a painting where I will instruct and give some tips on how to paint dramatic skies. It's the theme this month in our Monet Café art group on Facebook. So this picture that I took from my backyard is already pretty dramatic, but I gave it more intensity, color, and drama. So in this lesson, I hope to give you tips on how you can also create skies that are brilliant and dramatic. And if you haven't yet subscribed to this channel, I hope you will, and click that bell icon to be notified of future videos. Believe it or not, this painting began on a piece of repurposed pastel paper. I have a lesson I just uploaded, a video or so ago, on how to repurpose and reuse pastel papers. In that lesson, I shared three different pastel papers that you can repurpose, yes, and even some pastel papers you can wash off. So be sure to check out that video. And here I am getting started. I still have a decent amount of a sanded surface, so I should be able to get a lot of layers. I'm showing how I hang my iPad over my easel. I can't tell you how many people ask that question. How's your iPad sticking up there? And it's really just the cover flopped over the back. When you are working on a surface where it already has an image like this, you really just have to kind of train your eyes and your brain to zone out what is already there. And I'm just using a Prismacolor New Pastel. I believe it's the one called Spruce Blue. I'm also making some marks just to kind of line some things up. And I'm going to be really just getting in my general composition. And then I'll just, like I said, I'll zone out and forget about that image that's already there. And I'll just start creating the cloud shapes, the tree shapes, and get an overall basic composition before getting too overly fussy with detail. I actually had a video, a few videos back on the importance of blocking in your painting, establishing the large shapes and values before getting too tedious on any one area. It really helps create a harmony for your overall painting. Now I was just looking at some of these grays and purpley grays. And I am blocking in the big shapes of the clouds. I know that my values are going to have a little bit of darker values in some areas of these clouds. But this is just really like my little roadmap to get the big shapes in. Like I was just saying, blocking in. So I have an idea of where everything is going to be. And it really just helps to work the whole painting overall. One of my goals with this painting in working from this reference image was not only to create some dynamic color, which I love to do, but also some dynamic energy. I loved how the clouds were just sweeping towards me or away from me, whichever way you want to look at it. And here are some of the blues that I'm using. And I know that my upper sky is going to have some darker blues. Oh, by the way, these Sennelier pastels, sometimes they have a little tail on them. You have to kind of scrub them off to be able to get a flat edge. Now, this is one of the darker blues right here in my hand that I used, I think, mostly for those upper areas of the sky in between the clouds. I also used it down at the horizon line. There were some darker clouds kind of in the far distance right behind the trees. So I used the blue there as well. But can you see how I am really just getting in shapes, trying to keep that energy and sense of movement. And again, I love working the whole painting because it helps me to stay focused on what my goal was originally. I don't get so fastidious about any one area. And I can remember what's the goal, what drew me to this image in the first place. And it was definitely those dynamic explosive clouds and the drama of the color. Also, I have experienced and read many of your comments in the Monet Cafe art group and from my patrons about some of you who you think that you're cloud challenged and maybe have a hard time in rendering clouds. And my advice with that is try to forget that they're clouds. I know that might sound strange, but somehow in our brains, I think we think clouds just have to look a certain way. And when we can learn to just start seeing the shapes, the colors, and the values, our clouds will start looking more like clouds and less like floating marshmallows in the sky. There are a lot of lost edges with clouds. And then there are some edges that are a little bit more pronounced. And that's where you want to really try to enhance your focal point. That's where you want your your edges to be. My focal point was kind of the area where I've been working on this little lighter turquoise area here. And when the painting is finished, I will have more of a contrast, more of a little bit of a sharp division between some colors and values. Not a lot, but just enough to draw the eye to that general area. And here I'm basically working this gray pastel to get just some of the general cloud shapes in that focal area. This is, like I said, my roadmap to remember where things are. Now I'm just gently glazing this lovely Diane Townsend pastel. Look at that big chunky pastel. I want to go ahead and create my color overall. And I definitely wanted some greens. And I even put some greens in the clouds. Yes, you can put greens in the clouds. I find our paintings just really have a connection overall when we have some of the same colors in the ground up in the clouds and vice versa. Later you'll see that I will add on the ground some of the colors from the sky. And that's really how life works. We may not always see it so drastically, but hey, we're artists. We can use our artistic license to make a statement and make more dramatic color choices. Now I'm reestablishing some of the darks before I had just gotten in my little generalities in and now I'm getting a feeling. I wanted the trees to feel like they were watching the storm almost to personify them and they're just admiring this beautiful sky. And I also too wanted to create the focal point with, it's called convergence. It's a focal point strategy literally where you're kind of pointing the viewer to the focal point. And I was kind of doing that with these trees as they angled in towards that area. Now, I am at my mom and dad's house. Like I said, my mom has passed away so I'm staying with my dad. I didn't have a lot of my supplies. I asked dad, do you have any styrofoam? I typically use a piece of pipe foam insulation to blend. And he had something from a box. It did not work. It rubbed it all off. So I'm like, oh, plan B. I did end up finding some little pieces of like styrofoam peanuts, packing peanuts you put in boxes. You'll see me use those laders to blend the clouds and they worked wonderfully. Now I want to get a little bit darker down in this foreground. And usually foreground areas have darker values and it will give more of a sense of depth to the whole painting overall. And by the way, this lesson is sped up only slightly. You can still see what I'm doing here. Oh, don't you just love that blue that I put back there behind those trees? It just really created a sense of layers and depth and perspective. And I am going to basically give some captions. I'm going to add some music and give some captions for the rest of this video. My patrons from my Patreon page. And by the way, it's just a way that you can support this channel for $5 a month, but you get extra goodies, extra content as well. But my patrons will be receiving the real time full video footage just to music. So my patrons will be able to relax if they want, get a cup of coffee, follow along. But still, they'll have this video for my commentary that you guys on Monet Cafe will have as well. So I'll be adding some music for the remainder of this in just a minute, but I want you to take notice of a few things as I paint. First and foremost, as I've already stated, working large shapes first, blocking in. If you find yourself getting too tedious in one area before you've got your painting filled, the majority of the paper, then you're probably going to get frustrated. And your painting also will not have that painterly feel connectivity. So work the whole, once again, large shapes. You still see how I've worked large shapes. And then next, I would say also to keep a light touch. I am just kind of lightly. That's a thing that it really just takes practice. We sometimes get a little too heavy handed with pastels when we're first starting. So learn a light touch and also don't worry if it doesn't cover all of the tooth of the paper at first. This is something that should be done gradually and not just press hard to try to get rid of that textural look. It will happen and it's even okay if it doesn't happen, if it keeps a little bit of the texture or the paper peeking through in some places. And next, and these are not in any sort of order of importance, but I would say value, value, value. And value is just the difference between lights and darks. And back to the main topic of this lesson, which is how to create a dramatic sky. It's really going to be done a lot with your value choices, more than your color choices. And the drama is going to come where your lights and your darks converge. And it's that focal point area. We establish focal points where there is a high contrast of value, meaning a light juxtaposed to a dark. And I've already stated my focal point area is going to kind of be where I've put some of those lighter turquoisey colors kind of to the middle left there. And another point with creating drama is the use of perspective. I love how skies have the clouds that you can see receding into the distance. And to do that, we can create energetic and gestural marks rather than really rigid, flat or static mark making. So notice how the clouds in the upper heavens there, which would really, if you were the viewer standing in this painting, those clouds would be like right over your head. And they would not, you wouldn't really focus on those clouds as much. You would be looking off to that distant place where the light is, right where my finger is there now. I'm just using my finger, by the way, to blend in a couple of areas. But that's where your eyes would be focused. And you've probably noticed when you look at anything with your eyes, not a camera, everything else kind of your peripheral vision gets a little bit blurry. So that's why the detail in the upper clouds there that would be over your head, they're just going to have these gestural, sweeping, prospectively angled strokes pointing you to that focal point area. And that definitely creates the drama. Now to my last point before I add the music, another element for creating drama, we can't forget color. Now you probably saw the reference image at the beginning of this. I get, one of the common questions that I get is, how do you know to alter the color from what color to use when you're changing it from the reference image? And for me, it's usually, I just look at the reference image and I see what I love about it. Sometimes for simplicity's sake, I really liked the mood of the reference image. It felt like it was getting close to night. There was a storm approaching. It was a little bit darker and moody or so. I like that mood and blues and purples is a great color for that. But I didn't have to stick to the actual colors that were a little bit more grayed out. So my advice is always to go with the emotion that you feel when you look at it. I need to do a video on how color evokes emotion. And like I said, I know the mood of the purples and the blues would be, you know, kind of somber and dramatic at the same time, which I was drawn to this photo because, you know, like I've shared in my last few videos, art has definitely been healing for me right now because of the passing of my mother just a few weeks ago. And so this storm, this sky photo just reminded me that we have storms in life, but we can still look ahead to that light that's in the distance. And I definitely have that light through the Lord Jesus Christ. Pardon me, it's my channel. I can share that. I'm sorry if that offend you. I hope you'll keep watching. But I have that hope. And so even in the midst of the storm, there is light and hope, if you know the Lord. So, but back to color is that I could take those colors and that mood and I could punch it up. I could take the blues and make them more intense. I could take the colors that were a little more distant, where it was a lighter blue and give it that more of a teal and turquoisey color. I could take those distant clouds behind those trees in the far distance there. And give it that pretty, pretty blue behind there, which draws your eye as a focal point even back further that way. So those are some of the things you can keep in mind when trying to create dramatic skies and energy. So I hope those tips helped you. And if you paint along to this or you create your own painting from this, I've loved it. Many of you have done what I suggest is share it on Instagram. Follow me on Instagram at Susan Jenkins Artist. And tag me. I've been enjoying seeing your recreations of my paintings on Instagram. So please do that. If you are in the Monet Cafe Art Group on Facebook, same thing. Tag me there. Let me know. On Facebook, my page is The Art of Susan Jenkins. You can find me and become a follower on that page as well. And of course, if you're a patron of mine, I have a special homework album for my patrons. We're such a great group. And that's what I love about my Patreon group is that it's a little bit more intimate. I get to know some of you a little more and we have a little more conversation. So if you're a patron of mine, you will also be getting the real-time footage of this whole lesson. It won't have any commentary. Use this commentary as your instruction, but you'll be able to paint along to the real-time footage. So, okay, now I'm really going to add this music. So I hope you will at this point. Just relax, enjoy, and be at peace. Even though the storm looks like it's brewing and you might have some fear when we look to the light, we know we're safe and we know what lies ahead. All right, guys, enjoy and keep watching. I'll be back at the end. I hope you have enjoyed that. Here, I'm actually adding with a little bit of a harder pastel some little grass strokes. I don't want to overdo this and I don't have them so light of value to where they steal the show, but they also create that directional energy, once again, pointing the viewer to the focal point. So you have all of these elements that are leading the eye back to that area of light. Can you see that? The perspective element of the clouds, the perspective element of the trees, even the grasses, and most certainly the values and colors. And can you believe this was done on a piece of repurposed and reused Sennelier La Carte pastel card? So yes, you can indeed reuse your papers if you're not quite happy with the painting you created. So be sure to go and check out that video. I'll make it as a clickable link at the end of this video here. I hope you try to create some dramatic skies. I want to do some more of these with a similar dramatic theme, but perhaps with a different color palette, one that's really red and orange and even green. Yes, you can even have green skies. All right, guys, so please like this video, make a comment, and I love to hear what you say and also subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. Find me on all those things that you'll see at the end screen here. And as always, happy and blessed painting.