 A very warm welcome to Monet Cafe for today's tutorial where I will be taking the mystery hopefully out of painting clouds and this is the painting that I did for this demonstration and I hope you will join me where I give lots of information and I'm even going to keep this real time. For this painting I used a surface that I love. It's a product made by Sennelier. They also make pastels. It's called Pastel Card, Le Cart Pastel and it's thicker. I really like the thickness and it also comes in this pad with these beautiful colors. I love the texture of this. I think it works well for painting clouds. It helps me to keep a light touch. This is the reference photo I used. It happens to be a field on my parents property that I take multiple photos because the sky is always changing. That's the beautiful thing about God's palette. He paints us these beautiful skies that are constantly changing in color and mood. So join me now for a preliminary tutorial before I get to the painting discussing painting clouds. Alright so our sun is our source of light. Anything near the sun is obviously going to be lighter and it's going to be warmer in color temperature. But right away I want to talk about something with clouds that I think maybe perhaps was something that I did early on. I can't remember it's been so long. But I've definitely seen art like this, what I'm about to describe. Sometimes people have a tendency to just think of the sky as going up in this direction. In other words, and I'm not going to draw it here, but any clouds close to the sun are going to be warmer and lighter and then as they go away from the sun they get cooler and darker. Anything far away from the sun is going to be darker in value and cooler in color temperature, typically in the skies. So of course it does work this way, but often we forget. I see a lot of people do skies where it's all painted in just a vertical perspective. And often maybe when you're just starting with this we forget that the sky is or the clouds are coming at us too. In other words, we've got perspective happening here. So we've got clouds that might be here, as in this one here, it's not way back there. It's almost over our head. There's obviously some over our head that you can't see in a picture and I love paintings where you get the image almost or the impression almost of seeing the ones right above your head. I wanted to make a quick point here that obviously there are different types of skies. Not all the clouds come right at you like my painting, but here is a very wonderful little demonstration that is on the Faber-Castell Faber-Castell pastel website. It gives you a wonderful demonstration even including the colors to use and step by step. So you might want to check out this particular website and find their tutorial. It has a great, great lesson on painting clouds. All right, back to my lesson. So we're dealing with perspective here. The clouds are receding and if that's the case, we know that if things are lighter near the sun and darker further away, obviously these clouds like these are further away. They're not on a flat plane just going up. They're coming out. I hope that makes sense. So let me draw some of these babies in here and as much as I don't want you, I have a pet peeve, you know, whatever people tend to think of clouds like this and they draw them like that. All right. And then think, okay, now we color them in. Now we draw our little silver lining around them, you know, whatever. So what I'm going to do right now is going to sound like that's what I'm doing, but it's just to make a point and then I'll tell you how to approach painting them afterwards. All right. So clouds, I know there are names like Humulus and all that. I'm not going to name them that. This is just for art purposes. There's thick clouds, medium clouds and light clouds. Okay. Some of these that are the real dark ones, they're going to be your thick clouds. They're very dense. Light doesn't get through them very much. Okay. These are your, you know, they're kind of like the ones that rain comes out of. Okay. So we've got our clouds coming from far away and they're getting closer to us in perspective. All right. And these are our thicker clouds. Okay. So I'm just going to give an example of that. And we've got our medium clouds. This one's kind of almost coming up above your head here. Okay. Remember, these aren't way back there. These are getting closer. Okay. And this one is going to be kind of like my medium cloud. Okay. All right. So, and I'm going to give an indication of how to approach that in a minute. Then we've got our thin wispy clouds. There's some of them back here. Okay. I'm just going to give a little indication of these wispy ones kind of like right here. Okay. All right. So these are thicker clouds that are more opaque and more dense. And there's actually some down kind of underneath here, too. They're going to be darker, okay. Because they're thicker. Now, I'm going to, I think I'll try to do this with just value. I might add color in a second. Okay. So these are thicker. Okay. And I've got some that, they're still kind of wispy, but maybe I do need to do color. Let me do some color here. Okay. That's going to help a lot. This is the sun. Let's get it all nice and warm. Okay. Suns, but it's far away. All right. And of course, near the sun, you're going to have color temperatures that are warmer. You can add some oranges. Anything, whatever's the closest to the sun, I don't have a super light light. Let me find something that's a little lighter. The sun is going to be the lightest thing, okay, and light that's around it. And you don't have to draw a sun like a circle. In my painting, there's no circle here. This is just a mass of light, okay? And then as it starts moving away, you can start getting a little more oranges and things. You start to see that. But then the value is going to get, or the color chroma is going to get more dull, more neutral out of here. So let me see if I can find, this is a more neutral yellow. It's not bright like that. So that's the sun way back here. You're getting these more neutral colors far away. So lighter, warmer, and typically a little more intense. I even, in my painting, I even added some of this pink, you know, I just liked that. Say that's a little bolder, whatever. Okay, so closer to the sun, but keep in mind that sun is way back there. Okay? Now, again, as we get our mass clouds, our thicker ones, they're going to be darker in value. And because this cloud is coming closer to you, it's going to be darker in value and cooler in color temperature rather than warm. It's not way back there where the sun is, okay? Now this one up here is a little more wispy. Let me see if I can find a lighter color. And typically, I don't draw them. I just, again, just drew these for the purpose of you see them, seeing them. I did a little sketch at the beginning of this painting just with Willow Charcoal. But then I just start using the sides of my pastel, okay? So this one's a little more wispy, but it's still, it's got some mass to it. It's a little solid. It kind of goes over here, okay? And then we've got another one. I'm going to go ahead and draw in the sky we know. The sun way back there is still illuminating the sky. That's why the sky is so bright. It's on top of these clouds. Even though it doesn't look like it, the sun way back there is still on top of these clouds. And we've got our sky, the brightness of the sky showing through. But keep in mind, the sky is working in this case anyway. Just like a lot of sky pictures do where it's darker up towards the heavens, okay? And it's a little bit darker towards some of the clouds. So I don't have a great dark here, but it's going to be a little bit darker up in the upper heavens, up in here, okay? All right, so isn't that beautiful? Okay, so now in here is where we've got wispy clouds kind of like right here, but they're a little warmer in color temperature. Let me see if I can find a, that's two, no, I need more warmth than that. I had one that worked pretty good. I think it's this one right here. See this is more of a, it's probably not too dark in value. And remember again, these things are, clouds are coming towards you. They're not just going up like a stairs or elevator, all right? And we've got some, what is this here? That's a massive cloud. There's a mass, okay, let me get some more of these colors in here. I like some cooler temperatures again. These blues are cool. I got some blues in here. I see a cooler blue here, cooler blues back here. Okay, we've got a little bit of that sky coming through here, but notice, now here's how I'm getting to my point here. Notice, that's a little too warm there. Notice that through these clouds, where they get thin in between them, there's light from the sun way back there shining through. It's not going to be as intense. It's not going to be as warm, okay? But it's still going to have a little warmth to it, okay? Let me see if I can find a good color here. In mine, it's not showing up great here. In my painting, I used something similar to this for those little places where it's just kind of peeking through. But anyway, okay, so we've got these places in a sky landscape where you're looking at the clouds and you can see the light from the sun is going to shine through wherever the clouds are kind of thin, but you're going to deal with the color temperature and the lightness or darkness the same way, okay? So I happen to see it's a little, there's like a little break in between these two clouds. It's almost like it's one cloud that's got some thinness kind of in here, all right? And it was actually, it's like right in here. So let me get some more dark going on down here. Okay, and we've got the dark cloud down here. And I left that little break right there. And so that's where that little thinness is. So wherever that is, it, we might have a tendency to just get one of these lighter colors. Oh, the sun's shining through it, let's do this. And it's, that's too warm and it's too light, okay? So it's good to get something that is a little duller, a little more neutral. See if I can find a duller, neutral color that I had here for the sky. Yeah, well, I'll just use this one just for the heck of it. This one's, you know, it's a little bit more pink, but it's a little darker in value than the one that I had used before. So you're gonna have the sun shining through in places like that. And you just kind of base your value and your temperature on how thick is the cloud and how close is it to the sun, okay? There's a little more warmth down in here. You know, see how this is? This is warmer because it's back there on the horizon. Now notice how cool this gets back up in here. This is cooler because these clouds are getting closer to you and they're further away from the sun, okay? So there's a, there's a mess for you right there. How about that? Now also too, I had done a, let me get it dark here just to do some trees. I had done like my tree line here. And let me get it down further here. Okay, and now the same thing happens with regards to your, what the sky is reflecting down onto the land and onto the trees. These trees real far away, obviously they're getting more sunlight way back there than these trees over here. And of course too, you're dealing with just perspective in general, how things lighten and value, how they go back and they're darker in value, how they come forward. So you're gonna get a little bit more of that reflected sunlight on those background trees. You don't see it as much in photographs, but you can kind of exaggerate it a little bit. You know, you can kind of give a little, I even did, I think, one of like, maybe these kind of pinkish kind of colors back here just to kind of make those trees look warmer and for it. Now typically things cool off when they get further away, but in this case, they're closer to the sun, so they got a little bit more warmth to it back there. I don't want it to look like that sun's just kind of shining on some of the stuff back there. Okay, and now the same thing with your land. Let me just get a general color down here real fast. I'll just get kind of a basic medium value green, okay? We've got our land. I kind of did my strokes perspective-ly to just kind of enhance that when I was painting it. Kind of give you that sense of depth by bringing the clouds this way and your land this way. But the same thing, this land way far away. Again, I don't see that in my photograph, but I know it's going to just look more dynamic and dramatic if I enhance that in the ground back there. This is probably a little too dark. Yeah, I need some a little bit lighter than that. This is going to be too light probably, but you'll get the idea. So I just kind of lighten up some of the land back there. Sometimes I'll make a little spot that's kind of peeking through, okay? That is definitely too light, but there's an orange. That's better, okay. So same thing, that's where the sun is, okay? And then you don't want to bring it all the way up here because the sun's way back there, all right? I added in the shadowy areas of the grass under these trees, these are much closer to me, some cooler purples, okay? Which kind of brought those more forward. This one's not quite so close. It's like these trees are a little closer than these trees are, okay? And then I even added, I think some of this blue in there. Look how pretty, if you get value right, you know, you're good. So anyway, there's a messy cloud demo. So to recap, thicker clouds are more opaque. They're darker in value, and depending on where they are to the sun, they're gonna be cooler in color temperature. Thinner, wispy clouds, or medium clouds, I should say. There's more medium one there, okay? Are going to be not as opaque, all right? And depending on where they are to the sun, they're either gonna be warmer or cooler in color temperature. I use the same one for those wispy, smoky clouds. You're just barely going to use your pastel on the side for those types of clouds, okay? But main thing to keep in mind is clouds come towards you, okay? They're coming over your head. They're not way back there in the, not all of them are so, so far away back there. Okay, so now I'm getting carried away. I'm just gonna keep on working on this. So don't work on plain paper like this, okay? Hopefully that made a point. But again, don't draw cloud shapes. I mean, you can draw out kind of where they are as an initial sketch, but don't draw the lines, okay? You just use the side of your pastel and continue to blend. Keep a light touch at first and remember to keep those clouds coming over your head. Let them reach towards you. All right, so now to the painting tutorial. All right, now I'm getting started on my Sennelier Lecart paper. This is just a little piece of willow charcoal that I am using just to get in a super basic idea of kind of where things are. I'm not necessarily drawing the little puffy cloud shapes. I'm just drawing more shapes to kind of give me a little guide as to where to go when I start painting. I am, again, creating this sense of depth, perspective-ly. And I wanna reiterate with that little demo that I just did on regular paper, not all skies behave this particular way, but we do wanna keep in mind that often the clouds are coming over our head. We want to enhance that perspective point. And I think it makes a dynamic painting, but keep in mind where your clouds are. Now, I am using just the side of a Terry Ludwig pastel here and I'm going ahead and getting some warmth on the ground, but I'm gonna be adding multiple colors of the same value. It's just gonna create more interest. Now I'm using more like a forest green and I'm working, as always, big shapes to small shapes. You don't start doing the detail, less detail to more detail. So all of this is really called the blocking in stage. And once again, this is real time, okay? This, other than the little sketch part I just did, the whole rest of this video is gonna be real time. I'm gonna try to talk a lot until I get monotonous saying the same thing over and over again. Now this I'm blocking in the tree line. The tree line is gonna be the darkest thing in the painting. Now, if you notice the reference photo up there, it is dynamic, of course, and I love the light and the values, but often if you try to just totally copy your photograph, you're gonna miss some of the opportunity to make a more beautiful painting. We can use our artistic license to enhance some things. So what I'm gonna enhance is I'm gonna take away the dullness in a little while, not right away, but I'm gonna take away the kind of boring, dark value of that land that's before the trees. But for right now, I'm just getting in my basic values before getting too fussy or too detailed on anything. I wanna point out also that if you make the mistake of just working on one little section of your painting and getting everything just right and you don't block it in and get your basic values in, you may have your painting end up not being very cohesive with your value and your color, but mostly your value. Because a big point is that value and color is dependent upon what is around it. Okay, so if I was to keep working here, I'm gonna, now this is my point, now I'm gonna start getting in some of my lighter values. I got my darkest tree line value in there, preliminary anyway, and now I'm gonna start getting in some of my lighter values because that light is going to, the lightness or darkness of something is dependent upon what's next to it. So I hope that makes sense. Let me give you a little example here, a lesson here real quick. Now I don't mean to wear you guys out with value, but it really is that important. What is it? It's the different shades of gray between white and black. And notice here, they've actually gotten this one numbered correctly. The higher the number, the lighter the value. Some value scales get that backwards. All right, let's take a look at this example. Now it's pretty easy to see the two different values of these two adjoining squares. Now in the middle of these squares, another value is placed across it. That's the same value in that middle rectangle. What happens if we kind of block the transition by putting this white square in between? Let me pause it here. Now if you were to take your hand or something and cover up the one side, the gray square that is now covered by the white square, the one in the middle, you'll see the insert actually appears to be two different values, but it is only because of the value it is adjacent to. That's my point is that value is dependent upon what it is next to. So take a look at this next example to clearly see this is the same color swatch or value swatch laid across all of the different values on the value scale. And notice how what appears to be a darker value in the lighter squares ends up looking like a lighter value in the darker squares. So back to my point about getting your values overall laid in or blocking them in, along with your colors, is a good idea at the start because you may, if you get too carried away with one particular part of your painting or area, you may get your values incorrect because again, value is dependent upon what it is next to and so is color, but I'll share that demonstration for another lesson. Now, I will discuss exactly what I'm talking about here. The more that the painting progresses, it'll be easier for you to understand when I get some of these values laid in. So right now, all I'm doing, notice as I'm just, I'm keeping a light touch, first of all, I don't want anything to get too detailed, too overly saturated with pastels. I want to keep layering ability. In other words, I don't want to have a hard pressing touch, but I'm keeping it all very light because contrary to what some people may think, you can change a painting. I mean, I don't actually go in here and erase anything. Sometimes I actually do with a paintbrush, but you can layer over something to kind of alter it if you feel like something's not right, but that's why this light touch really helps. What I'm doing right now is still establishing value, color, and specifically color temperature. Again, I am looking right now at where those warmer colors are kind of peeking through and I'm giving myself what I call color notes or pastel notes. I'm getting things down just in general. And as a general rule, I may put down a color that may be a little bit more bold than I want, but I can always tone that down by layering over it. Also, I typically, especially when I get to some of those darker clouds, I typically put down a value that is darker than I want because I go back over it and soften it with another color on top. I'll talk about that in a minute too. Okay, so now here's where I'm working with a more neutral tone or pastel because these wispy clouds or whatever thickness of these clouds are way back there, they're far away and they are closer to the sun, but they're not directly next to the sun. Like some of those, and I know the sun is very, very far away. None of these clouds are super close to the sun, but they're closer than some of the other ones from our visual perspective. So that's why I'm making the color temperatures cooler in temperature as they move away, a little duller in color because, of course, we know that color wouldn't exist without light. So that's why things that are closer to sources of light typically can have bolder color or more clear color. I mean, of course, if the light is super blinding, you can't see anything, but just for an example, in a dark room, you can't see any color until you turn the light on. So that's why these colors are dulling out and losing their warmth and getting darker in value the further away they get from the sun. If I can impress anything upon you is just that, is to keep in mind the source of light and where everything is in relation to it and the rules of nature, really. I mean, these are the rules of art, but this is the rules that God has established for our earth is just how things operate. So as artists, we need to emulate those rules to be able to create a believable three-dimensional piece of art. And that's pretty much the goal in two-dimensional art is that we're trying to create that illusion in landscape painting, of course, but of a three-dimensional visual that we've seen on a two-dimensional surface. So that's one of the things I love about art. It really is about illusion, kind of like that little illusion illustration I gave about value. I mean, you're learning, I don't always like the word tricks, but you're learning the tricks of the trade and how to make these things work. And these are learnable. I know some people do have more gifts in certain creative ways than others. Some people just naturally can architecturally draw things. They just kind of see it. It's a gift God's given them. But almost all of these things are learnable. If you've got a passion for art, and don't get frustrated if you don't know it right away, you're gonna have a whole lot of bad paintings. I still have bad paintings that I'm like, oh, I'm throwing that one away or I'm not gonna make a video of that. So it's a lot of trial and error, but just keep trying to enjoy the journey. That's the main thing is like, and don't feel disappointed when something doesn't come out. Feel accomplished that, wow, look what I learned from this, even if it didn't result in something that you're super pleased with. That's how everything works. It's just perseverance and keep trying. Now, see how I'm using the side of this Terry Ludwig pastel that I've broken in half, by the way. I often break them in half. There's sometimes just a little bit too long to accomplish some of the things I wanna do. Now, this is an example of where I went a little bolder in color. That one's a little more neutral. Far away, I got a more neutral blue because it's further from the sun. But those bolder colors, I'm actually gonna darken them up a little bit more. I'm gonna dull them out as the painting progresses. While I do want some vivid color, I don't want it to look surreal. I know there's some art that does that. Sometimes my paintings actually are a little surreal with color. But for this, I wanted it to look believable. So those clouds, by the time I finish, they're not gonna be that high chroma blue. They're gonna be a little more gray down than here. But do you notice how I haven't, once I've started painting here, I haven't made a cloud shape really with a line. There are no lines in this. I wanna point out here too that this blue that I'm laying in that's up in the heavens, of course it's gonna be lighter in value because this is above where the clouds are. And the sun, even though it's setting, it's brilliant light is still illuminating the sky. It's not as as bright as a bright middle of the day sky, but it's still pretty bright. And what I'm doing is, again, I'm still getting in just color and value right now. But in time, this blue sky will end up being the background for some of those really wispy clouds that are kind of far away. I don't put them in first. I put them in on top of that. Kind of like when we do flower paintings sometimes, some of your bigger flowers you go ahead and you put in, but you put your smaller ones in the background later on top of the grasses, kind of just gently glazing over it. So it's kind of the same concept with wispy clouds that are far away. You don't really have to draw them in first. You kind of just scumble or layer them in a bit over the sky. I hope that made sense. Okay, now the sky does have different values in it as well, the background sky I'm talking about, the ones that's high up in the heaven there. It's gonna have some, notice where I was working right there in between those two clouds, if you look in the reference photo, if you squint your eyes, it gets a little lighter in that area. As you get down closer to the earth, closer to where the sun is setting and not as high in the heavens. But those higher parts right there, see I'm using a darker blue, I call it the heavenlies, okay? The Bible talks about there being three heavens actually. The first heaven is our sky that we see. The second heaven is kind of like the outside of our atmosphere that is where we can't see past our own atmosphere with our human eye. And the third is the sides of the north the Bible calls it. It's the place where God resides. Of course, God is everywhere, but it is somewhere that is his spiritual dwelling place where Christ said that I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be, may be also. Anyway, I hope you guys don't get burnt out on, I just think, you know what? How can I not talk about our creator when I am emulating his creation, right? It's like, wow, that is part of the joy too is that, you know, and we, everyone, I don't care what you claim your faith is or lack of faith, we can't help but see the beauty in what's been given us. Now, I know there are things on our earth that aren't so beautiful, but that wasn't God, that was us, that was our fault. So we praise him and we glorify this beautiful creation or I hope you do anyway, I do. All right, now I'm gonna show you how I am gonna go a little overly dark in value with these clouds because I'm gonna go back and pale it out a bit, but I do need more dark to get that drama in certain spots and notice how when I'm adding this darker value, it's dulling out that higher chroma blue that I had put down. So it was okay that that blue was maybe a little too bold at first because I know I can go back over it and tone it down. And plus you may have noticed single colors have no pizzazz. Part of what makes a painting beautiful is that beautiful play upon colors. So I didn't go in obviously and make all of these one particular cloud, one color because it actually doesn't work that way even in real life. Light is reflected and clouds and things and ground and trees and everything's gonna have this beautiful play of light from everything that's around it that's reflecting and refracting and just the whole prism of light, the whole concept of light plays upon everything in our visual field. All right, that's a beautiful neutral Terry Ludwig pastel that I wanted a little bit more of that. It's kind of like a neutral lavender, maybe a warm lavender. And it's warmer, so that's why I am using it a little bit closer to the sun. Now I wouldn't use it right up next to the source of light, but notice I'm not gonna, I might use some of that for those wispy clouds later because the sun is gonna be hitting some of those, but I'm keeping it to represent those clouds that are a little thicker, the sun where the brightest part is gonna be, you're not gonna see much of clouds at all. If you look in the reference photo, there's like a big mass of light, but some of those clouds that you start to see underneath it, notice they're not that cool color and they're not super dark. They're a warmer, more paled out neutral color. So that's why I'm using this pastel to represent those clouds that are way back there closer to the sun. And you know, I don't know, I'm assuming they must be probably pretty thick clouds to be showing up that far away, but I'm obviously not going to paint them with as dark of a value because they're closer to the sun, the source of light. Now I'm using a little bit more of this even warmer, little bit darker value purple, again, to capture some of those other clouds that are getting a little closer to me. And so I wanted the value to be a little bit darker to give it an illusion of being perspective-ly getting closer to me. Now these, again, another example of how I put down a color that's a little bolder than I want and maybe even a little darker than I want. I definitely lighten that up as the painting goes on, but I know that I can do that and I know it's gonna create interest if I get a little bit of that boldness in there and then tone it down a little bit. It's gonna be peeking through, I guess you could say, as I work. Okay, can you see now how everything is still very, very non-descript? And I mean, some may even look at this and go, golly, I don't even know where she's headed. But I'm in this point in the painting, really the whole thing. I'm kind of zoned out. I don't ever think to myself, I'm painting clouds. Sometimes when I back up and I look at it, I wanna see that they look believable as clouds, but when I'm close up and I'm in the zone as I call it, I'm literally just following color and value rules and the rules of nature. And I kinda zone in on the particular area I'm working on and see if I've got it correct with how things would work in real life. I hope that makes sense. So now I'm dulling that color out like I said again. And then sometimes when I have a particular color or value in my hand, I might as well utilize it in other areas since I've already grabbed it and got it. So what I'm doing is those darker clouds I put in, see how I'm dulling them out with that neutral, a little bit lighter value. I'm starting to make these clouds more believable by blending using the pastel. And for this entire painting, I don't think I've blended anything with like a tool or my hand. I use the pastel to blend and that's what's gonna give those clouds that wispy feel. Now I've zoomed in a little bit closer to kinda show you what I'm talking about. These are gonna be some of those obviously thick clouds that are way back there on the horizon and the source of light is closer to it. So they're not gonna be as dark and they're not gonna be cool because they're closer. So that's why I got this really warm neutral because these clouds are definitely gonna be darker in value because they're thick clouds but they're going to be not like the dark value clouds that I have way in the front. Are you seeing that? You know, they're cooler. I mean, I'm sorry. They're warmer in color temperature and lighter in value. So it really makes them look like they're far away. What if I took that darkest color I used before and tried to paint those clouds that color, you will have blown your illusion. Like say I made those clouds I'm painting right now similar to the color of the trees or the value of the trees. I mean, forget it. All of a sudden it looks amateurish and it's not a believable painting at all. So again, just keeping the rules of nature in mind how things behave. Once you start to get that and you start to do enough painting, you don't even think about it anymore. You just see it and you know, oh okay, I've gotta grab this particular value or this particular color and it becomes just second nature to you. It's you're not even thinking anymore. And that's really when painting starts to get fun. You know, it's when you can zone out like I say and you just start really enjoying it. And I often love to put on music while I'm painting and just relax. There's a piece to it. There's work to it too. Of course, sometimes I'm, and when I've been standing and painting, you know, I forget how tired maybe my feet or my shoulder or whatever it's getting because you're having so much fun. And by the way, I know this is real time. The whole painting ended up taking, oh, probably two hours or less. And, you know, not all at one time. I believe me in my life, I have to walk away. But anyway, this is where now I am getting in. I put in a lighter value, but now this is the sun, okay? Or where the sun is illuminating the closest part. And as I said in my little demonstration, I'm not drawing a circle. The sun is up in there somewhere and it's so bright, you can't even see the shape of it. Now I'm being a little cautious here because that value is going to be, this is kind of like a little color note for me. That's going to be too light right there. I already know it. I'm extending it a little too far, but I'm going to darken the value a bit. And see, I'm getting in now, I'm getting some of this darker value. It's very warm, but it's darker in value than that really light value I just put down. So this is going to be some of the other brilliant light kind of mingling with the lightest light of the sun. And I'll most likely use that one to go back to that little part to the left there where I got it too light, okay? So this is just kind of that play of light. Yep, see, there I go. I knew that was a little too light there. So I've got to darken the value. And I hope you can see that that is definitely a darker value yellow than that yellowy white that I put down before. Now this, I'm keeping a real light touch because I can see that's too light right there. And so now I just grabbed an even darker yellow, okay? We're getting more like a leaning, getting more red in that yellow than the previous one. And so notice how I'm gradually radiating out in warmer and darker tones, okay? The color is continuing to stay warm, but it's getting darker in value the further I get away from the sun. And you want to keep that in mind as you work. Now, this is back to my little example that I didn't see how I'm darkening that one too. I realized that's still a little bit too light. This is back to my little example that I did with the little illusion, little graphics that I put in there. Cause right now, if you look at the reference photo and you look at the clouds that are up towards the top of the top rim of the little piece of paper cut out there, there's like some pinkish looking clouds at the very top that are almost over your head. There may be a tendency to grab a real light pink or yellow and oh, the sun's shining up and hitting them. And as soon as I do that, if I put that up there, you would see, if I took that lightest yellow I used just earlier and put it up to the top, oh my gosh, it's gonna stand out like a sore thumb. So that value that's up at the top clouds up there, it appears light because it's next to darker values, but it's not as light as you think, okay? And so that's why keeping this gentle touch and keeping in mind that value is dependent upon what's surrounding it, surrounding value and surrounding color, all right? I hope this is sinking in, all right? And again, the more you do this, the better, the more it'll make sense and the easier it all gets, okay? So I'm doing, I think, is this called like, I think the term might be fractionated and it's like a fractured sky where I'm just laying color next to each other and it creates energy and movement. And I am actually referencing the reference image in general, but I'm going outside of the, what's exactly there to a degree. I'm getting more creative with color, obviously, and I am adding some more, maybe more little highlights where I think they could be that might not be showing. I wanted to really make those look like clouds down there rather than in the reference photo, it was a little, I don't know, muted looking. You couldn't really see anything. So I'm giving a little bit more detail as to some of those background clouds. I want the interest, that's another point I wanted to make. Where's the interest in your painting? You don't want it, well, for impressionistic painting anyway, you don't want every part of your painting to be so detailed. I've seen some beautiful, what's it called, photorealism, where, oh my gosh, you would think it was a photograph looking at some of the artwork, but for my style, I like impressionism more. You want to invite the viewer in to look at what you thought was the most interesting things in the painting and gently lead their eye around to explore and enjoy it. And for me, that sun and that just brilliant ball of light back there, it was just beautiful in the actual sky when I saw it. And so that's where I'll have, I know things in the distance typically lose detail as they go back. And while it's not super detailed, I wanted it to have the emphasis. So there is a little bit more detail there. The eye will bring in and see that and hopefully I will control the detail and the color and the value in a way that will just make it very pleasing to the viewer. All right, I'm going to paint a little bit here, add the music and keep in mind the things that I've talked about as I'm painting. Now, for the real painting warrior here, I know a lot of you may not watch the whole video, but I know there are some of you who, that's why you're here. You're here to learn. You want to get better. And so I'd recommend to watch the whole video and then practice maybe some smaller paintings with some of these things in mind. All right, enjoy the music and maybe I'll be back in a little while. I'm zooming in here so you can get a better idea of how I am approaching this landscape, especially the far distant landscape. Like I mentioned before, I want the land to reflect some of the color that's going on in that sky and some of the light. You know, of course that way back there is where that sun is the brightest. So I'm going to give the land a little bit more brightness and a little bit more color intensity. You don't want to get too crazy with this, but it will create just a little subtle interest instead of it all just being kind of a boring monotonous landscape. So I'm adding little bits of blue. Of course, the warmer tones by those trees in the background there by the underneath the sun and then the colors are going to gradually cool as they get closer to me. For example, I'm adding purples in the shadows here of these trees rather than oranges because you know, they're further from the sun and they're more in the shadow. Same thing with the other side. So anyway, that's in general my approach to the grassy part of the landscape. So I'm finishing this up and I really hope and pray that you learned something and that you'll try some of these techniques and that you'll get outside, enjoy the beauty of the sky. And I hope you'll come back and visit Monet Cafe and enjoy your own little virtual art studio from the convenience of your home. So blessings in art and in life and of course, happy painting.