After I finished that section and lifted up the tape, I discovered some brown paint had seeped through underneath the tape. Now I had an unsightly mess to clean up.

But suddenly I had an idea, how about turning this brown blob into a sailboat? There is no boat in my reference photo, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea, right?

I dipped a small brush into some white paint, did several loose strokes, and now I had a little white boat sailing on the blue ocean of Fort Myers’ beach!

I am sharing this little story because I want to encourage you—making mistakes is part of normal life in creating something beautiful. Don’t be frustrated when that happens, you will never know what you can do with it using your creativity!

Check out the painting and my little magical sail boat

What do you think?

By the way, If you haven’t joined my FB community, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1437940910025060,

Also follow my IG account here for more inspirations. Click here: https://www.instagram.com/yingmclane/

I regularly post my painting tips and processes on those accounts, so be sure to check them out!

Happy painting!

Ying

The post <strong>How I turned a mistake into a little magic</strong> appeared first on Ying McLane.

The general rule is– the position of the sun in relationship with the clouds determines where the light and dark parts of the shadows are.  

In most cases, the sun will be above the clouds. 

So Imagine holding a cotton ball under a light. You want to paint three parts of this cotton ball:

1: the top part where the sunlight hits the cotton ball. It’s the lightest part of the ball. 

2: the middle part, the main body of the cotton ball.  It will be a middle tone.

3: the bottom part of the ball, where it is the darkest. 

If you paint a sunset, as I did in this painting of Fort Myers Pier in Florida,  the sunlight will hit the middle or lower part of the clouds. So the lower parts of the clouds will appear light in color, and the upper parts will be darker in color. You can also add some thin lines of bright color around the lower edges to show where the sunlight hit the clouds.

Remember: you are painting big shapes and values. Don’t try to paint every little detail you see. Or it will take away the overall feeling or mood you are trying to express in your painting.  

Happy painting!  

To learn more about the background of this painting, go to https://yingmclane.com/our-hurricane-ian-story-part-one/

Here is another good article about painting clouds: https://drawpaintacademy.com/clouds/#light-and-color

The post How to Paint Clouds appeared first on Ying McLane.