![Picture](/uploads/2/5/9/5/25957820/1390865266.png)
Today, I did the first layer of the sunset clouds. Not going to lie, I was actually really scared to start painting because I just didn't know how it would turn out. The clouds in the picture that I'm using as inspiration are not very defined and a little bit amorphous. My teacher recommended that I decide on a point of perspective because that's where all my clouds will be angling towards, "like a fan". Once I did that, I squeezed a layer of retarder on the the places I wanted to paint clouds on. For the color, I mixed white, yellow, and red together to create this peachy pastel color. In the photo it seemed that the peachy colors were essentially the bottoms of the clouds, and that the darker shades were the tops/shadows. I began painting the clouds near the mountains, using small dabbing strokes to keep the texture of the clouds light and sort of fluffy. I tried to paint them at a slight diagonal, thickening the cloud strip at the end because of perspective. Towards the top, I made the clouds a lot larger, continuing with the fluffy, dabbled texture. I also tried building up color at the bottom to really give the clouds more dimension. I realize now that some of the bottom clouds look like zebra stripes, but I plan on going back in and making them look less stiff and close together. For the next class, I will probably add another layer to the clouds and make sure they look very natural. I'll also paint some yellow to the bottoms to brighten the clouds up and then start painting the purples and blues on top. I think once I do that, it will make the clouds actually look like they are actually part of the sky and not just coming out of nowhere. Crossing my fingers!!