Cirrus Exercise

Cirrus Exercise, Fabriano Artistico paper, 9" x 12"

On to Project No. 2.

Each project in this book starts with a series of exercises, and culminates in a painting.

Exercise No. 1 is about lifting cirrus clouds off a wet wash, using the points of a paper towel. Mine don't look anything like the example, but if there's one thing I've noticed about cirrus clouds – and we get our fair share of them around here – is that anything goes!

Rain Cloud Exercise, Arches rough paper, 7" x 11"

Exercise No. 2 is about trying to create rain clouds by letting the paint drip down, working wet in wet. I tried it with Fabriano Artistico paper first, but it wasn't rough enough. It's a bit better on Arches rough paper but not perfect, though I think the sky looks scary enough.

I enjoyed doing it anyway, and I realized that I use my fingers quite often, though I never read about that anywhere. 

This is not easy! -- no wonder the book says to keep practising. I may come back to this later.