You can be a travel enthusiast who always wants to fly through the clouds or look for dreamy themes for your child. Cloud painted walls can give you exactly what you’re looking for. They are refreshing during the day, giving your room the perfect light and dreamy look during the night. Find out how to paint clouds on a wall with our easy guide to give the bedroom a new look.
You can go anywhere from painting a stormy sky with dramatic clouds or add pink and red to get a sunset-like view. You also need some knowledge about cloud formations and characteristics to be able to work on it the right way. We are here to help you capture all the possible scenes you need to paint your room beautifully.
How are clouds formed?
We don’t want this to sound like a boring geography class, but you do need some ideas before you paint your walls. You might want to follow a particular theme or take inspiration from images of walls with clouds. But you need to have some idea about how clouds are formed to work on the designs.
Our invisible eyes can find the white sky full of clouds filled with water vapor. When air rises above, the temperature becomes cold and turns into vapor. These from droplet at high altitudes and then freezes into icy crystals. These are what you see as clouds and they create sheets of them that look like lumps of cotton wool.
Different types of clouds
You might want to stick to the stereotypically fluffy cloud-like photos when looking for how to paint clouds on walls. But you should try the types to bring variance from styles already done.
Clouds are classified as to how high they are and they according look long, sheet-like, ribbon-like, and so on. These clouds start to form in the lower altitudes and are known as stratus clouds. Now, the rows of cotton-wool-like clouds can also form in similar or slightly higher altitude called stratus cumulus.
The large and billowing clouds are called cumulus and then comes the cumulonimbus or raining-bearing clouds. These are the ones that look dramatic and can make your room look dark – perfect for your den to watch films and chill. Finally, the wispy clouds are the cirrus clouds that comprise of ice crystals and are high above the sky.
How to paint stratus clouds?
If you want long and horizontal sweeps across the painting, you must use flat and wide brushes to create clouds. They must be parallel but painted freehand without a ruler. If they are perfect, they will look artificial. Remember, the main motive is the perspective you apply to the clouds. They should be narrow, uneven, and pale because that’s how these clouds look.
Recommended colors for the walls to depict the sky include both dark and light blue like ultramarine or cerulean. You can also shift to colors likes Payne’s gray and yellow ocher to give the clouds a rain-loaded look.
How to paint cumulus clouds?
Imagine strong winds that whip up cumulus clouds and think about how you can put that into creativity. You need the energy to work fast on this but also be painstakingly meticulous. You must resist the temptation to make the clouds look white and have dark shadows. The clouds must reflect the colors and can include mauve, red, gray, and yellow. You need to concentrate on the shadows that give shape to the clouds.
The recommended colors for the background are alizarin crimson as it offers the pink tint. You need yellow ocher to create the gold. Finally, use burnt sienna or Payne’s gray with any of the blue color tones in the sky to add shadows.
How to paint circus clouds?
The circus clouds are feathery and stay high up in the atmosphere. These get swept along with the winds. You need to be light-handed to bring out such wispiness on the walls.
If you want to color the clouds pure white, you need to lift off the blues from the sky and expose the white ground. Try to leave parts of the white or use masking fluid. The suggested color, in this case, is also alizarin crimson to add the pink tint. You can try cadmium orange and yellow ocher to add gold.
How to paint clouds on a wall?
Till now, you only got to know about what colors and expertise you need to make a certain cloud type. It is time to know how to paint clouds on a wall step by step to make this work:
Step 1: Prepare your wall
As per the basic guide, you have to paint the walls sky blue in color. Choose the color that looks like the sky and goes well with accessories and furnishing you have around the house. Decorate your room well and it is best if you use a satin finish to do so. Add a second coat when you need.
Cover on the practice board with the same color. You need to make sure that what you do on the wall is final and doesn’t need repainting. From the basic blue coat to the clouds, you need to make a rough draft before actually painting the walls.
You need to let the blue color sit for at least 24 hours to dry up. Once that’s done, move to the next step of painting the clouds.
Step 2: Paint clouds
You need to prepare the clouds with the white glaze. For this, you need to mix four parts of the glaze to one part of white paint into the color pan.
Start practicing to make the clouds on the board, just how you worked on the sky. You need to play with the cloud formation till you’re sure about how ready you are to paint the clouds.
Now, choose the spot of the wall where you want to do the first cloud. You don’t want to start from the center of the room. You need to start by looking for the center and then move over foot by foot.
Next, dip a damp sponge onto white glaze and dab excess glaze off from the paint pan. Now, start forming clouds by dabbing sponge right into the line to form the bottom of your cloud. Continue right up from the line, twist, dab, and use the sponge every way to form the clouds. You probably want the clouds to be dense towards the middle and thin toward the edges. Next, wet the cheesecloth to create a large ball of it. (kidsviponline.com) Squeeze out extra water and use it to soften edges.
Depending upon the size or type of cloud, you need to understand how to use your painting tool. Be it a brush, cloth, sponge, you need to understand how to go about every step. For example, if you want to make the clouds wispy, they need to look airy and light. In this case, you need to be random with the placement of clouds just as it is in nature.
Finally, try to place a few clouds between the plugs and light switches. It makes you include those in your paintings, and since they’re usually white, they complement the painting. Make sure some clouds are also around the corners.
Now, that you know how to paint clouds on a wall, it is time you do up your rooms as guided
