The Sky and Above: Learn to Paint Altostratus Clouds!

These particular clouds are usually found in large spread out areas due to air mass being lifted up to the atmosphere. Once the air reaches high enough, it will condense, and as a result form altostratus clouds.

Height wise, you will see these clouds hovering around 6500 to 20000 feet above the ground. These clouds also pose a threat to airplanes due to water droplets freezing on the wings at those altitudes.

Appearance wise, these clouds are lighter than nimbostratus clouds, thin, frequently covers up the whole sky, and allows some sunlight penetration.

So let’s begin painting these clouds!

1. Setting the background

As these clouds are used to emphasize a large space, we will begin our background with just a simple plain. I use two separate layers: the background layer is where I placed a gradient from pink to blue.

The gradient can be done simply using a gradient tool in your digital art program.

Then, I create a second layer to paint the green plain. As it is an example, I don’t develop too much detail. Rather, this is a backdrop for us ready to paint altostratus clouds in one of its most natural states.

Other types of backgrounds can be used such as a cityscape, prairies, and other types of expandable area so long as the land is mostly flat.

2. Painting the rough clouds

Light and shadows are very important as you being to paint altostratus clouds. Due to the expansive and random nature of these clouds, it becomes very hard to pinpoint where the light should hit.

To resolve this problem, begin painting patches of light and shadows one on top of each other. Use colors that have less intensity such as light grey, white, and a light blue.

Depending on perspective, you can paint them horizontally to create a layered effect, or you can switch to a larger brush and paint huge patches as though you’re looking at the clouds above eyelevel.

For this example, I painted the patches horizontally to match the horizon of the plain. As well, I left the right side alone to create a sense of movement.

3. Blurring

You will begin to see shapes begin to emerge!

Of course, to create a dynamic effect, switch the different types of blur brushes available. You can start with the round ones for general seamless blurring, or you can switch to jagged brushes to begin sweeping of the cloud edges.

Another method to paint altostratus clouds is the duplication of the cloud layer. Duplication allows you to build upon the current cloud as well as saving time.

With the new layer, look for blur filters in your digital art program such as motion blurring or radial blurring.

Once you have manipulated the new layer to your liking, you can merge the cloud layers together. In necessary, repeat the process once more to get the right effects.

4. Adding color

In a neutral state with a normal blue sky, having these types of clouds in a white and grey color scheme is perfectly fine. However, when you deal with creating environments that need a bit of color, such as a sunrise or a sunset, you will need to add colors.

Artists that paint altostratus clouds need to be aware of the painting environment due to the clouds’ enormous coverage area. As it covers the entire sky, it will reflect the different lighting sources of its environment.

There are many ways to paint color: you can use your dodge and burn tools to create contrast, applying the ‘color’ blend mode to color on top of the cloud shapes, or use a large brush with low opacity to paint a color haze all across the digital canvas.

You can have multiple effects all going at the same time. Of course, the bigger your digital canvas is, the better details you will have. In other words, take these steps you have learned and expand on them, literally!

That means painting clouds on larger digital canvases rather than the 500 x 300 pixel canvas in this example. You will learn a lot more about mass if you need to cover a digital canvas that’s about 5000 x 3000 pixels!

As always, keep on practicing and have fun while doing so!

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