Painting Skies in Watercolor: Prime Your Paper with a Clear Sky to Give Depth; Length of Light Rays

Here is a summary of your latest video, Painting Skies in Watercolor: Prime Your Paper with a Clear Sky to Give Depth; Length of Light Rays: Overview You walk through your process of preparing paper and layering watercolor washes to build atmospheric skies, realistic depth, and light in landscape paintings. Key points covered Paper and brush setup: You demonstrate on large, heavyweight cold-pressed paper (Canson 140 lb) and test out a size 8 Chinese brush, noting its water retention and fine point. The science behind sky and water tones: You explain how light ray wavelengths affect color gradients: In the ocean, deeper water appears dark blue, shifting to turquoise in shallow areas. Near the horizon, the shortest rays create warm red and yellow tones, which blend up into turquoise and deeper blues higher in the sky. Priming with background washes: Even when painting cloudy scenes, you emphasize laying down an underlying clear sky wash first. Letting underlying layers dry before painting wet over dry ("gazing time") gives the finished piece subtle depth that pure white paper cannot achieve. Resist techniques: You demonstrate using wax resist over initial washes rather than bare white paper, softening harsh contrasts and keeping cloud highlights natural. Exhibition piece: You showcase a completed multi-panel October sky study featuring the new moon and conjunction with Venus, prepared for an upcoming show at the Torrance Art Museum.