by Laura Salvaggio
There are many ways to paint clouds, but this is one of my favorites. It works especially well for translucent techniques with dyes instead of paint.

by Laura Salvaggio

There are many ways to paint clouds, but this is one of my favorites. It works especially well for translucent techniques with dyes instead of paint. I do not, however, recommend this technique as highly with scrim, as the sawdust really likes to stick in the holes of the scrim.

Tools and Materials:
Drop- laid out and ready to go
Sawdust
Paint in appropriate colors, watered down and ready to spray
Hudson Sprayer
Broom or shop vac

Process:

1) Lay out your drop.

2) Using your source material or rendering, use saw dust to lay out all your clouds.

3) Take your sky colors and spray liberally, but evenly using a Hudson style sprayer. (A pneumatic sprayer will send your saw dust flying.) You will want more than one shade if you want your sky to look deep, vast and as realistic as possible. You could hand spatter, but that will take literally forever, because your goal is to reach full coverage where your sky is solid.

4) Let layers of spray dry sometimes, to avoid soppy yuckiness. Also, do NOT use a fan during the drying process unless you want sawdust to go flying.

5) As your sky begins approaching the color you want it to be, begin to remove sawdust where your clouds are lighter and fluffier.

6) Play with the spray and sawdust until your clouds are the shapes and texture you want them to be. If you get too heavy with the spray, it could be possible to go back and spray a bleach-water solution to lighten it up again, but this can cause other issues, so try to get it right the first time.

7) When done, make sure you brush off whatever saw dust might be sticking to the dried paint, especially if this is a translucent drop.

8) After all the sawdust has been removed, you can go back in with a pneumatic sprayer and tone or even out areas, but usually you can attain very attractive clouds with just the Hudson.

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Originally Printed on Friday, 04 May 2007
At TheatreHelper-Right Here
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This column is reprinted with permission from http://www.TheaterHelper.com - Theater Helper is a blog by Laura Salvaggio, a scenery designer and painter who is currently based out of central New York. Laura received her BFA in Production Design from SUNY Fredonia and her MFA in Scenic Design from Temple University.

This column will be featured monthly on THeatrePort for the next several months-