How To Sketch Watercolor Clouds With Water Soluble Pencils

At long last I forced myself to make art in a sketchbook (I have three unfinished ones……nearly there.) and I’m quite embarrassed to say that after a nice stint and true dedication to art journaling and creating in a sketchbook, I dropped the practice completely for two years, yikes! That is not to say that I have not been creative, just have not been giving any attention to painting and drawing and making art. Sad really, so now is the time to get back to it, and last week before traveling to Jerusalem I grabbed sketchbooks and basic supplies and promised myself I’d dedicate time to rebuilding my sketchbook practice. This of course was just the tip of the iceberg, now home I need to force myself to create in a sketchbook every day! One of my favorite supplies for sketchbook creativity are Stabilo woodies, which are chunky and oily colored pencils that are also water soluble! And while they are generally used as the last layer in a painting of any medium, when watered down and used like watercolors they can be the first layer! Let’s learn more about how to create a background layer, in this case clouds, using Stabilo woodies!

This sketchbook spread is the view from a friend’s apartment on French Hill in Jerusalem, and there happens to be a lovely grouping of dense and varied trees that I’ve been wanting to sketch. So, yes, this is the first layer!

This spread was coated with a layer of gesso a few years ago, which helped with the water situation, but not entirely as you can see how buckled the pages are. Do consider investing in a sketchbook with watercolor paper and don’t be cheap like me! On another spread that I’ll share shortly I tore through the paper and had to put masking tape on the other side, but that then became part of the art on that page, so you could choose to wing it that way?

Ah yes, how to make a cloud background like this one with these two Stabilo woody colors?

Lightly draw cloud shapes at the top with the blue color, say one big one with a few smaller ones, and not too literal.
Use a paintbrush dipped in water to then move the color such that no line is evident.
Add more color to spaces between clouds with scribbles, and then spread out color with paint brush.
Draw cloud shaped in green color below band of blue and use same technique.
Only leave the top are of each cloud white, fill the lower area with a light wash of color to create the look of shadows found in clouds.
Have some paper towels on hand to dab, wipe and smear where necessary.

Enjoy the process, and just keep at it until you get it! Adding some white with Stabilo woody at the end might enhance your work, and in general the white woodies are used quite a bit, so get extra.

And yes, Stabilo woodies are not cheap, but treat them as real art supplies and the cost is well worth it!