Painting Clouds.

Create a new canvas: FILE-->>NEW. Make sure your info is the same as mine. Just want to note that this tutorial is designed to teach you Painting techniques. If you're painting for a print, you would want to set the resolution to 300 dpi and create your documents in inches. As a result you will have a bigger canvas and it will take Photoshop longer to perform its task. Since my tutorials are for the computer monitor, I've settle for a resolution of 100 dpi (even though a monitor can only display 72 pixels per inch).

Using the Paint Bucket, fill the canvas with a dark color like the one I'm using. (I'm gonna be painting a dark cloudy sky.)

Using the Gradient tool set to "Foreground to Transparency" and an Opacity setting of 50% Pick a lighter color, click and hold shift from the bottom of the canvas, then dragging the tool to about 3/4 of the way up, let go of the mouse botton. That will give you a gradient of light to dark. Do the same thing one more time only now just go about 1/4 of the way up. That should make the lower part of the our sky a little more brighter.

Create a new layer. Using a size 100 Airbrush pick a dark color and paint some cloud shapes.

Using a size 200 eracer set at 40% opacity, start eracing the lower part of the cloud so the background sky shows trough a bit. With a size 21 Smudge tool with the strength set around 40%, start pulling the edges of the clouds into the sky creating the effects of High-altitude winds that effects the form of the clouds.

Make the first cloud layer disappear by clicking the "eye" icon to the left of layer 1 (located in the layers panel). Creat a new layer (layer 2). Using a size 100 Airbrush, pick a dark color and paint some cloud shapes. These clouds are lower and a lot more puffy than the higher clouds. Using a 200 size Eracer set at 40%, erace the lower part of the cloud so the background shows through a bit. With the smudge tool set around 40% start pulling and shaping the edge of the clouds. (Studying pictures of clouds is a must if you want to create realistic looking skies/clouds.) Using the Dodge tool set at midtones and 11% exposure start highlighting parts of the cloud that light will hit. Use the Burn tool at midtones and 11% exposure to darken parts of the clouds that is in shadows.> Use the smudge tool to farther blend and shape the newly highlighted and shadow areas of the clouds. Once that is done go to the background layer where the gradient sky is and highlight and darken with the Doge/Burn tool as you see fit. Make all layers visible and your sky full of clouds should be done!

Here's a look at my layers. Layer 1.

Layer 2.

Background sky layer.

The finished painting with all layers shown.

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