Skies and the Artist

Book excerpt: Eric Sloane always asserted that "Drawing clouds and sky is an important part of art study," pointing out that nearly every great picture features sky space. With this intelligent and insightful primer, he sets out to help art students master the art of painting the heavens. One of the first books of its kind, Sloane's guide to drawing clouds and sunsets does much more than teach you how to draw. Before the sketching even begins, he describes various kinds of clouds — cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and other formations — and offers homespun techniques that add texture and realism to cloud illustrations. Also discussed and illustrated are skies as accessories and basic subject matter within a sketch, the shape and anatomy of clouds, moods and shadows in cloud formations, and incorporating clouds within a sunset.