Tuesday Tips and Techniques: How to Create Skies That Aren’t Intense Blue

Here’s a great tip from Joyce Hicks’ video workshop “Hilltop Homestead” (now available in digital options in the CCP shop) on skies:

If you don’t want your sky to be as intense, try mixing just a bit of burnt sienna into your cobalt blue. Burnt sienna has a lot of orange in it, so acts as the blue’s complement (opposite) and greys it down. This is important for Joyce’s work because she wants that sky to be in the background. And if it was too intense, it would visually move forward and fight the rest of her painting for attention.

Learn more great watercolor tips from Joyce Hicks’ “Hilltop Homestead.”