Hope you're all enjoying the weekend. This is just a quick heads-up to let you know that my first sky video will be going live on my YouTube channel this week. It will be available at 9pm (UK time) on Friday 11th and the chat function will be enabled so that we can discuss things as the video is live. This has been enjoyable on previous occasions and if you've not tuned in before then please join us. The normal notification will be on my channel sometime during Friday.

This will be the first in a series of videos, and to start with we will look at some of the most important principles that are essential to keep in mind when painting skies and it is structured in two sections: The Importance of Skies in Landscape Painting and Understanding and Observing Skies. Over the years I have made a particular observation regarding skies (which I'm sure many others have noticed too) and use it to help me understand and simplify the process of sky painting. I'll do a quick study to demonstrate this principle based on a recent photo I took at Kimmeridge Bay (below.)

Using the same principle I will then demonstrate how this applies to skies with an entirely different scene - Tower Bridge in London which I shot on Friday last week(below.) Don't worry about the complexity of the scenes - that's not what this video is about, but I wanted to give you some examples of the types of landscapes we see from time to time that capture our attention and makes us stop and think "That would make an amazing painting!" quickly followed by "but I've no idea where to start!" Please don't be under any illusion that I no longer have such thoughts - I do, regularly, but my experience over the years has given me a method of analysing scenes and finding repeatable processes that allow me to adapt to almost any scene I want to paint. That's what drives my approach to teaching and why I tend to shy away from the follow-me tutorial model. I hope that in this series of videos you will be able to make some useful technical additions to your tool kits, helping you to become more versatile painters, able to respond to the scenes that capture your attention and imagination.

Over the coming weeks, the following videos will build on these basic principles and this is a road map on what I'll be covering:

VIDEO 2 - Strategies for Painting Successful Skies and Useful Sky Colours/Mixes

VIDEO 3 - Where Sky Meets Land and Using The Sky to Design Your Painting

VIDEO 4 - How to Paint a Clear Blue Sky and How to Paint Bright, Cloudy Skies

VIDEO 5 - How to Paint Skies at Sunrise and How to Paint Skies at Sunset

VIDEO 6 - How to Paint Stormy Skies and How to Paint Mist and Fog

I will also be throwing in a video at some point on painting skies on location and how to respond to fast moving skies and transient light.

A couple of quick things to say.........firstly, thank you to all of you that provided helpful feedback in my earlier post, asking for your thoughts on what challenges you when painting skies. I've done my best to accommodate those ideas into the program and your input has been much appreciated. Secondly, I've noticed a number of beginner/amateur painters recently using the various social media channels and even subscription-based platforms to promote themselves as art teachers, as if this is somehow a way to give their own work, prominence, credibility, acceptance etc. I've seen things like 'Painting Skies - it's Easy' or 'Learn these Four Skies in 10 minutes!' together with a deluge of time lapse sky paintings that offer little by way of instruction. I'm a big fan of people doing whatever they want, but as I spend a lot of time responding to the confused consumers of this type of 'teaching' might I suggest that your time would be better spent observing and experimenting yourselves? Painting skies in watercolour is NOT easy and despite the undeniable fun and enjoyment it brings, it is a serious and difficult medium to get to grips with, and deserves a more rigorous approach than that which Social Meeja thrusts our way! There are many pitfalls awaiting us when we paint skies and I hope that these videos will show you how to avoid them and where to focus your practice.

See you on Friday!