Painting the Sky in Acrylics - Beginners - Southwell Library - Adult Learning

Discover how to capture the beauty, drama, and atmosphere of the sky in this relaxed, beginner-friendly painting workshop. Whether you're inspired by soft morning light, glowing sunsets, or expressive storm clouds, this 6-week course will guide you through the process of painting skies using acrylics.

This course offers a supportive space for beginners to explore painting skies while developing their skills and personal style with acrylics.

Through step-by-step demonstrations and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn how to work with colour blending, layering, and brush techniques to create realistic and expressive skies.

You’ll explore:

• How light, weather, and time of day affect mood and composition, and how to translate that onto the canvas in your own way. Perfect for those new to acrylics or landscape painting, this workshop is a great opportunity to build skills, gain confidence, and go home with a beautiful sky painting of your own.

• Ways to simplify and sketch a sky composition before painting

• Techniques for blending colours smoothly using acrylic paint

• How to choose and mix colours that reflect mood, atmosphere, and lighting

• Brushwork techniques for soft clouds, bold skies, and subtle transitions

• How to create depth and perspective in a skyscape

• Develop and implement a marketing plan using at least 3 different channels (e.g., social media, email marketing, and local events) to promote their products

What you will need to bring to the course:

• acrylic or watercolour sketch pad

• white acrylic gesso

• 30x 40cm stretched canvas

• acrylic paint (Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Magenta, Cadmium Red, Titanium White)

• a range of synthetic brushes.