Perspective in Nature: Puffy Clouds, part 1
I’m back with another in the “Perspective in Nature” series! Last time we looked at roads and paths (missed that? Click here and catch up!)
This time, by popular request – clouds. They’re all poofy, do they exhibit properties of perspective? Yes!
Tutorial: Perspective in Nature: Puffy Clouds part 1
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
In each example, tab through the sliders to see each photo.
When standing in your yard, or anywhere without a “long” view, you’ll see limited perspective. It might just be one or two close clouds. The only distance might be wispy louds like those shoen here that are far away, but they don’t visually do much to show perspective.
In a view not seen often, this looks down at clouds – they’re below the airplane window. But it’s easy to see larger clouds close up and tiny ones in the distance. While it *could* be a size difference that doesn’t have a relationship to their placement in space – it’s more likely they’re similarly sized. Just some of them are very very far away, therefor smaller.
Looking straight up, though, we see the UNDERside of the cloud. Sometimes that’s all you see when it’s directly overhead. Think of looking up at a skyscraper, as in the 2nd photo.
There may be a glow of light around the edges. Like in the first photo, the wispy clouds might just be smaller but also could be above the cloud.
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But more normally, we’re looking out at the side of clouds, most of the time with some view of the underside of the cloud as well, since we’re on the ground. The “boxes” one might draw around a cloud would be up in the air so that we see the bottom side. But the distant clouds are more definitely far away, getting smaller and more greyed out.
When clouds get complex and piled up on each other, assess them one at a time. Which is closest? Where’s midground? How far apart are different cloud groups?
Beware of supersunny days! It can lead you to think the entire cloud bank is just one tall pileup of clouds, with no depth at all.
You can choose to render them with their light, pale shadows – but you also have the option to increase contrast just a little to help define clouds a little better.
Keep an eye out directly overhead! A portion of a cloud in deep shadow might be peeking in. And look for small cloudlets (like the tiny dark ones in front of the huge white cloud) that can float out in front of it to indicate depth.
In this instance, a big cloud overhead might be the cause for some other clouds to be shrouded in grey – if you take your own reference photos, I always try to shoot more of the sky at least to help me know what else I was seeing. Straight up shots can tell you what’s causing shadows.
And last but not least – while the shape/edge of a bank of clouds might make you think that also indicates where a vanishing point is – clouds are moved around by wind and don’t conform to the rules of perspective on land.
In part 2….
I’ll show you a wash & ink sketch of some clouds, so you’ll see some ideas for getting a watercolor painting done – as well as how to draw clouds in pen and ink. (And I’ll make some cards out of the sketch too!)
