Clouds

                                       The Great Smoky Mountains

High on the peaks of the Smoky Mountains, visitors can look down on the clouds that settle into the valleys below.  Rendering their soft look can be a problem.  The key is to paint the cloud, let it dry, then re-wet the edges and paint the darker mountains up or down to the cloud.  The result should be a soft edge.

In this painting, the technique is used several times as each layer of mountains gets closer and a little darker.  Without the softness, the white area of clouds would look like a lake.  The soft edges describe the quality of a cloud bank.