Background

• Decide whether the clouds will be in a sunny daytime sky, at dawn or dusk, or if they'll be storm clouds. Paint the ceiling a light, bright blue for a daytime sky. Dusk calls for deep blue or purple. Storm clouds leave you more options. Start on one side of the room with light blue, and blend it into increasingly dark gradations until the color is almost black along the opposite wall, to suggest a storm moving in. Light gray is less dramatic but provides a neutral background for storm clouds.
  
  

The Clouds

• Daytime clouds appear to be white, with slightly darker areas that aren't getting as much sunlight as other areas or where they overlap with other clouds. Imagine where the sun is in relation to your clouds. Outline the cloud shapes in white, fill in the outline with white paint mixed with a minute amount of black or dark blue, and add very light gray or pale blue to the spots where the imaginary sun isn't shining. Thunderheads typically have very dark bottoms. Use the same technique but use a darker gray to fill in what would be the bottom if you weren't working on a flat surface. Clouds at dawn and dusk show yellows and oranges where the setting sun glows on them.
  
  

Highlights

• Add highlights to the ceiling by painting a bright yellow sun in one corner so that part of it is on the ceiling and part is on the two walls that meet at the corner. Paint rays that travel along the ceiling and pierce the clouds. In a room with a chair rail, paint a half sun starting to rise over the rail, and paint the rays up the wall, across the ceiling and through the clouds. Add lightning bolts and blowing rain to storm clouds, and let a setting sun peek through the dusky clouds.
  
  

Extras

• If you're an optimist, paint a silver lining on your clouds. Add fun with fairies or cherubs. Give your clouds depth by suspending cotton clouds from the ceiling beneath them. Paint a Styrofoam ball yellow to represent the sun, and hang it from the ceiling. Paint cloud shadows on one wall or dappled leaves that look as though the sun is shining through the clouds onto a tree.