STAGE THREE
Now use the tip of the white pastel to draw the light detail along the horizon area of the sky, the underside of the dark cloud, and to cut into the grey of the distant hills to create edges to the horizon along the top of the hills. Using the tip adds more pastel to the surface, which is what you want when you are adding light details. Use a shaper tool to soften this but don’t press too hard. Now use the side and tip of the pastel to apply the white to the mid-section of pale cloud on the left and the bright top edges of the cloud. Use dabbing marks and blend gently so you don’t lose the texture. The moment you blend the pastel in it mixes slightly with the colour underneath – so here it turns slightly grey. Now add a further layer of white to the very brightest parts of the cloud edges and blend very gently so they remain the lightest areas. This will help create a 3D effect
Tackling the rain is an exciting if daunting stage. Add a lot of white pastel to the bright area of cloud above the rain pressing firmly, then a smaller amount of white down towards the middle hill. Use the flat side of your thumb to pull this light area very firmly down at a slight diagonal towards the top of the middle hill. You will need to repeat this a few times, but you must clean your thumb each time you do so, or you will dull the white. Next add some light at the bottom of the rain and pull that back up towards the cloud. Use a shaper tool to blend and some paler grey to soften the edges to create a haze of rain.
For final details use a 2B Wolff’s Carbon Pencil or a dark pastel pencil to draw over the field boundaries and trees. Aim to build up the trees on the middle hill to give some shapes in front of the rain. This area may have become slightly muddied when you were working on your rain effect, so you can now correct it and enhance as needed. Also add any further textures you want to have on the foreground where the field boundaries disappear into the darker area. I also ran my fingers over some of the clouds to add extra movement and muted some areas that were too detailed