Today's video comes from Mark Chamberlain (our own specialty painter).
• The Star: Mark Chamberlain is an artist, painter and decorative painter living in New York. He writes a column on Color for Apartment Therapy. He has a BA in Studio Art from the University of MN.
• More Videos: Go To Video Channel
• Submissions Welcome: Are you a Maker? Do you have great how-tos and tips to share? Do you have a winning personality or are you just a great character? Tell us here and we'll consider sending our video team to tape you for the site.
• More in this Series:
• Specialty Painting Technique: The Strié
Weekend DIYs: 10 Wood Molding Projects for the Home
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Ercol Bar Stool
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
Nice! just wish the samples he was painting were much better lit.
A group of us hand painted a sky ceiling in our friend's son's nursery almost 4 years ago. The clouds looked great, but her son was terrified of them (from about when he was a year old on). Now that he's a little bit older, he was able to explain he doesn't like the clouds because they "watch him" - turns out that we unintentionally painted a scary face into one of the clouds that is only noticeable at night and was RIGHT across from his bed, the poor thing!
Long story short, sky ceilings are great.. just be mindful of what the paint does in different lighting!!
Scary faces! As a sometime professional mural painter and full-time classical multi-figure and landscape painter, yeah, this is something to avoid, not just in clouds. For large areas, I always do a small version first (to show to clients, too) and then work larger. Step back now and then and see if you find things that look "wrong," like faces or weird distracting abstract patterns. Reverse by looking in a mirror, then, maybe invite a kid or a non artist to give their opinion (a Da Vinci trick.) they are sure to nail the offensive area! Looking through dark sunglasses or taking a B/W photo helps too especially with the tonal changes, where less contrast is more expansive and restful. Think about the borders and corners and not having the eye travel or get stuck in these areas - you want the eye to relax and stay pleasantly refreshed. And don't have the big focal area in the center, keep it in the 1/3 areas, off center but not close to the edge either. Those are traditional composition rules the old masters used and they work, even in a nursery ceiling!