Clouds are very common in paintings of hills and mountains. There are two ways of depicting them: i. leave empty spaces of various sizes among the hills and woods, then apply thin ink washes on them, gradually blurring the outlines of the hills and woods bordering the empty spaces. z. trace out the contours of clouds, spacing them among the hills . Clouds, as well as sky and flowing water, are an important part of the spaces. If concrete objects are depicted everywhere, or if there is not enough empty space, the painting will appear overloaded. The concrete is accentuated by space, so due attention must be paid to depicting the latter.'
An expanse of water is usually represented by a blank space. Just a few lines in thin ink are sometimes added to create the effect of waves or ripples .The upper drawing is a representation of big waves; the lower one is of ripples, in which the thin lines were put in first and the thick lines added later. This combination of thick and thin lines was a method used by artists of the Yuan dynasty. When painting spray, be careful not to produce too many sharp angles. The lower painting is of eddies. Take care that these do not resemble wood grain.