This is an average lesson. It can be difficult for adults to repeat this lesson, so I don’t recommend drawing the sky for this lesson for young children, but if you have a great desire, then you can try. I also want to note the lesson "" - be sure to try to repeat it if you have time and desire to draw today.
What you need
In order to draw the sky, we may need:
- You need Photoshop software.
- A little patience.
- Good mood.
Step by step lesson
Natural phenomena are difficult to draw. That is, it is not difficult to draw them, but to achieve realism is much more difficult. I always recommend looking at the original in order to repeat exactly what you are going to draw. In the Yandex image search, it is enough to search for "the sky in the photo" to get a large number of the required material.
By the way, in addition to this lesson, I advise you to turn your attention to the lesson "". It will help improve your mastery or just give you a little pleasure.
Tip: do it different actions on different layers. The more layers you make, the easier it will be for you to manage the drawing. So the sketch can be done on the bottom layer, and the white version on the top, and when the sketch is not needed, you can simply turn off the visibility of this layer.
When completing the lesson, please note that due to differences in program versions, some menu items and tools may be called differently or not at all. This might make the tutorial a little difficult to follow, but I think you can do it.
First, I filled the canvas with a gradient fill. I took the dark blue and light blue colors shown in the picture below. Since we are trying to draw the sky, which we look at from the bottom up, the lower part of the canvas will be farther from us, which means lighter and paler. Keep this in mind while drawing and try to maintain this ratio throughout the work.
Now that we have done the most important thing, let's try to make a sketch. You can, of course, create on the fly, but I prefer to arrange the composition somehow before starting to draw. I wanted to display light feathers below, place on the right, and under it a small cloud. Well, the hero of the picture will be a trace from a flying one. Once you've sketched, it's best to keep it on the topmost layer and turn it back on periodically to compare with what you're getting. True, not infrequently, the composition may change in the course of drawing. But it's not scary. The main thing is that this does not happen by accident and then you do not have to fix everything.
My main brush for painting clouds is a soft round brush (Soft Round Brush). I usually draw on a large canvas (this drawing was made in the size of 2400*3200 pixels). But the whole time I was painting, it was reduced to 25%.
I find it comfortable to paint with a very large range of brush radii. Yes, and for the aircraft and small parts, you will need an increase, otherwise accuracy may not work.
So, with a soft round brush with a very large diameter, I highlight the surface where the sun and cloud will be. What does it mean to illuminate? I just paint on top of the places I need with low opacity and pressure (approximately 20-30%) - where the sun, cloud, feather clouds will be. That is, chaotically, but deliberately I fill in more light color canvas. In order for the work not to be completely monotonous, I add the same Blue colour, but slightly different from those already available. You can choose any color you like. Just remember that it should also be bluish-yellow.
Tip: Don't skip this step. Due to laziness and the desire to quickly start drawing clouds, many people skip this seemingly insignificant step. But it is he who forms the beginning of the volume of the sky. If this is not done, then your sky will look flat, and the clouds will look sharp and cardboard.
With the same brush, but with a small diameter, I outline the first stripes of clouds in the distance. I paint with a little opacity (20-30%), sometimes with straight lines, sometimes with hatching or even spirals. Try different variants and leave the ones that seem more suitable to you. In fact, there is nothing complicated here. The main thing to remember is that you need to draw with different diameters and, as it were, layer by layer, gently pass over the top.
Tip: Try not to immediately boost the clouds to white. Do it gradually. Remember that the lines should not be solid and continuous, and most importantly, they should not be dense and thick. That is why we paint with a soft brush and low opacity. Only by the end you need to increase the opacity and carefully detail with thin stripes or spirals.
I continue to add stripes of clouds at the bottom of the drawing and sketched out the base for the clouds, which I plan to place to the right of the airplane. Please note that I did all this with a low opacity and even for light detailing I used a range of approximately 40-50%.
Now, I took a brush from the set for painting clouds and with a very low opacity (20-30%) and went over the upper right part of the picture, gradually blending the colors, taking with the eyedropper those that turned out in the picture. Thus, we get a smooth transition. There is not much to explain here. This step is identical immediately to the first step after filling the gradient. The only difference is the brush.
I didn't like how I positioned the cloud on the left, so I modified it slightly with the help of the Liquify filter and pulled it to the left. In general, this tool is quite useful for fixing what you don't like. The main thing here is not to overdo it.
Tip: Save often. Especially if you are just a beginner artist, then save more files so that you can roll back. If possible, paint on a small number of layers, merging them together along the way. Big number layers are not a crime, but they eat a lot of memory from your computer. Well, a small number of layers gradually kills the fear of corrections.
Now that we've tweaked the image a bit, I'm back to the soft round brush. I increase the opacity to 50-70% and paint with a very small diameter. What am I doing? That's right - I detail the clouds a little. The main thing to remember here is that the strokes should be short, sometimes even just dotted squiggles, spirals, strokes. Do not draw long, unbroken lines, straight or curved. Do everything in small pieces. And if at the same time you still have pen pressure working well enough, then you will see how much difference there will be between a solid squiggle and pieces. So, I detailed the clouds on the left a little and darkened the clouds on the right a little, as I began to miss the clear sky.
After carefully studying my drawing, I decided to abandon the arcuate cloud on the left and painted over it with a large soft brush with a low opacity, applying layer by layer. The most important thing here is not to be afraid to abandon the idea and come up with something new. There is nothing wrong with redrawing. But usually this understanding just comes with time. Now, with a cloud brush, with low opacity and a small diameter, I sketched in the cloud on the left and intensified the cloud on the upper right, creating noticeable transitions that can be mistaken for soft cloud transitions.
Tip: If you just draw a line with a cloud brush, you will end up with just a spot with ragged edges. In order to get the volume, again, you need to make small strokes with this brush. By overlaying them in random order and have an exclusively visual look, whether you like it or not.
All this time I paint exclusively in white or, taking the color directly from the drawing with an eyedropper, when I made the general mass for the spot on the right, where the sun will be. But for the cloud, I also took dark blue color and added it below and a little bit between the white. Since light falls on the cloud from above, a small one will be from below. It is almost imperceptible, but gives a sense of volume.
Armed again (and again, again) with a soft brush at an already high opacity (about 70%), I added details to the clouds on the left, giving them a little more volume. And again, I do this in very smooth and short strokes. Sometimes I just point.
Then I took a light yellow color and added it to the top right corner (soft round brush with low opacity (~30%) and large diameter) where I have the sun. Remember to keep the top left corner dark and clean. There you can add a little purple in order to enhance the depth.
Further actions are not much different from all the previous ones. I step up White color on feather clouds using small and large diameters with varying degrees of opacity. If I don't like a place, I don't erase it, but paint over it with a brush with a large diameter and then detail it again. If you erase, you will get a gap, which then will be more difficult to fix than to paint over.
I clean the sky where there are no clouds, as it is a little dirty with a lighter color. I smooth the transitions from dark blue and down to light. All this is done elementarily with the same brush with a large diameter and low opacity.
The process is coming to an end. I again process all the clouds a little and reduce the saturation at the very bottom. It seemed to me that the clouds were superfluous there. They stuck to the bottom of the picture, removing the feeling of volume. I reduce the saturation very simply - with a brush with a large diameter and low opacity, I just paint over it. The main thing here is not to regret what you drew.
Tip: In such cases, try painting on a separate layer, and then play with its transparency settings, choosing the interval that seems most ideal to you. And when you are satisfied - merge the layers.
I filled the remaining space with two stripes from the plane using a cloud brush with different opacity and diameter.
- First, with a thin round soft brush, I painted one stripe, then I duplicated it and, after turning it a little as I needed with the transformation, placed it next to it.
- By increasing the resolution, I used a cloud brush with 100% opacity to go over the entire length of the stripes, gradually increasing the radius of the brush.
- Switching to the eraser, I lowered its opacity and set the eraser brush to the cloud brush and corrected the stripes that I have spread a little to the sides, since the cloud brush does not lay down in a straight line.
- With the same eraser, but with a larger diameter, I rubbed the tail a little, making it more transparent and dissolved in the sky.
- Well, then with a couple of strokes I painted the plane itself. The plane is drawn in such a situation simply with a hard round brush in white. That is, we draw only glare from the sun. And that's all.
I slightly tighten the contrast automatically and see that this way I like the result more, although the difference came out and is not too noticeable. I add a filter Render-> Lens Flare (Filter - Rendering - Glare), setting the point with the "sun" in the upper right corner. I leave all values by default.
Tip: If this results in circles in the top corner, go over the top with a brush to mask the result of the filter.
That, in fact, is all!
I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the lesson on how to draw a sky and hope that you were able to repeat the lesson. Now you can pay attention to the lesson "" - it is just as interesting and exciting. Share this tutorial with your friends on social media. networks.
So, if you want to learn how to masterfully draw the sky, you should pay attention to the following points:
- The Importance of Soft Edges
- colored gray shades emphasize the brightest parts of the picture
- aerial perspective
- There is no pure white in the sky
- Don't be held hostage by photography
- Use large brushes
- The lightest shade is even lighter than it looks
- Thick layers of paint and glaze
- Linear perspective in the clouds
- Depiction of clouds as solid objects
1. On the importance of soft edges and boundaries in the sky
When you are painting the sky, it is very important to keep the edges in mind. In all of nature, you will not find other such soft intersecting boundaries as some clouds.
It is also important to remember the balance between hard and soft edges. This will help you adjust the volume and transparency of the clouds.
Some clouds are so thin that the sky can be seen through them. To emphasize them, add the color of the sky to the color of the cloud, soften the edges of the cloud itself and the gaps in it.
In addition, the sky gradually changes its color towards the horizon. Use glazing and blending of shades to correctly draw such a transition.
An example of soft and clear cloud contours. Fragment of Robie Benve painting “Much Needed”.
2. Colored grays highlight the brightest parts of the picture
I really love bright colors appearing during sunsets. But at the same time, I know that a lot of intense shades are not very good for painting. In order to emphasize the brightest and most saturated areas of your painting, you need to add a few neutrals, perhaps even “dirty” shades to the work.
You need dirty colors to make bright ones sound louder. A range of gray shades are a great addition to a colorful sky. A bright orange will look even brighter when placed next to a gray.
Speaking of gray color, I do not mean at all the shade obtained by mixing black and white, and certainly we are not talking about the finished gray color from tubes or cuvettes. I like the gray shades, which are obtained by mixing those colors that remained on the palette after painting the clouds, sky and other objects in the picture.
3. Aerial perspective
Looking into the distance, you can see how the colors and shades gradually change in the sky and on the ground. This is due to the effect of the air atmosphere.
The greater the distance between us and the object, the more pronounced this effect.
Look at the landscape stretching all the way to the horizon and note the following:
- the farther away the objects of the landscape are, the lighter and faded they are, the closer to us, the richer their color becomes;
- in the distance the colors of objects become cold, in the foreground - warm shades;
- as you move towards the horizon, the contrasts are smoothed out, becoming less noticeable.
This is true both for painting vegetation and for working on the sky.
Remember one more important point: the sky above us is always darker, but it becomes lighter towards the horizon.
Watch, explore the clouds as often as you can. This will help you draw them better.
4. There is no pure white in the sky
Lighting color affects all other colors. Previously, I used white to paint the tops of the sunlit clouds. Later I realized that the color of the clouds also depends on the lighting. There are no pure white patches in the sky.
Since then I have been mixing white with yellow, magenta, purple or blue flowers depending on weather conditions and cloud cover. The bare minimum that I can afford is to add a little bit of orange to the white to make it warmer.
I use zinc white for blending the main shades and titanium for the shades that I will work with in the most lighted areas. I do this because titanium white is less translucent and can block other shades, while zinc white is more transparent and allows me more control over the mixing process to achieve the desired shade.
Robie Benve Glimpse
5. Don't be held hostage by photography
If you are painting from a photograph, do not be afraid to refuse certain elements in the picture that will not decorate the composition of your future work. It might be a good idea, for example, to adjust the line of the clouds or move the trees, blur the line of the coast, etc.
Give yourself permission to make those changes that will make your painting more interesting. After all, your work will not hang next to the original photo, and no one will know what the shape of this cloud really was and whether all the trees were the same size.
When drawing from a photo, it is important to remember one more thing - the camera changes the color ratios. The dark areas look darker in the photo, the shadows lose a lot of detail. In fact, even in the shadows, we can observe a sufficient amount of color, different color variations.
6. Use big brushes
I thought I was painting with brushes of a good, appropriate size. However, I continued to feel dissatisfied with my work. They did not feel light, they seemed overloaded with details, recycled. Then I realized - I need large brushes.
Use the largest brush sizes at the beginning of a painting and switch to smaller ones towards the end.
Think large forms, sections, and only at the very end go to the detail. Move from the general to the specific.
Continue to use brushes throughout the painting bigger size than the ones you are used to. Take the brush, then put it back and take another size or two larger.
At the very end, add details, but do not overdo it.
7. The lightest shade is even lighter than it looks
It's another one important point, which took me a long time to realize at the very beginning. Yellow is light color, So? Then why doesn't the yellow sky at my sunset look bright enough?
When comparing my drawing and photograph with the help of a tone scale, I noticed that the light shades I typed turned out to be much darker than I thought.
We are talking about the difference in the perception of color when we mix it on the palette, and then add it to the picture.
The perception of a shade of color also depends on what surrounds it. For example, it may appear warm on the palette, but after we've added a tint to the canvas, it starts to appear colder.
I found myself diluting some paint and testing it on canvas to see if it was the right shade for me.
As experience shows - even if you paint a foggy day, the sky will remain the lightest area in your picture.
Hint: If you want to get some light shade - take white paint and add little by little desired colors. Darkening a color is easier than brightening it.
tone scale
Looking at the clouds, try to immediately pay attention to how they change, going into the distance (in perspective), color, size, light, etc.
The photo shows a beautiful cloudy day.
8. Thick layers of paint and glaze
The sky is woven from air, steam, particles.
I like to start painting with thin transparent layers. At the very beginning of work, I breed acrylic paints with water, and oily with an odorless thinner. After that, I begin to apply paint to the canvas, controlling the density of the layer, brightening or darkening individual areas, depending on the object being depicted.
The initial work with dark and light areas allows me to organize and think over the composition of the picture. I always start with this approach, it applies to the sky and any objects on the ground.
After the preliminary underpainting is ready, I continue to work with layers, adding them in the places I need in the picture. I have noticed that dark areas look better if thinner is added to the the right colors and shades.
I apply paint more thickly on those parts of the clouds that are closer to the viewer, and I want to emphasize their outlines.
Sometimes there are also such light clouds, disheveled by the wind.
Robie Benve
9. Linear perspective in the clouds
Lines and proportions in the sky follow the same rules and laws of perspective that apply to objects on the ground, with vanishing points and lines leading to them.
If you look at clouds from an airplane, you see them floating parallel to the ground.
If you look at the clouds from the ground, you can easily imagine that they are like a table top, and we are under it.
The clouds get smaller as you get closer to the vanishing point, just like any other object when it comes to linear perspective.
10. Image of clouds as solid objects
You may find it easier to draw clouds if you think of them as solid objects. Although they have jagged, ragged edges and are transparent, think of them as geometric shapes- parallelepipeds or cubes.
This approach will help you understand how to correctly distribute the areas of light and shadow on the cloud.
Make a preliminary sketch on a separate sheet of paper, representing the clouds in the form of connecting cubes. Analyze where the light falls, which areas are in the shadow and penumbra, where the reflex is located.
Starting to work directly on the picture itself, glance at your study from time to time. Don't forget to round and smooth the edges of the clouds to give them a nice, interesting shape.
Only by observing the clouds, studying their dynamics, how they appear and change, you can learn how to draw them masterfully.
I can stare at the sky and the ever-changing clouds for hours. I especially like sunsets. They give me a quiet joy.
Because of my emotional attachment to them and the visual pleasure of contemplating them, a few years ago I began to pay special attention to the sky in my paintings.
At first I was horrified by my painting. Painted on canvas, the clouds never looked the way I imagined them in my mind. They seemed very childish, amateurish.
But I continued to practice. I started looking into drawing books and reading chapters on the sky and clouds, watching videos on this topic.
Self-study and sky painting practice improved my skills over time.Each picture teaches you something new!
I do not stop there and continue to work and develop further - I read art magazines and articles, watch master classes and instructional videos, and of course I continue to draw a lot. It helps me understand which techniques work and which don't.
How to paint the sky in watercolor?
After all, there should be a completely different technical approach in mixing colors and work steps!
Learn the basics of watercolor paintingwith a popular course
In this lesson, I will try to show you how to draw a sky with a small number of clouds quite quickly and quite simply.
For painting, I used a simple round soft brush, and for the lesson I used a brush from the Adonihs package - Cloud Brush 2
Materials for the lesson:
A little advice: Try not to use the cloud brush too hard and often. Otherwise, your drawing will not look very believable. This brush is very good to use for creating a general background and a barely noticeable haze. Detailing and drawing the clouds themselves, if possible, with a soft brush with varying degrees of pressure and opacity.
(click on image to enlarge)
First, I filled the canvas with a gradient fill. I took the dark blue and light blue colors shown in the picture below. Since we are trying to draw the sky, which we look at from the bottom up, the lower part of the canvas will be farther from us, which means lighter and paler. Keep this in mind while drawing and try to maintain this ratio throughout the work.
Now that we have done the most important thing, let's try to make a sketch. You can, of course, create on the fly, but I prefer to arrange the composition somehow before starting to draw. I wanted to display light feather clouds from below, place the sun on the right, and under it a small cloud. Well, the hero of the picture will be a trail from a flying plane. Once you've sketched, it's best to keep it on the topmost layer and turn it back on periodically to compare with what you're getting. True, not infrequently, the composition may change in the course of drawing. But it's not scary. The main thing is that this does not happen by accident and then you do not have to fix everything.
My main brush for painting clouds is soft round brush(Soft Round Brush). I usually draw on a large canvas (this drawing was made in the size of 2400*3200 pixels). But the whole time I was painting, it was reduced to 25%.
I find it comfortable to paint with a very large range of brush radii. Yes, and for the aircraft and small parts, you will need an increase, otherwise accuracy may not work.
So soft round tassel with a very large diameter, I highlight the surface where the sun and cloud will be. What does it mean to illuminate? I just paint on top of the places I need with low opacity and pressure (approximately 20-30%) - where the sun, cloud, feather clouds will be. That is, randomly, but deliberately, I fill the canvas with a lighter color. In order for the work not to be completely monotonous, I add the same blue color to the center, but slightly different from the existing ones. You can choose any color you like. Just remember that it should also be bluish-yellow.
Advice: Don't skip this step. Due to laziness and the desire to quickly start drawing clouds, many people skip this seemingly insignificant step. But it is he who forms the beginning of the volume of the sky. If this is not done, then your sky will look flat, and the clouds will look sharp and cardboard.
Still the same brush, but already with a small diameter, I outline the first bands of clouds in the distance. I paint with a slight opacity (20-30%) sometimes with straight lines, sometimes with hatching or even spirals. Try different options and keep the ones that seem more suitable to you. In fact, there is nothing complicated here. The main thing to remember is that you need to draw with different diameters and, as it were, layer by layer, gently pass over the top.
Advice: Try not to immediately increase the clouds to white. Do it gradually. Remember that the lines should not be solid and continuous, and most importantly, they should not be dense and thick. That's why we paint with soft tassel and at low opacity. Only by the end you need to increase the opacity and carefully detail with thin stripes or spirals.
I continue to add stripes of clouds at the bottom of the drawing and sketched out the base for the clouds, which I plan to place to the right of the airplane. Please note that I did all this with a low opacity and even for light detailing I used a range of approximately 40-50%.
Now I have taken brush from the set for painting clouds and with a very low opacity (20-30%) and walked along the upper right part of the picture, gradually mixing the colors, taking with an eyedropper those that turned out in the picture. Thus, we get a smooth transition. There is not much to explain here. This step is identical immediately to the first step after filling the gradient. The only difference is the brush.
I did not like how I positioned the cloud on the left and using the filter Liquify I slightly modified it and pulled it to the left. In general, this tool is quite useful for fixing what you don't like. The main thing here is not to overdo it.
Advice: Save more. Especially if you are just a beginner artist, then save more files so that you can roll back. If possible, paint on a small number of layers, merging them together along the way. A large number of layers is not a crime, but they eat a lot of memory from your computer. Well, a small number of layers gradually kills the fear of corrections.
Now that we've tweaked the image a bit, I'm back to round soft tassel. I increase the opacity to 50-70% and paint with a very small diameter. What am I doing? That's right - I detail the clouds a little. The main thing to remember here is that the strokes should be short, sometimes even just dotted squiggles, spirals, strokes. Do not draw long, unbroken lines, straight or curved. Do everything in small pieces. And if at the same time you still have pen pressure working well enough, then you will see how much difference there will be between a solid squiggle and pieces. So, I detailed the clouds on the left a little and darkened the clouds on the right a little, as I began to miss the clear sky.
After carefully studying my drawing, I decided to abandon the arcuate cloud on the left and painted over it with a large soft brush with a low opacity, applying layer by layer. The most important thing here is not to be afraid to abandon the idea and come up with something new. There is nothing wrong with redrawing. But usually this understanding just comes with time. Now, with a cloud brush, with low opacity and a small diameter, I sketched in the cloud on the left and intensified the cloud on the upper right, creating noticeable transitions that can be mistaken for soft cloud transitions.
Advice: If you just draw a line with a cloud brush, you will get just a spot with torn edges. In order to get the volume, again, you need to make small strokes with this brush. By overlaying them in random order and have an exclusively visual look, whether you like it or not.
All this time I paint exclusively in white or, taking the color directly from the drawing with an eyedropper, when I made the general mass for the spot on the right, where the sun will be. But for the cloud, I also took a dark blue color and added it below and a little between the white. Since light falls on the cloud from above, a small shadow will be from below. It is almost imperceptible, but gives a sense of volume.
Armed again (and again, again) soft tassel With the opacity already high (about 70%), I added detail to the clouds on the left, giving them a little more volume. And again, I do this in very smooth and short strokes. Sometimes I just point.
Then I took a light yellow color and added it to the top right corner (soft round brush with low opacity (~30%) and large diameter) where I have the sun. Remember to keep the top left corner dark and clean. There you can add a little purple in order to enhance the depth.
Further actions are not much different from all the previous ones. I enhance the whites on the feather clouds with small and large diameters with varying degrees of opacity. If I don't like a place, I don't erase it, but draw over it. brush with a larger diameter and then detail again. If you erase, you will get a gap, which then will be more difficult to fix than to paint over.
I clean the sky where there are no clouds, as it is a little dirty with a lighter color. I smooth the transitions from dark blue and down to light. All this is done elementarily with the same brush with a large diameter and low opacity.
The process is coming to an end. I again process all the clouds a little and reduce the saturation at the very bottom. It seemed to me that the clouds were superfluous there. They stuck to the bottom of the picture, removing the feeling of volume. I reduce the saturation very simply - with a brush with a large diameter and low opacity, I just paint over it. The main thing here is not to regret what you drew.
Advice: In such cases, try painting on a separate layer, and then play with its transparency settings, choosing the interval that seems most ideal to you. And when you are satisfied - merge the layers.
I filled the remaining space with two stripes from the plane using a cloud brush with different opacity and diameter.
1. First, with a thin round soft brush, I painted one stripe, then I duplicated it and, having turned a little as I needed with the transformation, placed it next to it.
2. By increasing the resolution, tassel for the clouds at 100% opacity, I went over the entire length of the stripes, gradually increasing the radius of the brush.
3. Switching to eraser, I lowered its opacity and set the eraser brush to the cloud brush and corrected the stripes that I have spread a little to the sides, since the cloud brush does not lay down in a straight line.
4. Still the same eraser, but with a larger diameter, I rubbed the tail a little, making it more transparent and dissolved in the sky.
5. Well, then I painted the plane itself with a couple of strokes. The plane is drawn in such a situation simply with a rigid round tassel in white. That is, we draw only glare from the sun. And that's all.
I slightly tighten the contrast automatically and see that this way I like the result more, although the difference came out and is not too noticeable. I add a filter Render->Lens Flare(Filter - Rendering - Highlights), setting the point with the "sun" in the upper right corner. I leave all values by default.
Advice: If this results in circles in the upper corner, go over the top with a brush to mask the result of the filter.
That, in fact, is all!
If you are not entirely clear how this work was drawn, you can download a PSD file with the original size of the work and with a large number of layers.
Here are the clouds that I got as a result of a step-by-step drawing test.
Did new series stages of drawing clouds. This time I specifically sat down to draw a work that will serve for demonstration purposes and will try to tell what and how I do while drawing clouds.
I want to say right away that such important things as experience and practice have a great influence on the quality of work. With a lot of practice, solutions to questions and problems are often found on their own. With experience comes confidence and courage in drawing, the belief that it is possible to achieve what needs to be depicted.
Maybe and most likely without experience in drawing clouds, and I drew enough of them, I could not draw a version of the landscape that pleases me according to this lesson. You just need to draw and rejoice at the achievements that will give new strength and a desire to move on.
About tools
Brush
Enjoyed 99% is a brush. It's the same for me everywhere.
Enabled dependence of transparency on pen pressure tablet. I hope you have a tablet, because without it you can’t draw on a computer) The picture above is marked with a red circle.
The size of the brush does not change with the degree of pressing. All.
Hotkeys
1. F- I put Photoshop in a mode where you can drag the canvas with the “Hand” tool, even if it is not to scale. Try pressing F and dragging the canvas by clicking on it and holding the space bar. If it doesn't work, then click again.
A trifle, but helps to pull the canvas to the surface next to the layers panel, and not behind it.
2. Space. I think you know, holding down the spacebar - appears fast hand, which can again pull the canvas. I use all the time
3. On buttons W And S Appointed an increase and decrease in the brush. I have described how to do it.
4. alt- by holding this button, the brush goes into the pipette mode and when you poke on the canvas, the new selected color is selected. A very important button. All my cloud drawing technique is based on it.
Technique
In the demo image below, I will try to demonstrate exactly how I use it.
For simplicity, 2 colors. The color of the sky and clouds. As a rule, I start with two colors, and add the rest later. Same with this demo.
1. Draw a cloud.
2. Taking the color of the sky with a pipette (Alt), I begin to draw torn edges, creating random brains with different intensity of pen pressure, respectively, and transparency.
3. I choose again adjacent color and outline the edges with a different color. Thus, by adjusting the shape, an interesting effect of cloud liveliness and airiness is obtained.
1. Initial form
It was described above how to draw initial form clouds. Subsequent drawing steps in the same way just color and shade different.
2. Adding a new shade
I love light yellow. I will add him. I will outline the edges of the cloud, mostly on the left, signaling that the sun is falling on them from the left.
Hue can and should be done more. I limited myself to 3, so as not to complicate the lesson.
3. Adding light to the clouds
I like to add layers of color to the lit and not so bright parts of the picture by changing the blending mode. In this case, it is “Hard light”. I always try everything before deciding. I press in the layers panel on the blending mode and flip through the up / down buttons on the keyboard, following the effect. If it gets tired, then I leave it.
Here I wanted to achieve the illumination and color of the cloud.
4. Outlining the new light superimposed by the previous blended layer.
Basic technique I outline the transitions of one color to another and create sharp borders in some places, and smooth ones in others.
5. More information, getting rid of empty lots.
Often at a certain stage of drawing, when there is already something, and you don’t know where to go next, 3 things save you.
1. Flip the canvas horizontally.
Image - Image Rotation - Flip Canvas Horizontally. The eye of the savvy begins to perceive the picture, noticing the jambs that were blurred during prolonged work.
2. Transfer to black and white.
Why is it needed. When a picture is in black and white, it is easy to tell if the picture is of interest. If it has only shades of gray or is too light / dark, then this picture is perceived difficult. Need to so that in the picture there are light And dark And medium plots.
I create a new layer and fill it monochromatic color(Black, Grey, White) key combination ctrl+backspace and change the blend mode to Chroma(Color). Thus, the canvas is painted in BW color. This change can be turned off by removing the visibility of the layer.
3. Empty lots
The presence of flat areas of the same color is also a negative point, giving your work out as a flaw, moving further and further away from the truthful illustration describing something real or believable. Well, if it is a cloudless blue sky, then it should be made gradient.
More light
And I added another light smudged spot on a new layer with the blending mode “Brightness”. All of these adjustments were made as a result of analyzing what happens, what you like and what you don't like, so I think you understand that it is pointless to repeat the process point by point. You will get one differently, you will like the other more than I do.
I will say that the main thing is to feel local victories in your paintings and drawings. If there are successes, even small ones, it moves you forward and mainly gives you hope for even greater success in the future.
Good luck and success in drawing!
If you are going to draw nature, the van certainly cannot do without the image of the sky and its main feature- clouds. We will tell you how to draw clouds correctly and beautifully in this lesson.
Blue sky above
Blue sky with clouds on a sunny day - our the main objective, because such a sky has the greatest contrast. You can draw in nature, or you can take a photo, which is especially convenient for beginners, since you won’t have to be distracted by changes in the sky.
So, the desired part of the sky is selected, now let's carefully study it. Let's note all its features: which clouds, where and how the shadows are located, where are the brightest areas. Let's do the first one.
markup
We paint over the blue areas with a 2B pencil. We do not touch the light areas of the clouds, reserving the white color. We will only make a border in the place where they should be. At the same time, we designate feather clouds with light hatching (later we will erase it).
Light and shadow
Hard pencil (B) dark areas to add volume. Do neat shading down to the light areas. Having made hatching in the dark places of the clouds, we then soften them with an elastic band. When the drawings have been given the necessary volume, we clean up the places of the feather clouds with an elastic band.
Adding details
With the soft edge of the elastic we add smoothness to the details of the sky, we use the hard edge to create white lines, the main thing is that the graphite layer is not too thick. Our drawing has quite energetic hatching, which helps to give the necessary dynamics to the whole drawing. You can create smoother and more realistic picture, making finer shading using the B and 3B pencils on softer paper. Of course, here you will need a certain perseverance. don't be afraid to experiment, make different variations and use various materials when creating a drawing and your sky will be the way you want.
