Some artists may not get the result they want because there are 2 issues when you wet the paper.
Simple Aurora Nortern Light Sky Watercolor Painting Tutorial | L’oeil
In this drawing journey, we take you to Lenvik, Norway, and paint the aurora sky together.
We did make a mistake while drawing the sky. Be sure not to miss it, and learn from it.
Wet on Wet Technique
It means that you apply the paints on wet paper. This can create a soft edge and color graduation. It is uncertain where will two colors go when they mixed together. When it is dry, the colors appear blurry.
This technique is best for drawing the sky, sea, and background.
There are 2 crucial tips you need to be aware of:
1: Test the colors first
We will not have much time when we mix the colors you want while the paper is wet. You may not create the effect you want in your painting.
The good thing is that you could also see how the colors will appear when the bleed blends together.
Fluffy cloud! Types and Shading Process
Onto the next lesson; cloud!
Cloud is mostly organic in shape, sometimes it looks like fluffy cotton candy,
sometimes it looks like thin veil wrapping the sky.
For introductory purpose, I’ll draw the common fluffy cloud first!
There are 2 easy methods;
First is by randomly draw circles closely together.
1. Using hard airbrush at the opacity of 80%(density), draw some circles.
Then, fill up the empty space.
2. Using the same brush, lightly draw semicircles over the edges of the cloud.
3. To make it look more natural, erase some of the cloud’s edges.
4. Alternate step (ii) and (iii) until the cloud looks fluffy.
Tadaa~ You draw your first cloud!
Another way is to use selection tool.
Here, I use eclipse tool to draw the rough cloud.
Same as the first method, alternate filling up and erasing the edges until the cloud looks natural.
Other selection tools are also applicable!
Pure white cloud is pretty, but sometimes due to changes in weather, the cloud may cast some shadow on it.
Next, we’ll be shading some cloud.
I often use slightly darker shade of the sky.
1. First, using the same brush with same setting, draw circles on the are that may have shadow.
2. Next, repeat the same step but using the darker shade.
Make sure it doesn’t cover the first shade.
The shadow may look rough.
3. Use the cloud’s base colour and lightly blend the base colour with the shadow edges.
The cloud looks like it has more volume now!
There are different types of cloud.
They’re mostly due to differences in weather and presence of crystal droplet to name a few.
(i) The cloud I drew earlier is called cumulonimbus cloud.
Here are some of my favourite clouds to draw.
(ii) Cirrus is a delicate, feathery looking cloud.
To draw cirrus, steps are similar as cumulonimbus, but since it has feather like feature, it requires more erasing and you need to use blend tool.
1. First, draw several curve-like lines.
2. To create feather like lines, use finger sub tool in blend tool.
3. Swiftly drag the edges in horizontal lines.
4. To create the delicate feature, use eraser tool at 50% opacity to lightly erase some parts of the cloud.
There it is. Cirrus cloud is done!
(iii) Cumulus is like a mini cumulonimbus.
Thus, the steps are the same as cumulonimbus.
Draw a main circle and 1 or 2 mini circles. Soften the edges and add some shading.
Here’s what mini cumulus looks like!
(iv) Altocumulus is basically cumulus is a patchy row.
(v) Next is cirrocumulus. It’s a thin, patchy, sheet-like cloud.
The steps are combination of that of cumulus and cirrus clouds.
1. Draw some circles.
2. Alternatively soften and erase the edges.
3. Once they look like mini cumulus, using finger blend tool, drag the edges diagonally.
Sometimes they appear in a few rows. Copy, paste and rearrange them into such manner.
(vi) Here’s stratus cloud. They look similar to cirrus but more thin looking. It appears like a veil covering the sky.
Similar steps as cirrus but needed more erasing so it looks thin and airy.
Stratus cloud is finished! Since they may appear larger in real life, transform it by changing the scale and overlap them onto each other.
I hope with this additional cloud types can make your illustration looks more rich!
Bonus lesson! Aurora!
1. Aurora light cast neon-like appearance, so make sure to change the layer’s blending mode to “add” mode.
2. Using rectangle selection tool, fill it up using any bright colour.
I use pinkish purple.
3. By using soft eraser, erase some parts of the rectangle vertically.
4. Then, use blend tool to soften the edges.
5. Occasionally use finger blend tool to drag the eraser edges.
*If it looks empty, use soft airbrush to lightly brush over the empty spaces.
6. Since it’s a light, the top and bottom edges should be soft.
Use eraser tool to lightly erase the hard lines.
Here’s what it looks like with some simple foreground.
GoGo tips!
Before I end this tutorial, I’d like to share some quick tips.
Let’s say you’re on tight deadlines or just lazy to draw these clouds from scratches,
here are some of the brushes I highly recommend. They’ll purposely made for making clouds.
Thank you for respective artists to share these gradient sets and brushes with the art community!
I hope this tutorial is helpful for you. We’ll be back with more tutorials in the near future!
See you later! 😀
Shin’s Art Tutorial #1 by Shin’s_Corner
