Sunny Vs Rainy Weather : How to draw the Sky In Detail
Introduction
In this tutorial, I will be showing you how to draw the Sky in different weathers (Sunny Vs Rainy) while explaining how to use a wide variety of Clip studio paint Tools in detail.
I will be using Clip studio Paint Pro but you are free to use any other version of Clip studio Paint because the features we need should be available in all of them.
Let’s start!!
Sunny Day
Guidelines
The sky changes tremendously depending on :
- The Time of the day (Morning, sunset, night…)
- The Weather (Rainy, stormy sunny…)
- The present elements (Stars, moon, clouds…)
And Thus creating a completely different vibe and color palette.
Which is why you need to decide on those elements before you start drawing.
Let’s see an example :
- Time of the day : Morning
- Weather : Clear Sky/Sunny
- Elements : None/Fluffy Clouds
And from here I will go on to choose my color Palette :
Because I choose Morning, I will stick to the natural color of the sky : Blue.
Since it’s a clear (Somewhat Sunny) Sky I might add some sun rays : yellow.
For the clouds, because they’ll be fluffy in this case, I’ll go with a : cream White
Drawing Steps
1-Create a gradient of Saturated Blue (For the Foreground/At the top) and slowly transition into a softer, near-white blue towards the horizon line (Bottom).
The reason why the blue of the sky gets brighter near the horizon line is due to Atmospheric perspective (Meaning : The further away an object gets, the lighter/paler and less detailed it appears due to the atmosphere).
【Gradient Tool】
The Gradient is a tool that creates a harmonious and gradual transition between colors, essentially making a “Gradient”.
How to use it :
Go over to the tools bar ➤ Click on Gradient (G) ➤ Choose your Primary color and it will automatically be selected as the first color in the gradient (Foreground) ➤ Then choose your secondary color and manually place it on the gradient to add colors (as many as you need).
On the tool Property window :
You can adjust the shape to be circular or a straight line.
And you can choose different Gradients (Stripe, erase…) as well as change the Edge process, Opacity…etc
Once you chose your Gradient, drag the cursor across the canvas/selected area to fill it with the chosen gradient.
PS : I will be using the “Foreground to transparent” Gradient in default mode with a straight line for this tutorial.
If you don’t want to manually choose the colors, Csp has a default “Midday Sky” Gradient ready to use.
Back to steps :
2-Make a new layer ➤ Set the layers mode to “Add(Glow)” (This mode gives a natural glow/shine) ➤ Choose a bright yellowish-white color ➤ (Using the soft air brush from Csp default brushes) Draw a soft circle near where you want the sun to appear (typically near the top-left/right) ➤ Go to “Filter” ➤ Choose “Motion Blur” and adjust the angle to get sun rays ➤ adjust the layer opacity according to how strong the sun to be.
Another method to draw the sun is to download “Sun” from Clip studio assets.
【Assets Library】
Go to Clip studio assets library ➤ On the search bar, type “Sun” or any other object you want ➤ Choose one from the different assets ➤ Click on Download.
Once it’s finished downloading ➤ Open Clip studio Paint ➤ Go over to Material ➤ Search for the object you downloaded by typing the name in the search bar ➤ (If’s it’s an image material like the sun) : Hold, drag and drop on the canvas
Place the sun where you want it then make the layer mode to “Add (Glow) and adjust the opacity.
Ps : You are free to leave the sun in “normal” mode : this depends on how yellow or bright you want it to be.
As for Brushes : Type the title/name of the brush in the search bar in Materials ➤ Hold and drag to the tools bar then drop.
3-Add some highlights : Make a new layer ➤ Set the layers mode to “Add(Glow)” ➤ Make Highlights using “Shine” Brush following the sun rays direction.
*These highlights are more of a dramatic effect for an illustration rather than a real life scene so you are free to use or leave them.
And you may as well add some shining particles to add yet a dramatic flavor to the scene : Some dust particles shine when directly hit by the sun.
All of these brushes are available in the same assets package
4-Add some highlights to the foreground as well (The field) to make it shine where the sun rays touch.
*Use the soft brush in a small size and tap on some exposed areas where the sun hits directly (But Don’t over do it).
So here’s a clear sky on a sunny day (Simple)
.
And here it is captured on camera or as an illustration (Typically we add some effects to make it more dramatic) Capturing the Sun rays and the shine as well as some particles of dust shining as the sun rays hit them.
For a simple clear sky, you can stop here (It’s as simple as that).
But If you want more elements in your illustration :
5-Add some (Light/Fluffy) Clouds (Before you add in the Highlights).
Let’s start with :
Sky Perspective
Aside from Atmospheric perspective, there is “Linear Perspective”
The clouds are three dimensional objects and thus, have a form (top, side, base) so we need perspective to know where’s the Top/base to draw light/Shadow.
We will be using a one point perspective for the sky to draw the clouds.
One point perspective means that there is one vanishing point on the horizon line (where the lines/objects converge to), while the horizon line is the eye level and it’s usually where the sky and land meet.
Feel free to check my previous tutorial (In depth explanation) on Perspective using Clip studio paint.
【Perspective Ruler】
There’s a Ruler in Clip studio paint that allow you to draw effortlessly in perspective.
Go to the tools bar ➤ Select “Ruler” ➤ “Perspective Ruler” (process : add vanishing point)➤ Place the horizon line first, then make one vanishing point on the right,middle or left depending on where you’re looking at the scene from (in the middle in this case).
Now that we have perspective, and since we’ll be using it for clouds, draw boxes in perspective to fit the clouds inside :
//On a new layer
1-Draw a simple square/rectangle in your cloud size
2-Draw lines from the angles, converging to the vanishing point.
3-Connect them with straight and perpendicular lines.
//Turn off Perspective Ruler layer :
4-Draw the Clouds inside
Let’s talk about Clouds in perspective:
*Perspective gives depth to objects (Clouds) making them three dimensional and so with the sky perspective we get to draw the clouds in depth.
*The clouds get lighter and less detailed the further away they are.
*The clouds’ base (shadow) appears less and less the further away they are.
*The distance between the clouds decreases the further away they get.
According to perspective :
The Clouds that are closest to the foreground (The very top of the illustration) appear bigger and the base (shadow area) is more apparent because they are closer to the eye and thus looking up at them we see more of the bottom than the top of the cloud.
keep in mind that clouds do not fit the perspective very tightly because they are versatile in shape and form which gives us some freedom in drawing.
How to draw Clouds
1-Sketch some clouds (make the shapes clear and asymmetrical so that they don’t look monotonous).
*To make it easier, imagine that the cloud is made of spheres.
Then make even smaller sphere-like edges to make them look fluffy on a sunny day
2-Block in the shapes in a cream white color (Morning/Daytime).
3-Add the shadows in a blueish color.
*Like we saw in perspective, the clouds are three dimensional so some light will touch the bottom as well.
4-Based on where the sun is coming from : Add some highlights in white and some darker shadows where the sun doesn’t reach.
5-Use “Clip studio paint painterly blender” to blend and create fluffy edges.
Notes :
*Sunny weather clouds are less dense so they appear light with loose edges.
*There are main clouds and additional smaller clouds (very much lighter and loose).
Real life example of clouds on a sunny day :
Fluffy Clouds on a Sunny Day
So first : Sketch your clouds.
Preferably in a Z or Zigzag pattern for a more harmonious and dynamic illustration (It leads the eye across the illustration from the sky to the earth/foreground).
Then add smaller (lighter and less dense) clouds.
Then block in the shape in a cream white color.
Add in the shadows according to base/top while taking into consideration the placement of the sun (light source)n and blend (render).
Finally, add in the sun and sun rays like we explained earlier.
Rainy Day
Sky
To draw the sky, you can use the Gradient method like I explained earlier.
But For now I will explain a different method so that you can have many options to draw the sky :
Go to Tools bar ➤ Select the (Soft) air brush ➤ Make it a big size to cover a large area ➤ Make a gradient using the airbrush ➤ Then Blend using Clip studio paint default blender to make a smooth transition between the colors.
For a Rainy weather : The sky is filled with clouds obscuring the sun so it’s dark grey all over (overcast) so we will choose a desaturated Blue and Grays for the sky.
Foreground
The light/color of the foreground (objects) is influenced by the sky (light source) so if we’re drawing an overcast day, these objects (the field in this case) will become darker so draw your foreground according to that.
In this case, I will be using the same foreground as earlier so : First : Go over to “Edit” ➤ “Tonal Correction” ➤ “Hue/Saturation/Luminosity” ➤ Lower the saturation and Luminosity to make it darker and desaturated (leaning towards the grey) then draw over some details to make it go well with the overall scene.
Clouds
Let’s see a different method here as well :
To make it easier : draw scattered Cloud Bases all over the canvas
【Transform Tool】
➤Go over to “Transform Tool” where it says “Transform/Rotate” :
This tool allows you to move and alter the shape of your drawing in different ways : Rotate, flip, alter, bend, increase size and so on.
Now : Right click on the mouse ➤ “Free Transform”.
This will allow you to alter the layer to fit into perspective.
Then proceed to make your clouds.
The second method is the same we explained earlier :
Draw your clouds according to perspective.
Rainy weather clouds are larger and heavier (less fluffy) with a dark grey color obscuring the sky.
A raining sky has more clouds than a clear sky but even then, leave some space between clouds to blend it with the sky background.
Then proceed to render your clouds like we explained earlier.
Rain
The first method to draw rain :
Go to tools bar ➤ “Figure” Tool ➤ Straight line ➤ make some rain-like thin lines all over the canvas.
*The rain can be falling straight down or a bit tilted indicating that there is some wind.
Go over to “filter” ➤ Blur ➤ Motion Blur ➤ Adjust the angle according to your rain direction and adjust the strength of the blur.
*Don’t make it too blurry, just enough to look like falling rain.
The second method is using a ”rain” brush from assets library :
Download and use like we explained earlier.
Use small rain lines first all over the canvas, then some bigger lines at the front.
Since we have a foreground (Field) the rain will hit it as it falls and some drops will bounce.
This overall scene will look a bit foggy because it’s happening on hundreds of surfaces (flowers/grass/leaves..) at the same time.
So pick up the (soft) air brush in a white grey color and lightly pass it over the field.
Then go over to “Decoration” brushes and select the default “Glitter” brush and make some bouncing rain drops in a white-grey color.
Final Illustration
And there you have it :
Rainy weather (Brush version)
Rainy weather (Motion Blur version)
I hope you learned something new.
Here’s my Instagram for more insight on my art :
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