How To Draw Clouds

Okay, I'm going to show you how to draw clouds. You just need a pencil and a rubber. First of all, I would try to get some references of clouds, shapes of clouds to work from and maybe pick one that you particularly like.

Then, draw a very, very faint outline on your paper of that cloud shape. Next, you need to start shading inside of your outline, just along the top, not right up against the edge where you've just drawn. You want to come in slightly where you'll see why I'm telling you to do this a little later.

It will all make sense. And you want to try and use, it's a bit difficult with the sort of pencil I'm using which is a propeller pen but if you're using a traditional pencil, do use. It's very important to use the edge of the pencil and not the tip of the pencil.

Now, it's still looking quite flat, so you need to go over what you've done and places and add a bit more detailing and a bit more density to the shading, but don't make it uniform. Break it up a bit because if you look up at the cloud, it is darker in patches, obviously, where the raindrops are collecting. So you need to create that effect in your cloud.

So if you like, the shading is layered. You are actually doing it in layers to create the right effect. It's beginning to look like a cloud, hopefully, it is.

Now, I might add a little touch more shading to the top as well in places, not all over. Again, you don't want it too uniform. Now, at the moment, it's very, very hard to see that cloud on this piece of paper.

So what you'll need to do now is if you like, is add the sky and I'm going to do this very crudely, just for speed. Now, this time, you do color up to that edge you created originally, if you remember, right up to that edge, and you know the saying, "Every cloud has a silver lining,” well, what you're actually creating by doing that is the silver lining of a cloud. It's a very effective and simple way of getting that effect.

You could do the same thing in paint as well, and in color pencil and in pastels. You just use the same principle. Your original pencil line which you drew to create a cloud needs to be very, very pale because obviously, the idea is when you add the sky, it simply disappears.

So, you end up with your cloud with its silver lining. Okay. That's very crudely done.

It just shows you that edge. And that's really the basics of how to draw a cloud. .