How to Draw Cartoon Clouds

Drawing cartoon clouds: some fun facts before starting sketching!

• Cloud droplets are 1000 times smaller than a raindrop.
• The clouds are helping stabilizing the temperature of the earth.
• The study of clouds is called nephology.
  
  

Step 1

Drawing some clouds that look nice is not really difficult. On the picture to your left, we can see a beautiful cumulus (1) and some small alto-cumulus (2) on the back. 

If you don't like technical terms (like me!), let's just say a big cloud with small clouds in the back! Notice how the light give this cloud a real 3 dimensional effect! The cloud looks white on the left (3) and more blue (even dark) on the right.

Step 2

A cloud is made of lines. Puffy lines! Like most simple drawings, don't put to much lines inside the cloud or the picture will become unreadable. It's also a good idea to make thin lines that become ticker as you draw. This will increase the effect of the cloud being almost weightless.

Step 3

If you need some guidance when you first draw a cloud, you can start by sketching a triangle. Add some circles and try to make them irregular, no perfect circles here! 

Continue your drawing by sketching the outline using mostly curves. If you have access to a software that can edit images, you can add some gray and white inside the cloud for best results. Now you know how to draw clouds!

Step 4

Clouds are not so hard to draw since they are easily recognizable whether your drawing is simple (1) or more complex (4). You can also try to sketch different shapes (3) so that your clouds won't look like all the same. I usually draw my clouds like the second one (2) or the sixth (6) one. Find your style and have fun!

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