A Peak In My Sketchbook: How To Draw Doodle Clouds

A sketchbook is a great place to explore all kinds of things, and when I came across some cloud doodles that I wanted to try out myself I realized that this drawing exercise would also help me with my paintings of clouds (which I need to get back to, sigh) which I’m still struggling with just a bit. Of course doodling clouds is so much easier than painting them, so give it a try and fill some pages with doodled or sketched clouds, just looking at them is relaxing! And if you don’t have a sketchbook, go ahead and draw on a piece of paper, the main thing is to draw, got it? For a closer look and a brief explanation of these drawings, keep on reading my friends….

Okay, so I actually drew the page on the right first, (above) which is why, in my opinion the page of the left is more successful, at least with that type of cloud. I do love the simple clouds with the shading, more towards the top of the right hand page though, I think they are quite successful and oh so simple, so draw the outer shape of the cloud, add a rounded W shape and then a rounded m shape within that cloud shape and shade with horizontal lines as shown. So easy, really!

To draw the other type of cloud with all the little arches, first draw cloud shapes like the ones on the bottom left, keeping the overall shape triangular, more or less. Then following the curves of your cloud, draw little nesting half circles to create the feeling of volume. Take a close look at what I’ve done, and then give it a try, and of course it is always great to take this basic idea and make it your own by changing it up a bit. At the moment I am obsessed with drawing flowers, but sometime soon I hope to draw another few pages of clouds, it really is so satisfying!