How to Draw a Sunset

Hello everyone, today I propose that we look together at a classic drawing: the sunset. A real explosion of colours, we will see how to choose them well and then how to successfully draw a sunset with a step-by-step example.

Get your pencils, paper or tablet ready and most importantly, your creativity! Let’s go!

WATCH THE SUNSET

As always, when you want to draw inspired by reality, I recommend observing sunsets closely. Whether it's in person or by looking up images on the internet.

When we watch a sunset, the first thing that strikes our eye is all the shimmering colours that light up the sky. There are many variations of these colours, but we can see that they always come from the same ranges.

When looking at colours, it is best to take a few references and try to identify the main colours you see. Then you can note which ones appear most frequently and create your own palette.

As we can see from the previous photos, the range of colours that emerges is very similar, starting with shades of yellow, then orange, red, pink, purple and finally blue. We can then create a range of colours for our sunset, from which we will choose the colours we like best or have available.

We can also notice that these are almost exclusively warm colours, so we will need to be careful to exclude cool colours to properly capture our sunset. Here is the palette we get:

Next, we can quickly observe the values of the references, and we notice that the images are overall quite dark (which is logical in the absence of intense sunlight). The main area of light corresponds to a sort of strip on the horizon where one can still guess the impact of the sunlight.

We also note that the closest planes are often almost black and very low contrast (in blue hatching)

DRAWING A SUNSET IN COLOUR STEP BY STEP

We can start drawing our sunset. You can use any technique you prefer; some steps might be more useful for traditional methods (pastel, colored pencils, markers) and others might be better suited for digital methods (or painting). I will provide tips during the various steps so that you can best adapt according to your needs.

I start by drawing the sketch, what could be better than a beach with a palm tree for a beautiful, paradisiacal sunset?

I drew the sun using a fairly light yellow. I made a fairly intense circle and then a small shade on the sides to give an impression of diffusion. This way the sun will look more realistic.

I add lighter shades to the clouds. For the lower clouds, I will work on the top using slightly dark and saturated shades of orange and yellow. For the upper clouds, the sunlight will come from below, so I will work on the lower part of their shape first using slightly dark and saturated shades of orange, red and purple.

The more the clouds move outwards, the more I will use darker shades tending towards purple to show that they are less affected by the sunlight and thus create a depth effect.

For the central clouds, I use shades of yellow and make them quite diffuse so they blend well with the background.

To colour the clouds, I work by making small circles and curves to give a slightly bright effect.

I add dimension to the clouds with the colours of the shaded parts. I use shades of purple and red for the clouds at the bottom and the top, making the clouds at the top darker.

I create a gradient for the background; it starts with a slightly darker yellow than the sun and then progresses to orange, pink, purple and blue. I make sure that the gradient is as even as possible.

I created a gradual gradient to colour the sea, using the same colours as the sky. I make sure to keep demarcation lines between certain areas of colour so that it is clear that it is the sea.

I am careful to maintain reserves of white for the rocks, but not for the beach and the palm tree, because they will be in dark shades that will stand out even if I have already coloured the lower part.

I add highlights by making small zig zags.

To properly draw the sea, I add small details of water reflection.
If you find it difficult to draw water, I refer you to this article (https://dessindigo.com/blog/advice/drawing-water-reflections) which will explain to you how to do it.  

I will start drawing the rocks using a brown/pink shade. Although the rocks are usually grey, under the light of the sunset they are coloured and will therefore appear in shades of brown, orange, pink and red.

I start adding the first shadows to the rocks using shades of purple quite similar to the ones we used for the sky.

I add more shadow using a fairly dark violet. I make sure the shadows are sharp enough so that it's clear it's a rock.

I add the reflections of the rocks by drawing them symmetrically with lighter colours.

It is an optional step, but I find it adds something extra to the design. I add foam on the water creating somewhat abstract, rounded shapes with small spots. I do it in pink because its colour is also influenced by sunlight and the sky.

I colour the foreground using a very dark violet (black should be avoided as it makes the drawing very heavy.

This step is also optional: I add very light yellow circles to hint at the sunlight.

And here is our sunset over the sea.

You can create sunsets on any other landscape using the same techniques: a shimmering coloured sky, a colour palette in shades of yellow/orange/pink/red/purple/blue for the entire image to suggest the setting sun and a rather dark foreground.

I hope you enjoyed this article! 😊

Illustrator and writer: Chloé Pouteau