Lightning drawing in pencil. How to draw lightning with a pencil step by step? — Useful information for everyone

Often children who do not yet know how to depict on paper what they want ask their parents to do it. What to do if a child asks to draw a thunderstorm? First of all, he will want to see lightning and threatening heavy clouds on a piece of paper. This article will teach you how to draw lightning, clouds, and thunderstorms with a pencil step by step.

Draw a cloud with a simple pencil

First, prepare your workspace. Take a blank sheet of paper and a simple pencil (preferably sharpened).

In the middle of the sheet, sketch out the outline of an oval - this is the future thundercloud. If you can't draw an oval on the spot yourself, do it this way. Divide the sheet in half using a vertical and horizontal line to create a cross. Now round this figure, it will be an oval. Now, on the borders of the silhouette, we carefully depict the edges of the cloud. They should resemble a lamb. Keep the distance between the roundnesses of the cloud approximately one centimeter. You will end up with a voluminous thundercloud.

How to draw lightning?

Now that the cloud is ready, it's time to depict the lightning coming out of it. This is easy to do - on the underside of the cloud, put several broken lines on the paper (surely everyone knows what lightning looks like). Now, next to each of the lines, draw a parallel line so that their ends meet at the bottom. You will get an excellent lightning bolt that will delight your child. Now it's time to complete the drawing - decorate the cloud. This can be done using light wavy and semicircular lines inside the cloud. Now you and your child know how to draw lightning with a pencil. If desired, add colors to the drawing or shade it darker with a simple pencil. Such lightning and cloud can become either a separate picture or an element of an interesting landscape.

How to draw lightning on a computer?

Many people have tried to capture lightning, but it's not very easy to do. Photos of thunderstorms and lightning look mysterious, fascinating and very beautiful. You can draw lightning using the most ordinary Photoshop. How to do it?

First you need to find a photo for the base. The sky should be gloomy, gray, it is good if there are heavy clouds. Open the photo using the Photoshop editor.
Create a new layer.
Open Tools. Select the Rectangular Area button. Use this tool to select a wide area on a new layer.
Fill this area with a gradient. Do this carefully, as pouring is an important step in the work. The appearance of the future lightning depends on how you fill it with a gradient.

In the “Filter” menu, find the “Rendering” submenu. There, click on the button called “Clouds with Overlay.”
Then in the “Images” - “Corrections” menu, click the “Invert” button. After completing this action, you will receive white lightning.
Move the flags that appear, watching the lightning change.

We continue to draw lightning in the editor

Lightning in the sky, drawn using the editor, looks just like the real thing. Let's continue to learn how to draw it.

Go back to the "Images" menu, click the "Background Color" button. Then click the "Toning" button. Try different color variations that suit you.
Hold down the Ctrl + T keys on your keyboard and reduce the zipper to the desired size while holding down the Shift key. This will help maintain proportions.
Change the mode to "Lighten".
Find the Dodge tool. With its help you need to illuminate the place where the lightning is directed. Point the tool at the desired location and move the mouse over it. Don't release the mouse button.

Now you know how to draw lightning using a simple pencil on paper, and you also learned how to draw a thunderstorm using a computer editor. This is very interesting for both children and adults.

Draw a cloud with a simple pencil

First, prepare your workspace. Take a blank sheet of paper and a simple pencil (preferably sharpened).

In the middle of the sheet, sketch out the outline of an oval - this is the future. If you cannot draw an oval on the spot yourself, do it this way. Divide the sheet in half using a vertical and horizontal line to create a cross. Now round this figure, it will be an oval. Now, on the borders of the silhouette, we carefully depict the edges of the cloud. They should resemble a lamb. Keep the distance between the roundnesses of the cloud approximately one centimeter. You will end up with a voluminous thundercloud.

How to draw lightning?

Such lightning and cloud can become either a separate picture or an element of an interesting landscape.

How to draw lightning on a computer?

First you need to find a photo for the base. The sky should be gloomy, gray, it is good if there are heavy clouds. Open the photo using the Photoshop editor.
Create a new layer.
Open "Tools". Select the Rectangular Area button. Use this tool to select a wide area on a new layer.
Fill this area with a gradient. Do this carefully, as pouring is an important step in the work. The appearance of the future lightning depends on how you fill it with a gradient.

In the "Filter" menu, find the "Rendering" submenu. There, click on the button called “Clouds with overlay”.
Then in the "Images" - "Corrections" menu, click the "Invert" button. After completing this action, you will receive white lightning.
Move the flags that appear, watching the lightning change.

We continue to draw lightning in the editor

Lightning in the sky, drawn using the editor, looks just like the real thing. Let's continue to learn how to draw it.

Go back to the "Images" menu, click the "Background Color" button. Then click the "Toning" button. Try different color variations that suit you.
Hold down the Ctrl + T keys on your keyboard and reduce the zipper to the desired size while holding down the Shift key. This will help maintain proportions.
Change the mode to "Lighten".
Find the Dodge tool. With its help you need to illuminate the place where the lightning is directed. Point the tool at the desired location and move the mouse over it. Don't release the mouse button.

Now you know how to draw lightning using a simple pencil on paper, and you also learned how to draw a thunderstorm using a computer editor. This is very interesting for both children and adults.

Today we have a short tutorial that will help you “charge” your photos using lightning drawn in Photoshop. In this tutorial we will add lightning to this creepy cemetery. We will create it ourselves without tricks using ready-made photographs.

This is a popular method of creating lightning. I've seen many tutorials that promise to teach you something, but end up being just using a stock image. Personally, I find this approach disappointing. As with most PhotoshopCAFE tutorials, I'll teach you how to create everything yourself. Each lightning bolt will be unique and personal! I have a written lesson and video. Video tutorials are good to see how things are done. Bookmark this page so you can quickly return to it. I've made many step-by-step video tutorials for PhotoshopCAFE, making it easy to learn. Even if you've watched the video, scroll down to the end of the lesson. They usually publish alternative ways to create an effect, ideas or tips for its implementation.

When Halloween approaches, everyone wants to make their images a little darker. This cemetery photo is spooky on its own, but realistic lighting finishes the scene perfectly. In today's tutorial we will learn how to create lightning bolts from scratch.

Step 1

Open the required photo, create a new layer. Add a black and white gradient, placing it diagonally from the top left to the bottom right.

Step 2

Go to menu Filter > Render > Clouds with Overlay(Filters > Render > Difference Clouds).

The result should look something like this.

Step 3

Now invert the clouds by clicking Ctrl + I.

You can already see some semblance of lightning.

Step 4

Let's adjust the levels by selecting the lightning. To open a window Levels(Levels) use Ctrl+L. Move the left slider to the right, approximately to the middle of the histogram. Move the middle slider to the right edge of the histogram.

Step 5

Select a black brush and clean up the lightning, painting in the unwanted areas.
Note: It is better to work with a brush on a separate layer.

Step 6

Change the layer blend mode to Screen(Screen). This will allow the image underneath to show through.

Also activate Free transformation(Free Transform) by clicking Ctrl+T. Scale, rotate and move the lightning layer so that the lightning strikes one of the objects in the photo.

Step 7

Repeat steps 1-6, creating several lightning shapes.

Duplicate the layers and scale them by building smaller lightning branches. Reuse each layer as much as possible to save as much time as possible. Reflection and rotation allows each piece to be used multiple times. Don't be afraid to use layer masks to separate out the pieces you want and give the finished discharge a more natural, natural look.

At this point you should have something like this:

Step 8

Merge all the lightning layers. To do this, select them and then click Ctrl+E. Be careful not to affect the background. Once all the lightning has become one layer, you may need to change the layer blend mode again to Screen(Screen).

Step 9

Now let's add some color (optional). Double click on the lightning layer to open the window Layer Style(Layer Style). Select an item Color overlay(Color Overlay).

Choose a bluish/purple color.

Change the blending mode to Chroma(Color).

Step 10

You'll notice that the color covers a significant portion of the layer, but we only want it to affect the lightning.

At the top of the window Layer Styles(Layer Style) click on the item Blending Options: Default(Blending Options: Custom). This will open an additional menu.

The trick here is to check the box Layering internal effects as a group(Blend Interior Effects as a group).

Please note that the color is now only applied to the lightning bolt.

Step 11

Make some final color and opacity adjustments to better blend the lightning with the background photo.

This is an average difficulty lesson. It can be difficult for adults to repeat this lesson, so I don’t recommend drawing lightning using this lesson for small children, but if you really want to, you can try it. I also want to note the lesson “” - be sure to try it again if you still have time and desire to draw today.

What you will need

In order to draw lightning we may need:

Graphic editor GIMP. You need to download GIMP for Win or Mac OS and install it.
Download brushes for GIMP, they may come in handy.
Some add-ons may be needed (instructions on how to install them).
A little patience.
Good mood.

Step by step lesson

Natural phenomena are quite difficult to draw. That is, drawing them is not difficult, but achieving realism is much more difficult. I always recommend looking at the original to get the most accurate copy of what you are about to draw. In the Yandex image search, just search for “lightning in the photo” to get a large amount of the necessary material.

By the way, in addition to this lesson, I advise you to pay attention to the lesson “”. It will help improve your skill or just give you a little fun.

Tip: Perform different actions on different layers. The more layers you make, the easier it will be for you to manage the drawing. So the sketch can be made on the bottom layer, and the white version on the top, and when the sketch is not needed, you can simply turn off the visibility of this layer.

As you complete this tutorial, please note that due to differences in software versions, some menu items and tools may have different names or be missing altogether. This may make the tutorial a little difficult, but I think you can do it.

I haven't had any translations for a long time. We continue to translate foreign lessons, leaving screenshots. Next up is gimp-tutorials.net with a lesson about lightning.

Open GIMP and create a new image with a white background, 600x1000 pixels. Create a new layer and name it "lightening_base". Using the Path Tool, draw a lightning bolt shape as shown below.

Just click LMB on individual connection nodes. A path is closed by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on the last node of the path, which will be the final node.

In the Tool Options panel, click Path Selection. The outline will turn into a selection. Fill the selection with #FF9C00.

Now let's add volume. Duplicate (Layer - Duplicate Layer) the lightening_base layer twice. Fill these lightning bolts with #FFC66C using the Flat Paint tool.

Move the first layer below the "lightening_base" layer. Select the Move Tool and click on the first duplicate and then press the down arrow key on your keyboard 5 times and then the right arrow key 5 times.

Do the same with the second duplicate, only move it 10 clicks instead of 5.

Merge both duplicates (Layer - Merge with Previous) and name this layer “bolt_3d”. Using the Paths tool, make a selection like in the image below and fill it with #FFC66C (create the selection as in the first step). Do the same for the remaining jagged corners.

Now we will add to our volumetric lightning. Take the Dodge/Burn tool. Select a soft brush and set the exposure to 60% in the tool options.

Make the brush scale larger if you like. On the "bolt_3D" layer, darken the corners as shown below.

Using the same tool, but with a larger brush, we darken the corners on the “lightening_base” layer.

In the Layers panel, right-click on the “lightening_base” layer and select “Alpha Channel to Selection.” This will create a highlight around the zipper.

Create a new layer called "bolt_stroke". Change the Foreground color to #FFAB45. Fill the selection using the flat fill tool. Go to the menu "Select - Zoom Out". Reduce the selection by 2 pixels. Click the Ok button and then click the Delete button on your keyboard. Using the "Sharpen or Blur" tool, blur out what you have.

Right-click on the “lightening_base” layer and select “Alpha to Selection.” Create a new layer on top of all the others and name it "bolt_corner_highlight". Using a soft brush, highlight the corners of the stroke with the same color (#FFAB45). Play with the opacity and brush sizes.

Now let's add more intense shadows. Select the "bolt_3D" layer. Right-click on the layer and select Alpha Channel to Selection. Set the color to #800300.

Select the Brush Tool and use a soft brush to adjust the shadows in the inner corners of the zipper.

Duplicate the “bolt_stroke” layer and go to the “Color - Brightness / Contrast” menu. Turn down the brightness completely and increase the contrast as much as possible. Using the Move Tool, move the layer down and to the right a few pixels.

Menu "Color - Toning". Use the settings shown below and click OK.

Take the eraser tool with a soft brush and erase the dark corners we just created where they merge with the corners of the stroke.

Let's add some more light colors at the top. Create a new layer on top of all the others and create a selection as shown in the screenshot below. Right-click on the “bolt_3d” layer and select “Alpha Channel to Selection.” Use a large soft-edged brush and color #FFA93C.

Create a new layer and make a selection using the Free Selection Tool as shown below. Change the Foreground color to #FFBF6C and use a soft brush to paint these areas. Then set the blending mode to “Overlay” (the drop-down list is located in the layers panel with the “Normal” parameter).

So, first, create a new layer, and then do what you just read (mocking author).

In other words, after you have made a selection, you will have to completely recolor the shadows as you did earlier in the tutorial.

A lot of? No! We won't do this for every corner. Only two or three of them (after this the author laughs evilly with emoticons).

And here's how he did it:

Alpha channel to the selection on the “lightening_base” layer. Create a new layer between the "bolt_stroke" and "lightening_base" layers. Using a soft brush, paint #E20001 at the top of the selection and paint #FFA739 at the bottom of the selection.

Using a soft brush on the Eraser, erase the corners of the "bolt_stroke" layer.

Now we'll add some glitter to the zipper. Create a new layer on top of all the others and name it “gloss1”. Make different selections as shown below and then using yellow and a soft brush paint some faded highlights and then set the blending mode to Overlay.

The finishing touches. Create a new layer. Take the Paths Tool and draw some lines near the edges of the stroke. Set your Foreground color to yellow, grab a small soft brush for the Brush Tool, and go to Edit - Stroke.

In the window that opens, select “Trace with drawing tool.” Reduce the opacity of this layer.

Thank you for your attention. It was Timur.