Space landscape in watercolor. How to paint space with watercolors: a step-by-step master class for beginners

Or oil paints, it will help to understand the method of comparing the above materials. Gouache is easier to apply. It allows you to correct design flaws and easily mix colors. Oil paints require more experience and professionalism. They are the most difficult to work with. To depict a painting in watercolor, certain skills are also required. You need to specifically know and understand how to paint space in watercolors, where and what will be located in the picture, since it is almost impossible to correct shortcomings. Therefore, many beginners prefer gouache.

Watercolor is created for works of a more professional level. Although it is also used for teaching in schools.

Basic principles

To depict space with paints or pencils, you need to prepare:

  1. Take paper, paints or a pencil.
  2. Try to immediately decide what will be shown in the picture.
  3. First you need to draw the background.
  4. Next you need to depict space objects.
  5. Add the necessary effects.

How to paint space with paints?

Let’s try to answer the question: “How to paint space with paints step by step?” Beginning artists will need a little free time and imagination. Taking paper, paints and brushes, we get to work.

There are many recommendations on how to paint space step by step. Let's focus on one of them. The first thing you need to start with is to decide on the subject of the drawing. These can be your own fantasies about space, pictures, photographs, films and more. It is necessary to decide in advance where approximately the various objects in the drawing will be located. These objects can even be outlined with light pencil strokes so that the paint can hide them later.

The drawing should start from the background. He may not be black. Various colors can be used for the background, or even better, a combination of them. Having chosen the necessary shades, paint the sheet with bold strokes. It is best to use acrylic, oil paints or gouache for drawing space. This will give the picture a special flavor. After applying the background, the drawing must be left to dry. If you use oil paints, you don’t need to wait for them to dry.

Once the background is ready, you can begin to design the main details. It is best to draw objects several tones lighter than the main background. You can add highlights to them using paints with a white tint. To make the work more like a cosmic drawing, you can add various effects using light-accumulating or luminescent paints. If you want to give an object a three-dimensional image and a special relief, rub part of the paper with wax before applying the background. After applying the paints and depicting the main objects, you need to run a sharp object over the surface of the drawing. The volumetric image is ready.

How to paint space with watercolors?

By depicting a mysterious abyss, you can get an alluring and mysterious world. Comets, asteroids and other celestial bodies will help you get closer to the mysterious space.

In order to figure out how to draw space in watercolors, you need, as in the previous drawing, to take a sheet of paper, paint, brushes and decide on the background. To do this, you can use blue or lilac shades of watercolor. Black is best used sparingly or not at all. It is advisable to apply the background with a wide brush. After it dries, start creating. You can depict distant planets. Draw stars in the form of blurry highlights, four- or hexagonal outlines.

At the head of the picture, place, for example, a flying comet, consisting of a head and a tail, which can be depicted in the form of several rays. The latter can be either straight or zigzag. Orange or red colors are more suitable for this. The comet can be depicted in other colors, for example, silver or white, with small strokes of blue watercolor. As in the previous example, rubbing paper with wax will provide an interesting effect.

Instead of a comet, you can depict a rocket by outlining its contours with a simple pencil. To do this, we draw an oval with a pointed top and straight bottom. The two semicircular lines at the bottom of the rocket will simulate its tail. Red or orange colors will help depict the fire coming from the rocket. The body can be coated with lighter shades.

No less interesting will be UFOs and other objects of any color and shape. It all depends on your imagination.

There are many options for how to paint space in watercolors. Whatever method is chosen, the plot depicted with these colors creates clearer and more realistic contours. It turns out very bright and colorful.

Pencil image of space

To decide how to draw space step by step with a pencil and get a high-quality image, you need a little more attention and perseverance.

The technique of drawing with a pencil is a little more complicated compared to paints.
As with any drawing, you need to decide on the composition of the picture. To create the background, you will need to draw the right classic strokes that will give the drawing a sense of spatiality. You should start with the darkest strokes, gradually moving to lighter colors. The main thing is to avoid sharp corners and hard lines. We add images of planets, the moon, stars, etc. to the background. The depth, smoothness and softness of space should be reflected in the drawing.

Different variants

You can use various objects for a painting on the theme of “space”: stars, planets, rockets. Draw satellites, asteroids, comets. Also suitable for the plot are UFOs, a cluster of galaxies, etc. It is quite easy to draw these objects with paints, the main thing is to have a little imagination.



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How to paint space with watercolors?

We will need:

  • thick paper for watercolors (Whatman paper);
  • brushes (thin and thick);
  • watercolor;
  • white gouache;
  • Toothbrush;
  • water.

Drawing step by step

To get an original drawing, let's depict space in a circle. Take a thick brush, dip it in clean water and go over a piece of paper. This is necessary in order to get beautiful stains. It is best to start painting space with light colors, using yellow, orange, red and blue. Use chaotic strokes to make the transitions between colors look more natural.

Dilute several rich blue shades on your palette at once, mixing them with purple and black paint. To paint space with watercolors, you need to apply strokes with quick, chaotic movements, remembering to rinse the brush in water for each new shade. This way, the colors of the starry sky will turn out pure and more contrasting, and the stains will look impressive.

Move from the center to the sides, filling the improvised space circle with paints. Don't be afraid to brush over areas that are already dry, modifying the space pattern as you go and adding richness to some areas.

When you fill the entire circle with paints, you can start working on the details. Take a thin brush and paint over the glow area with red and yellow. The color transition will become more interesting, making the star nebula colorful.

Do you want to draw space with millions of stars? Then wait until the drawing is completely dry, take a toothbrush, dip it in white gouache and leave a splash on the sheet, gently running your finger along the bristles.

To make the space drawing more interesting, you can draw planets on top. To do this, use white gouache to draw circles of different sizes. After the paint has dried, use a thin brush to apply colored dot strokes, not forgetting the semicircular shadow on one side of the planet.

Another way to paint space with watercolors

1. In order to draw the Universe, only 3-4 colors are enough. At least that's the amount you can start with. Important: The sheet for watercolors must be very dense so that it does not wrinkle from water and so that the paint spreads beautifully and evenly.

2. The outline can be drawn with a hard pencil to indicate the space that you will wet with water. Wet part of the allocated space.

3. Apply paint to the wetted area. Try to make the contours beautiful.

4. Wet the rest of the space with water and apply a different color of paint. Selectively add bright pops of color throughout the design. The drawing must be wet so that the paint flows beautifully.

5. Once the design is completely dry, apply the stars. This can be done with white or yellow paint using an old toothbrush.

6. Some stars could be drawn more carefully.

If you sprinkle salt on a wet drawing, the structure of space will turn out even more interesting. The salt will absorb some of the paint, and if you shake it off after it has completely dried, there will be beautiful white dots and clouds in place of the salt.

Pencil image of space

To decide how to draw space step by step with a pencil and get a high-quality image, you need a little more attention and perseverance.

The technique of drawing with a pencil is a little more complicated compared to paints. As with any drawing, you need to decide on the composition of the picture. To create the background, you will need to draw the right classic strokes that will give the drawing a sense of spatiality. You should start with the darkest strokes, gradually moving to lighter colors. The main thing is to avoid sharp corners and hard lines. We add images of planets, the moon, stars, etc. to the background. The depth, smoothness and softness of space should be reflected in the drawing.

Simple drawing of space with pencils

1. The large solar system consists of the Sun, around which 8 planets revolve. So first we need to draw a big circle.

3. You will need to draw one planet on each line. Each planet has its own size and distinctive features. For example, Saturn is in the sixth position from the Sun, and it has a ring system. Uranus also has rings. There are 30 of them in total, but in the figure we will indicate this with one line. Also, let's draw one comet and an asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter (between the fourth and fifth planet). Asteroids will also be depicted behind the last planet. They are called the Kuiper field.

4. We outline each element in the drawing with a black marker.

5. We begin to color the space. First of all, let's give color to the Sun, which needs yellow and orange shades. Red tones in darker places will also not be out of place.

Then, in order, we move on to the other planets and color them with the same pencils. Using a yellow pencil we will add color to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We will also apply strokes with an orange pencil to Venus, Mars and Jupiter. But let's color the rings of Saturn with a brown pencil.

6. Now let's move on to other planets. We will color them with blue and cyan pencils. These will be Uranus and Neptune. But our planet Earth has distinguished itself from others. After all, it will have different shades - yellow, blue, and green. Let's color the asteroid belts with a brown pencil.

7. Now let's add color to outer space. To do this, we use pencils of blue, blue and violet colors.

8. At this point the drawing of space is completely finished. Of course, there are many details that can be completed here, but let's leave it to our imagination to dream and feel the whole essence of the Universe.

Several interesting drawings of space






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A comment

How to paint space with watercolors?

We will need:

  • thick paper for watercolors (Whatman paper);
  • brushes (thin and thick);
  • watercolor;
  • white gouache;
  • Toothbrush;
  • water.

Drawing step by step

To get an original drawing, let's depict space in a circle. Take a thick brush, dip it in clean water and go over a piece of paper. This is necessary in order to get beautiful stains. It is best to start painting space with light colors, using yellow, orange, red and blue. Use chaotic strokes to make the transitions between colors look more natural.

Dilute several rich blue shades on your palette at once, mixing them with purple and black paint. To paint space with watercolors, you need to apply strokes with quick, chaotic movements, remembering to rinse the brush in water for each new shade. This way, the colors of the starry sky will turn out pure and more contrasting, and the stains will look impressive.

Move from the center to the sides, filling the improvised space circle with paints. Don't be afraid to brush over areas that are already dry, modifying the space pattern as you go and adding richness to some areas.

When you fill the entire circle with paints, you can start working on the details. Take a thin brush and paint over the glow area with red and yellow. The color transition will become more interesting, making the star nebula colorful.

Do you want to draw space with millions of stars? Then wait until the drawing is completely dry, take a toothbrush, dip it in white gouache and leave a splash on the sheet, gently running your finger along the bristles.

To make the space drawing more interesting, you can draw planets on top. To do this, use white gouache to draw circles of different sizes. After the paint has dried, use a thin brush to apply colored dot strokes, not forgetting the semicircular shadow on one side of the planet.

Another way to paint space with watercolors

1. In order to draw the Universe, only 3-4 colors are enough. At least that's the amount you can start with. Important: The sheet for watercolors must be very dense so that it does not wrinkle from water and so that the paint spreads beautifully and evenly.

2. The outline can be drawn with a hard pencil to indicate the space that you will wet with water. Wet part of the allocated space.

3. Apply paint to the wetted area. Try to make the contours beautiful.

4. Wet the rest of the space with water and apply a different color of paint. Selectively add bright pops of color throughout the design. The drawing must be wet so that the paint flows beautifully.

5. Once the design is completely dry, apply the stars. This can be done with white or yellow paint using an old toothbrush.

6. Some stars could be drawn more carefully.

If you sprinkle salt on a wet drawing, the structure of space will turn out even more interesting. The salt will absorb some of the paint, and if you shake it off after it has completely dried, there will be beautiful white dots and clouds in place of the salt.

Pencil image of space

To decide how to draw space step by step with a pencil and get a high-quality image, you need a little more attention and perseverance.

The technique of drawing with a pencil is a little more complicated compared to paints. As with any drawing, you need to decide on the composition of the picture. To create the background, you will need to draw the right classic strokes that will give the drawing a sense of spatiality. You should start with the darkest strokes, gradually moving to lighter colors. The main thing is to avoid sharp corners and hard lines. We add images of planets, the moon, stars, etc. to the background. The depth, smoothness and softness of space should be reflected in the drawing.

Simple drawing of space with pencils

1. The large solar system consists of the Sun, around which 8 planets revolve. So first we need to draw a big circle.

3. You will need to draw one planet on each line. Each planet has its own size and distinctive features. For example, Saturn is in the sixth position from the Sun, and it has a ring system. Uranus also has rings. There are 30 of them in total, but in the figure we will indicate this with one line. Also, let's draw one comet and an asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter (between the fourth and fifth planet). Asteroids will also be depicted behind the last planet. They are called the Kuiper field.

4. We outline each element in the drawing with a black marker.

5. We begin to color the space. First of all, let's give color to the Sun, which needs yellow and orange shades. Red tones in darker places will also not be out of place.

Then, in order, we move on to the other planets and color them with the same pencils. Using a yellow pencil we will add color to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We will also apply strokes with an orange pencil to Venus, Mars and Jupiter. But let's color the rings of Saturn with a brown pencil.

6. Now let's move on to other planets. We will color them with blue and cyan pencils. These will be Uranus and Neptune. But our planet Earth has distinguished itself from others. After all, it will have different shades - yellow, blue, and green. Let's color the asteroid belts with a brown pencil.

7. Now let's add color to outer space. To do this, we use pencils of blue, blue and violet colors.

8. At this point the drawing of space is completely finished. Of course, there are many details that can be completed here, but let's leave it to our imagination to dream and feel the whole essence of the Universe.

Several interesting drawings of space




Drawing space with gouache is very simple, and even a novice artist can draw beautiful space without any special skills. Therefore, we will complicate the task a little and draw not just stars, but a more complex composition on the theme of space, from several elements, so that the picture has an interesting plot.

First of all, you need to outline the main details on a sheet of paper with a pencil. To make space look realistic, you can use one or more photographs of real space as a sample. For example, here, as a visual aid, we took individual photographs of Saturn, the surface of the Moon and, in fact, space. At the same time, in order for the picture to turn out holistic, and not cobbled together from different parts, one important point must be taken into account - the light must fall on all objects in the same direction. Therefore, we have determined for ourselves the conventional location of the light source that illuminates our planets from the right. And on the left side we marked a shadow by shading it with a pencil.


Next we paint the background. In order to make our space colorful, we will paint the background not just with black paint, but with all colors. After all, stars located at a great distance, although individually indistinguishable, together form luminous clouds. And, despite the fact that their color may seem equally white to us, they all have three main shades - red, yellow, blue. By the way, these three colors are also the primary colors from which all other colors can be obtained - blue, purple, orange, green, etc.

So, armed with this knowledge, we draw star clusters with all the colors of the rainbow, mixing them separately and directly on paper. We paint denser areas with bright colors - yellow, red and blue, with the addition of white, and darker areas - with blue and purple, with the addition of black paint. In our case, we draw from a photo our Milky Way galaxy, since we see it from the Earth and from the solar system.



After the dark background is painted, we draw the individual stars. To do this, we take a hard brush or toothbrush, dip its tip in white and, running our finger over it, spray the paint over the picture. At the same time, you need to make sure that the paint is not splashed too evenly, because the density of star clusters in different parts of space is different. For example, we deliberately make more stars in the region of the Milky Way and fewer at the edge. It is advisable to spray in different directions to avoid homogeneity. We also use not just white paint, but add a little yellow, red and blue to it. By the way, the brightest stars are usually blue. We will make some stars the brightest by painting them separately with a small brush.



After the stars are splattered, we will color the planets. Planets can be drawn from a photograph or invented, but it is important to remember that the shadow should fall in the same direction. The properties of light in space differ from its properties on Earth, and when drawing space, this must be remembered. Thanks to the earth's atmosphere, light is scattered and, as it were, bends around objects, therefore, we can always see the shadow side of objects as dimly lit. But if you look at the Moon in space, where there is no air, you will only be able to see its illuminated side, while the shadow side will be completely devoid of illumination if there is no other light source there. It’s the same with any other object in space - if no light falls on it, it is completely dark and it is impossible to distinguish any details on it.

But in our case, we will use a trick and draw the shadow side of the planets a little lighter so that they do not come to the fore. Although this is not necessary. We also do not forget that if we draw Saturn, then it may have a shadow that it casts on its rings.



After deep space is drawn, we move on to near space and draw the landscape of the planet on which we find ourselves. First, paint over all the illuminated areas with light paint. At the same time, in order to make the landscape more picturesque, it is worth painting not with one color, but constantly mixing different colors.



Further, if we were drawing a landscape on Earth, we would move on to depicting the penumbra, but since we are drawing the surface of the planet without an atmosphere, there is no scattering of light and penumbra, and what is in the shadow is simply black. But we still dilute medium-light paint and paint partial shade. Thus, we depict areas consisting of many small individual shadows and which, at a distance, merge into one spot of average illumination. And we make only the shadow of the craters that are closest to us as dark as possible, because more contrasting objects visually come to the fore.



Well, so that the landscape would not be so deserted and deserted, we will draw a spaceship with researchers. We will draw it in the same way as the rest of the celestial bodies: we will outline its outline and color it in the main color, and then we will draw a shadow.



After that, we’ll add a few details and the ship with astronauts is ready to roam the endless expanses of outer space.



We hope that this master class was not only simple and understandable for you, but also useful. Have fun with your drawing!

    I suggest painting space in watercolor as shown in this video:

    Drawing steps:

    1) First, we begin to spread different colors of paints with a lot of water - the main colors are blue, red, purple, yellow;

    2) Having covered the entire surface of the sheet, wait until it dries and begin covering the top again;

    3) I will create as many shades as possible;

    4) In some places we move the pen directly over the wet paints so that the paint spreads beautifully;

    5) Use white paint and a brush to make a fine scattering.

    The video will help you understand everything.

    Here's another amazing video:

    And here are some more watercolor drawings:

    This is how you can paint space with watercolors.

    Anyone can paint space in watercolors, you don’t have to be an artist. Everyone imagines space in their own way, and you can convey your imagination to a sheet of whatman paper with the help of a brush and paints.

    Alex, use a brush to moisten a sheet of paper with water and apply dark blue paint to the entire sheet. The paint will not lay down quite evenly, but this is good. Let it dry a little, but not completely, now add other colors: yellow, red and mix these two paints together. Let it be vague, no need for clear outlines.

    When it dries, add white paint, shaking the brush, apply our star dust. Let it dry again and draw the planets. To do this, take dark paint and draw a ball; you can depict other planets by adding rings to them.

    For the drawing we will need watercolor paints, gouache, bristles brushes, a palette, napkins and a sponge and paper for watercolors.

    Initially, you need to moisten the sheet with water. You can place it carefully under a tap with water, or take a larger brush and distribute the water with it so that the sheet becomes glossy.

    Water, and then paints, will flow in a stream. You will most likely get dirty.

    While the sheet is not dry, lay it down and apply paint as quickly as possible. You shouldn’t mix colors too much, because this is future space, so there can be a lot of things there.

    Apply transparent shades first, such as pink, blue, yellow, green and orange. Place them in the center of the sheet - they will blend very nicely.

    The main thing is to apply the paint quickly so that the sheet does not have time to dry, otherwise the drawing will not work.

    Now you need to use a synthetic brush and white gouache. We run our finger over the pile over our drawing - splashes will fly, not only on the leaf, but also on you. The part where it is lighter, we spray more, and the part where it is darker, less.

    As a result, we will get this wonderful drawing of space.

    Everyone will present such a cosmic picture in their own way. This is what the image might look like.

    This is how they paint him in the country of masters.

    Here's a video on how to paint outer space and stars using watercolors. As you can see, you can use not only watercolor paint and brushes, but also make templates to form planets. You can use a used toothbrush and spray the stars with it.

    In order to paint space in watercolor, you need to clearly draw up a sketch in your head or use a ready-made photograph (painting) for sketching. This is required in order not to make a mistake, since watercolor cannot be corrected, it cannot be painted over, at least so that it looks neat.

    On a landscape sheet, make sketches of the planets (comets, milky way and other cosmic objects), but do not press too hard on the pencil, as it may subsequently show through the paint.

    Now decide on the background color, it doesn’t have to be black, use other colors, or preferably a combination of several. Now start painting space objects to make them seem more alive, you need to add highlights to them using white watercolors.

    You can depict the stars as blurry dots. And in space itself you can draw not only famous space objects, but also spaceships, UFOs and even aliens.

    If you decide to draw space, then first you can draw different zones on a piece of paper with different colors characteristic of space (dark blue, black violet, dark crimson, etc.).

    Wait for the drawing to dry and apply a few splashes of white.

    I also offer another option for depicting space.

    You can paint space in watercolor using just a few paints - 3 or 4 colors. The paper selected is thick.


  • Take black paint, a large brush and smear the paint on the paper. Then, with a small brush, put white dots and balls in different colors. You can draw a nebula. To do this, apply a slightly transparent layer of gray paint to the area where you want.

    Drawing space requires a very creative approach.

    You can use a ready-made idea, or come up with your own plot for the picture. After all, space can be completely different and, perhaps, even fictional.

    Below is one of the options for depicting space with planets and even a rocket.