Learn to Draw a Sunset (Easy & Fun)
Art and drawing are skills that anyone can learn with practice and repetition. The more you practice the better you will get.
Keeping things relaxing and enjoyable will make you look forward to your creative time. So try to relax and enjoy the process.
Let’s grab our supplies and get ready to have some fun learning how to draw a sunset with markers.
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Art Supplies
Sunset Sketch Practice (Thumbnail Drawings)
Doing a sunset sketch practice exercise is a great way to warm up and work through some quick ideas for your drawings.
This can be done as a quick sketch exercise, which only takes a few minutes to complete. Or, you can try doing a series of thumbnail sketches.
Both methods will help you warm up and develop your ideas.
Here’s how to do a sunset quick sketch session…
- Get some paper and something to sketch with (pencil, pen, marker, etc)
- Pull up some reference photos of sunsets
- Set a timer for three or five minutes
Then just do as many quick sketches as you can before you run out of time.
Another option is to do some thumbnail sketches. These will take a bit longer to do because there’s really no time restriction on making them.
Thumbnails are easy to make. Just make a bunch of squares or rectangles on your paper and use them to represent your drawing paper. Then just sketch out a bunch of rough ideas for layouts and designs.
We have a full tutorial on How to Do Thumbnail Sketches if you want to learn more.
How to Draw a Sunset with Markers
Learning how to draw a sunset with markers is easy and fun. When using markers there are a few things you should keep in mind.
First, if you want to be able to blend your colors together you need to use alcohol based markers. Bic, Sharpie, and Copic for example. As well as many others.
Second, you need to work while the colors are still wet or they won’t mix together. This isn’t a big deal. Just make sure you work on a section at a time.
Third, you need to use colors that are similar to each other if you want to create a smooth transition of color. If your markers are too different they will leave a harder edge.
When drawing a sunset with markers you’ll probably want to avoid hard edges, and instead create smooth transitions of color.
For more information check out our Beginner’s Guide to Markers.
There are many different color combinations you can choose for your sunset drawings. This is where repetition really comes into play.
Using Artist Trading Cards is a great way to save time and make repetition more practical.
Sunset Pencil Drawing
To start your drawing you can sketch out any objects you want to include in your finished sunset drawing. Or you can add them later.
I drew them out first so it would be easier to see in the photos. But I would probably do this after I filled in my sunset background with markers.
Begin with your lightest area of color, which is bright yellow for this example.
Next, add your next lightest color. I’m using yellow-orange for my next color. These colors are similar to each other and can be blended together pretty smoothly.
Then you can add the next color, which should be slightly darker. Use a scrap piece of paper to test your colors before using them on your drawing.
For the area where there’s water you can follow the same process, and then add some ripples to the water using one of the darker colors.
The next step is to draw in your foreground. For this example I’m going to add some land masses and palm trees.
You can draw your foreground as silhouettes, or make them a detailed drawing.
If you want to add a more detailed scene to your drawing instead of the solid black, you’ll want to draw that out before adding markers for your sunset. If you’re using solid black it doesn’t matter since it will cover the other colors.
There are a lot of different objects you could add to your sunset drawings. Try different things and see what you can come up with.
A white Gelly Roll pen can be used to add white to the top of the markers.
Using Artist Trading Cards
I love using artist trading cards (ATCs) for my artwork. They are an amazing time saver and so much fun to trade.
Of course trading is optional and doesn’t have to be the main purpose for using ATCs for your drawings.
My number one purpose for using them is to create more finished drawings in less time. And they’re easy to store in binders for safe keeping.
However, they are really fun to trade with other artists, and cut down on the piles of artwork you have laying around.
Because they are so much quicker to make, they’re the perfect size for creating a series of drawings that follow the same theme.
Check out our Beginner’s Guide to ATCs for more information on how to get started.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Now that you know how to draw a sunset with markers, what’s next? If you want to get good at art and drawing you need to practice.
The more you practice the better you will get. This doesn’t mean you have to draw for hours every day. But you should commit to working on your artwork for at least a few minutes each day.
Try to create a habit around your creative time by making it part of your daily routine. And keep it fun so you’ll be more likely to stick with it.
If you want to get really good at drawing sunsets with markers, challenge yourself to do a series of them this week. Your creativity will improve along with your drawing and art skills.
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More Art & Drawing Tutorials
- How to Draw a Dolphin
- Step by Step Palm Tree Drawing
- Learn to Draw a Pencil
- How to Draw a Galaxy with Markers
