Tuto Illustrator : draw the sky and the sea

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Introduction

Here is a beautiful landscape of sea and sky with a rocky shore (photo found on the internet) that I propose to reproduce with the software of Adobe Illustrator (CS5).

The final result after many hours of work is the following:

I have decomposed the achievement in 4 parts:

•         the sky
•         the sea
•         the rocks
•         the buldings

the sky

The drawing of the sky background starts with a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = 90 °) described below:

•         Location 0%, RGB = 178, 215, 225
•         Location 70%, RGB = 61, 130, 194 (Distribution: 50-50%)
•         Location 100%, RGB = 0, 104, 186 (Distribution: 79-21%)

For more information read the post "Notation for color gradients".

The bottom of the sea is a linear gradient of 6 colors (angle = 90 ° and feather 8 pixels) described below:

        Location 9%, RGB = 221, 240, 234

        Location 33.5%, RGB = 101, 176, 175 (Distribution: 40-60%)

        Location 54%, RGB = 51, 148, 148 (Distribution: 23.5-76.5%)

        Location 76.5%, RGB = 8, 103, 125 (Distribution: 46-54%)

        Location 91%, RGB = 15, 98, 135 (Distribution: 51-49%)

        Location 100%, RGB = 20, 59, 101 (Distribution: 56-44%)

After drawing the cloud of mist between the sky and the sea (light green arrow) with a path of color RGB = 120, 150, 183 and Gaussian blur 6 pixels, the set of clouds is performed with the different brushes available in the standard library of Illustrator. The first example below is a brush of type "Watercolor stroke 4", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 131, 161, 195.

The following 2 paths are made with the brush "Watercolor stroke 3", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 203, 221, 238, see below:

Then a path draw with brush "Watercolor stroke 3", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 169, 204, 235:

Here a path made with brush "Chalk - Scribble", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 200, 212, 220:

To strengthen off the fog I use a path with the brush "Chalk", thickness 0.75 pt. and stroke color RGB = 146, 165, 185:

Another path is drawn with the brush "Dark ink wash", thickness 1 pt. and stroke color RGB = 248, 249, 250:

A new path is made with the brush "Watercolor stroke 1", thickness 4 pts and stroke color RGB = 184, 202, 216:

The following is a path with the brush "Chalk", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 184, 202, 216:

Then another path with brush "Chalk", thickness 2 pts and stroke color RGB = 222, 221, 221:

The set of paths above are blurred with Gaussian blur 5 pixels to give the following result:

This is an effect of clouds in the sky that I personally find realistic and satisfying, made with few items, all from the standard library Illustrator...

the sea

The drawing of the sea is made with the same objects and the same method as the sky above.

First a path made with the brush “Chalk – Scribble”, 3 pts thickness and stroke color RGB = 21, 36, 54 as shown below:

Then another path with brush "Chalk", 3 pts thickness and stroke color RGB = 157, 192, 220:

 

The following is made with brush "Chalk", 1pt thickness and stroke color RGB = 76, 120, 158:

Further we get from the edge, darker is the color and smaller is the thickness of the "Chalk" brush, here the stroke is color RGB = 55, 104, 145:

 

Here thickness is 0.25 pt. and stroke color RGB = 41, 79, 110:

The scum is made with 2 color lines (RGB = 200, 212, 220) and brush "Chalk", 2 pixels thickness:

 

The design of the light and dark areas continues with the same technique that I will not detail here since everyone can bring the effect that seems to best represent the waves. Here the light parts are made with the brush "Chalk", 1-pixel thickness and stroke color RGB = 120, 150, 183:

Below is a dark area made with a line of color (RGB = 28, 37, 59) and brush "Chalk", 2 pixels thickness:

 

Finally, we get the following result:

the rocks

The design of the rock in the foreground begins with a linear gradient of 4 colors (angle = 151 °), described below:

•         Location 0%, RGB = 55, 51, 48
•         Location 38%, RGB = 80, 91, 87 (Distribution: 50-50%)
•         Location 80%, RGB = 54, 55, 50 (Distribution: 50-50%)
•         Location 95.5%, RGB = 80, 91, 87 (Distribution: 51-49%)

 

Then many paths are drawn with the "Chalk - Scribble" brush, 1 pt thickness and stroke color RGB = 26, 15, 21 as below:

Clear traces are made with strokes of color (RGB = 80, 91, 87), "Chalk" brush and 1 pt. thickness:

 

Other paths are made with color (RGB = 122, 108, 88) "Chalk" brush and 1 pt. thickness:

Complemented by paths of color (RGB = 127, 116, 104), "Chalk" brush and 2 pts thickness:

 

 

Green algae are performed with different paths of color (RGB = 46, 52, 19) and brush "Chalk", 2 pts thickness.

The drawing of the background rock begins with a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = -92 °), described below:

•         Location 0%, RGB = 163, 156, 146
•         Location 76%, RGB = 85, 59, 45 (Distribution: 65-35%)
•         Location 98%, RGB = 31, 21, 16 (Distribution: 73-27%)

Followed by a second linear gradient (in front) of 3 colors (angle = 89 °) as described below:

•         Location 0%, RGB = 26, 15, 21
•         Location 40.6%, RGB = 161, 150, 140 (Distribution: 30-70%)
•         Location 100%, RGB = 26, 15, 21 (Distribution: 23-77%)

After booking the space of the wall to come (white), the rock is performed using color plots (RGB = 134, 106, 84), brush "Chalk" and thickness 0.75 pt.

 

The dark marks are made with strokes of color (RGB = 15, 7, 11), brush "Chalk" and thickness 0.5 pt.

Other marks are made using paths of color (RGB = 142, 123, 116), brush "Chalk" and thickness 0.75 pt.

Gradually, with the same technique, the rock is covered by different paths to give the result shown below:

 

the buildings

The grids are made with blends (8 steps), the 2 paths of color RGB = 81, 77, 68:

The first part of the wall is a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = 0 °), as described below:

•         Location 20%, RGB = 26, 15, 21
•         Location 32%, RGB = 211, 197, 183 (Distribution: 44-56%)
•         Location 100%, RGB = 26, 15, 21 (Distribution: 15-85%)

Which is with transparency "soft light", opacity 50% and covers a path of the same dimension (color RGB = 140, 135, 123):

To draw the fortifications of the wall, I create a new symbol (see below green arrow for initial size and red arrow for symbol size) that covers the surface of the wall:

The symbol is used on the entire surface with transparency "Overlay" and 50% opacity:

The second part of the wall is made using the same technique with a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = -90 °), described below:

•         Location 0%, RGB = 26, 15, 21
•         Location 43%, RGB = 211, 197, 183 (Distribution: 49-51%)
•         Location 100%, RGB = 26, 15, 21 (Distribution: 44.5-55.5%)

The wall is covered with symbols as seen previously, and the openings are designed as follows:

One part of the wall is behind the rock made with a line of brush "Charcoal - Rough", color RGB = 50, 40, 38 and thickness 1 pt.:

  

The green part of the water is performed with a path of brush "Chalk - Scribble", color RGB = 20, 23, 8 and 0.5 pt. thickness:

Without going into the detail of the design of the staircase which is no great difficulty, I use blends (15 steps), as the example given below:

The pier is drawn as shown below:

The remaining buildings present no difficulty:

  

The final result for this part is shown below:

I thought that the drawing of a wave breaking on the rocks (made with a set of symbols created for this purpose) would be an enhancement element:

  

After drawing the islands and other design elements, the end result is that shown in page 1 of this post...