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How to Draw a Lightning Bolt
Electrify your drawings by learning how to draw a lightning bolt in 3 easy steps
In today's electric drawing guide, we will show you how to draw a lightning bolt. With this beginner-friendly tutorial, you'll have an electrifying process of sketching, outlining, and coloring your illustration. Use your lightning bolt drawing to add some spark to rock 'n roll clipart and girl power sublimated t-shirts and stickers.
Combine your illustration with other elements, such as custom sayings with a free retro font, rock 'n roll clipart, or holographic digital paper to transform your lightning bolt for different projects.
Before you start, get your art supplies ready. Feel free to use whatever art supplies you have on hand, whether it is traditional or digital tools such as DesignScape, to follow along with our drawing guide.
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Step 1 - Sketch the Lightning Bolt Shape
Let's get started with this tutorial by creating rough sketches of the lightning bolt shape. Use any lightweight tool you can erase or cover up for your rough sketch, such as a pencil.
First, draw three lines that are evenly spaced apart in your drawing area. The more space you add between the guidelines, the longer your lightning bolt will be.
Then, starting on the right side, draw slanted lines between each guideline, as we did in our guide image below. Draw a long angled line from the bottom line to make the bottom end of the lightning bolt.
On the left side, repeat the process of drawing slanted lines. Make them longer, going further past your guidelines to make your lightning bolt sketch. See our example below.
Step 2 - Define the Lightning Bolt Outlines
Switch to a darker and more permanent medium for this second step. With your permanent medium, you are going to trace your rough sketches to create a lightning bolt outline. To make your line drawing, use tools such as a pen, marker, an ink Procreate brush, or a black color medium.
Carefully trace around the shape of your lightning bolt sketches, making sure to exclude your guidelines. Once you are done tracing your sketches, you can go ahead and remove them.
Create a lightning bolt that has dimension by extending the shape to the side. We added two dimension layers for our lightning illustration, creating the red example lines first, then the blue ones.
Step 3 - Apply Color to your Lightning Bolt
In our third and final step, you get to add color to your lightning bolt clipart. You can use colored pencils, markers, or paint to add color to your bolt. Experiment with color combinations or get a themed color palette to make your lightning bolt unique and visually interesting.
Tip: To give your lightning bolt a textured look, use a combination of mediums or Procreate texture brushes and blend them to create a gradient effect.
What an electric drawing you have just created! Great work on following along and illustrating your lightning bolt. Imagine how amazing your drawing will look on a t-shirt, tumblers, or as part of an energy levels tracker for your daily personal care routine.
Want to create an SVG from your drawing? See how you can convert a JPEG to SVG in Affinity Designer with our in-depth tutorial. Apply the same steps when drawing a cactus or draw dragonflies for your digital library collection.
