How to Color a Sunrise

Draw a horizon line across a piece of heavy-grade drawing paper with an HB pencil and a ruler. Create this line one-quarter up the page from the bottom.

Color the area below the horizon line with a black colored pencil for a silhouetted land look. Use firm, even pressure and color in a horizontal pattern.

Select a light yellow colored pencil and gently draw a semicircle on top and in the center of the horizon line. Start at the horizon line and color horizontally in the semicircle shape, allowing the yellow to go slightly beyond the line of the semicircle. This is the center of the sunrise as it rises above the horizon line. Use a dark yellow colored pencil to continue coloring about 1 inch around the light yellow sun, creating a darker band of yellow.

Blend orange into the darker yellow band with an orange colored pencil extending down around the sun until the orange color reaches the sides of the page. Continue to color upward past the sun, spanning both sides of the page and releasing pressure as you make your way toward the top. Color about a 2-inch band of orange above the sun.

Starting in the lighter orange color, add red into the orange using a red colored pencil. Color horizontally across the entire page and work your way all the way to the top of the page, deepening the red as you reach the top edge of the page by adding pressure to the colored pencil. You now will have a gradual fade from the yellow of the sun to orange and finally to a deep red as the sunrise reaches the top of the paper.