Nature is dynamic. The wind blows. Water splashes. Smoke rises and curls in long trails before dissipating. How the effects of wind and gravity and energy acts on the natural world is something many artists have studied. For example, Leonardo da Vinci sketched the movement of water and tried to capture how it flows and creates eddies. William Turner studied the dynamics of clouds and ocean waves for many of his paintings.
Capturing these natural effects are difficult because the shapes change so rapidly it’s nearly impossible to see without a camera. Also, it’s challenging to freeze a moment and still convey the sense of movement of what you’re depicting.
Joseph Gilland’s book Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation is a great resource for breaking down how nature moves and depicting it in a way that feels like the drawing is still in motion. This 300 page book covers the liquids, smoke, fire, explosions, and even magic and the many different ways they can behave and interact.
He shows how to draw water as a wave, as it splashes, as it drops and ripples, as it bubbles and squirts and falls in sheets, and how it looks in many other situations. He gives you a way to analyze the movement and gets you to think about how nature acts differently when it’s subtle or highly energetic.
This is a great book on a topic rarely covered for anyone interested in including nature’s theatrics into their art.
If you buy using the links below, I get a small commission that helps me buy more books to feature.