It’s easy with a brush!！How to draw “steams”

When the weather gets cold, warm food and drinks sure are delicious, aren’t they?
The best way to illustrate the warmth of foods and drinks is with steam.

The steam rising from a hot cup of coffee or a hot bowl of ramen not only conveys the temperature of the food, but also makes it look delicious.

However steam is not a solid object, and many people seem to find it difficult to illustrate.
So here I’ll show you how to draw steam easily using MediBang Paint brushes!

1. Let’s use Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3 to draw a steamy scene!

I wanted to draw a scene of a person drinking a warm drink, so I tried various brushes in MediBang Paint, and what I found was “Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3”.
This is a free cloud brush, so you can use it as long as you are logged in to MediBang Paint.

▶︎How to download cloud brushes 

Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3 is perfect for drawing fluffy steam because it randomly creates dark and light areas.
You can draw fluffy steam, just by drawing with this brush and making a few adjustments.
Now let’s see how to draw steam using Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3!

① Draw the silhouette of the steam

First, draw a silhouette of steam using Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3.

A larger brush size is recommended here.
In this case, the brush size is about 380px and the opacity is set to 75% on a 1500px x 1000px canvas.

The Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3 automatically creates shades of color, so you can simply move the brush from top to bottom.

The darker the color, the easier it will be to create a three-dimensional effect, so draw around the middle and on top of the image in a slightly overlapping manner to create shading.

② Reducing the opacity

Once you have drawn the silhouette of the steam, lower the opacity to make the steam more transparent.
In this case, I set the opacity to 40%, but you can adjust the opacity to suit the background of your illustration.

③ Filter ⇨ Gaussian Blur to make the steam fluffy

You can leave the image as it is, but to make the steam look fluffier, blur it a little using Gaussian Blur from Filter.
I use a blur value of about 4 to 10, but the impression will change depending on how much you blur. So please adjust it to your liking.
Once you’ve blurred it out, you’re done!

2. Use other brushes to draw steam

In addition to the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3, there are other brushes that are recommended for drawing steam.

2-1. Texture Brush 2

The Texture Brush 2 can draw more steam than the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3.
It is good for hot drinks, ramen noodles, or when you open a rice cooker.
The drawing method is the same as with the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3, but it is easier to draw with a larger brush size than with the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3.
If the ground surface of the tea is too fuzzy, you can use the transparent color of the airbrush to scrape it off a little.

2-2. Hazy Crowd Brush

The drawing method is the same as for the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3.
It is suitable for drawing quiet steam, which looks less fuzzy than drawing regularly with the Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3 or Texture Brush 2.

You can see it has a unique texture before blending, so if it fits your design, it may be cute to use it as steam while keeping the texture.

3. Summary

What did you think? By using brushes, you can easily draw natural steam, which looks difficult due to its lack of shape.
The first brush I introduced, “Fuzzy Watercolor Brush 3” is free to use, so please download it and give it a try!

（Text・Illustrations／Amane）