How to Draw Landscapes: Tips and Tricks.

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Learning how to draw landscapes in pencil can be a bit tricky. So, let's go over some things that will help you do better drawings.

I'll start out with some basic tips, then I'll show you some of my actual drawings.

Establishing a horizon line:

Let's start out with some basics of how to draw landscapes.

Where you put the horizon line determines how dynamic the picture is. I tried to avoid putting it in the exact middle and instead try to go up one-third or one-fourth of the way.

Remember that the horizon line is basically your eye level. If you stand in a valley, the horizon line will be higher. If you stand on a mountain, the horizon line will be lower.

Of course, you can place the horizon line anywhere on your page. You can place it low and draw more of the sky, or you can place it high and draw more of the ground.

Here are two examples:

This picture has a low horizon line, so you would see more of the sky. This is useful if there are a lot of nice clouds you want to draw.

And here is one that is higher up:

In this example, you would not see much of the sky at all. This can be useful when there are lots of objects you want to draw that are low on the ground.

Now, when learning how to draw landscapes, one thing that can be tricky is the fact that horizon lines are hard to see. You might have hills, trees, or buildings in the way. So, don't worry about figuring out exactly where it is. All you really need to worry about is the division of space. Do you want to show more of the ground or more of the sky?

Now, let's move on and talk about perspective.

Perspective:

One problem that many people face when learning how to draw landscapes is perspective. Perspective for buildings is the most difficult because of all the angles, but it's a little easier for pure wilderness scenes.

As objects go into the distance, they get smaller and closer together.

Here is an example:

Notice how the trees in the distance not only get smaller, but there is also less space in between them. This is because "space" is a thing too, and it will get smaller as it goes into the distance. The trees in the distance look like they are touching each other. If you were to drive down that road, you would notice that the trees are all the same distance apart.

One more thing that can help add depth is value.

Value and depth:

When learning to draw landscapes, it is important to consider value. Value will help with both lighting and depth. Now, I'm not going to have much time to talk about lighting in this article, but I do want to give some tips for depth.

Here is an example.

Notice how the objects get lighter as they go into the distance. This is called atmospheric perspective.

How light the objects get will vary based on weather (fog, snow, rain, etc.), time of day, how much light there is, and whether you're looking at hills or flat plains.

The trick is to just be observant. You might even want to exaggerate the values and make them lighter than they really are in the distance just to add more depth. Actually, when working with pencil, I highly recommend that you never make your background values the exact same value as your foreground values. You don't want everything to be on the same plane.

Of course, when learning how to draw landscapes, you will be dealing the multiple elements, so here is another example.

Here is one more picture:

In this picture, you can see both the clouds in the sky and the mountains on the ground get lighter as they go into the distance. Many people forget that clouds go into the distance the closer they are to the horizon line. The clouds are closest when they are straight over your head.

Now, let's look at some actual drawings:

When learning to how to draw landscapes, it helps to look at some pictures for reference.

Here is a sketch I did based on a photograph that I took:

Here are some things I did to make the drawing more dynamic:

• I get the highest contrast in the foreground. The shadows have a dark on light pattern that makes them pop forward. The background is more subtle so it sinks back.
• I put the most object detail in the foreground. The background objects are a bit less detailed and more vague in comparison.
• I made the objects get smaller as they go into the distance for added depth. Sometimes the difference in size is subtle. Also, you have to remember that not all objects are the same size. A tree in the middle ground could be bigger than a tree in the foreground, but generally, all objects of the same size should get smaller as they go into the distance. Just be observant of the scene.
• The horizon line is somewhat high, so you don't see as much of the sky as you do the ground.
• I tried to keep some diagonal lines here and there to make it more dynamic. Straight horizontal lines and vertical lines have their place, but if you can get some diagonals in there, it'll have more action.

Now to really help you learn how to draw landscapes, I'll show you one more example.

Let's look at a quick sketch I did while outside.

I did this one in a standard drawing notebook, 9x12 inches. I kept everything soft and a bit abstract in this one. When there really aren't any objects that stand out, you might want to emphasis some parts of the drawing here or there.

Learning how to draw landscapes is sometimes about making choices, so what I did was emphasize certain leaves and tree limbs here and there to make them stand out. I left other areas lighter and less detailed. Instead of drawing every little leaf, I looked for large, dominant groups of leaves and drew them.

Look for big shapes. Also, look for where the darkest values are. I kept all my pure blacks to the foreground.

I Left the top of the drawing abstract for style purposes. There were just a bunch of random leaves there anyway. You don't have to make every part of the drawing super detailed (unless that is your style of course).

When drawing trees than sort of run together and make it hard to distinguish everything, you might need to stylize the trees a little bit. I slightly stylized some of the leaves on the trees to make them stand out a bit more. You'll get better at this with practice. Just try to keep everything looking natural.

Learning how to draw landscapes can be fun. You can be realistic or expressive. Be sure to check out my other articles for improving your accuracy or values.

That's all for now. Keep these tips in mind the next time you do a drawing, and I'm sure you'll have a much better landscape drawing to show off to your friends.

Read articles related to: How to Draw Landscapes.

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