Drawing Landscapes

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Place horizontal lines on the tall buildings at the right and left of the tallest building. Shade the sides of some buildings using diagonal lines. Add short, curved lines to the trees. Sketch curving lines in the foreground to make it look like a watery surface.

With all those different colours, patterns and shapes it would be a waste if you used just one single technique, or indeed medium, in all your sketches. When you draw a tree it's important to draw that particular tree, with all its bumps, broken branches and contortions, not the idealised version of a tree you may have in your head. While most of us will probably instinctively think of a horizontal format for a nice beach or forest scene, in many cases other formats will work equally well. Step 2: Carefully shape the outline of the pine trees with jagged lines of different lengths. Maintain the sense of depth by showing some trees standing in front of others. Place a large, bumpy, oblong shape to form a boulder along the side of the stream. Before you start drawing you should take a moment and have a good look at the scene. Then describe it in one or two sentences, verbally or on a piece of scrap paper.Step 4: Draw a circle for the sun. Shape the two trees in the rear with jagged lines. Add details to the pine trees with short jagged lines. Show the contour of the boulders with slightly curving lines. Put in more curving lines to show the surface of the water. A very wide angle showing a big part of the landscape can be just as intriguing as a close-up of those mushrooms growing from a lonely tree stump. One of the most intriguing things you can do to make your landscape sketches look more interesting is to copy what nature does and use a lot of variety. To avoid all the elements of your sketch visually melting together the 30/70 rule is the perfect guide. Several elements of nature combine to create this lovely landscape scene -- sun and clouds, trees, stone, and a field of flowers. This landscape will give you a great chance to practice drawing a variety of flowers.

Step 5: Darken the trees in the rear with many jagged lines. Shade the area under the trees with crisscross lines. Add shape to the boulders by shading with diagonal lines. You can move branches or entire trees if they're in the way. You can add a stream to balance your composition, give a hedge a little trim if it's too prominent. And your viewers will be none the wiser. You could try a vertical view to show only a small part of the scene, or go for square or even super long to spice things up.Step 2: Sketch two enormous boulders at the base of the waterfall with bumpy, oblong shapes. Suggest the movement of water over the falls with gently downward-curving lines. Use curving horizontal lines to indicate the contours of the cliff surrounding the falls. Make tree branches with short, Y-shaped lines.

It doesn't need to be a perfect rendering. A rough indication as a reminder of their presence is usually enough to be intriguing. Even just some footprints in the sand or a stray feather can work really well. Step 2: Alter the horizon line so that it dips down in front of the barn and rises up behind it. Begin defining the barn by putting in rectangles for windows and a large door. Frame twin silo towers with tall rectangles, and cap them with half circles. Step 4: Make a series of roughly parallel lines to look like ruts on the surface of the roadway. Sketch several clumps of tall grass at the edge of the road and around the bushes. Shape them like spikes: mostly upright, but a few are bent over. As I've mentioned in my article Why Drawing Landscapes is so Popular (and so Good for your Art), one of the best parts of sketching outdoor views is that you can easily edit them.Step 4: For the church, give texture to the roof with diagonal lines. Use horizontal lines for the roof of the house. For the roof of the barn, use angled lines that follow the shape of the roof. Show panes in the windows with crosses, as shown. Draw a rectangle in the door of the house and the church. Add a doorknob to each with a dot. Use a combination of V-shaped and horizontal and vertical lines for boards on the barn door. Step 4: Draw intersecting horizontal and vertical lines on the sides of the buildings for windows. Sketch columns on the corners of the tall building at left using vertical lines with an inverted V shape on top. The centerpiece of this landscape is a majestic, rushing waterfall. Surrounded by stone and plants, this waterfall landscape promises a wonderful escape. A paved road leads to a range of snow-capped mountains, gleaming in the sun, in this landscape. You can almost smell the crisp winter air when gazing at this scene.

Step 5: Draw a number of bare trees on the horizon with sketchy, angular lines. Lightly shade in the footsteps with diagonal lines. Add many scribblelike lines on the sides of the pine trees. These lines should be nearly vertical in the middle area of the pine trees but point toward the outer ends of the branches at the sides. Finally, add a few light, angular lines to show drifts of snow. Step 1: Begin with a rough outline of the watery part of the scene. Form it like a long rectangle with an open, twisted bottom and a boxy, foot-like shape at the top. Use a few curving lines, but most of them should be straight. Since landscape views can be a bit busy and overwhelming with few straight lines or well-defined shapes it helps a lot to start a sketch with big, rough shapes. Step 4: Attach four heavy ropes to the bows of the boats with pairs of curved lines. Draw one or two tall poles or radio antennas on each boat. Use thin lines made with a ruler. Add detail to three antennas with short horizontal lines. Make windows and portholes on the cabins with slanted rectangles. Draw a round life preserver on the side of one of the boat cabins using a circle within a circle. For a detailed step-by-step guide on how to create a drawing from scratch pop by my article How to create a Drawing or Painting in 9 simple Steps.

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Next time you're out and about switch up your usual style and try drawing the view as abstract as you can with it still being recognisable as a nature scene. Nature views can be quite busy, especially when greenery is involved. An English country garden, for example, can be so overwhelmingly colourful and bushy that it might even be a bit much on the eye, let alone the time it’d take you to draw it all.