For The Love of Landscapes : How to Capture Dreamy Scenes That Transport You to a Peaceful Place
First and Most Important : Choose A Scene Which Brings You Joy!
Rather than picking something which looks ‘easy’ choose something that you actually want to gaze at for hours - trust us, it will feel less like work if you love the subject! Choosing a real location gives you an opportunity to either draw or paint outside ( Plein Air ) or work from a photograph to observe the variation in colour, light and shadows.
Landscape by Emma
Position the Horizon Line
The horizon line is where the ground meets the sky. A higher horizon line will emphasize the foreground, while a lower one will focus more on the sky and background. Try taking several photos and see which pleases you most. You can alter the view by raising or lowering your eyeline. Exaggerate further by standing tall, or crouching down.
Sketch in Your Basic Shapes
Start by sketching the large shapes of your landscape lightly in HB pencil, chalk or a little neutral coloured paint. Use simple shapes like triangles for mountains, bumps for hills, and lines for buildings.
This is just the framework for your landscape, so don’t worry about details yet.
Work From The Distance to The Foreground
Distance: The distance, or background is where things seem farthest away, such as the sky. These are the elements which appear ‘behind’ everything else. Paint these first, keeping the shapes fairly simple, and the colour slightly muted to create an impression of ‘atmospheric’ depth (Things further away appear less vibrant).
Middle Ground: This area includes objects that are stilt a distance, but appear in front of the background. You can begin adding a little texture here to suggest detail - but don’t try to make up detail that you can’t actually see. That variation will also help inform the viewer of their distance. If you add too much detail here, there won’t be enough contrast between this area and the foreground.
Foreground: The foreground includes anything which appears closest to you. These elements will be larger in scale than the rest, stronger in colour and with more detail.
Tips For Creating Natural Elements
Trees: Start with the trunk and branches. Often branches have ‘broken lines’ where some of the branch is hidden, paint what is visible, leave hidden sections unpainted. The fill leaves or foliage. Trees in the foreground will be larger, while those in the distance should get smaller.
Mountains: If you're drawing mountains, observe which areas are very shaded. Add shadows to give the shapes volume. Are there areas which appear lighter and softer as they recede into the distance?
Water: If your landscape includes calm bodies of water, use smooth lines. Water obeys gravity - so the surface appears flat, depict this with horizontal lines and add gentle ripples to show movement.
Sky: Lightly sketch the sky's outline, deciding whether you want it to be clear, cloudy, or include elements like the sun or a moon. Clouds are often softer and can be added with curved lines.
brush Strokes: Use short, quick flicking motions close up for grass. For leaves try dabbing with a round brush. When depicting rocks or gravel use varied colours and dab with a dry brush.
Shading is essential to create depth and realism in your landscape. Observe where your light source is coming from, and see where the shadows on the opposite side are most apparent.
Final highlights: Highlight areas where the light hits most, like tree tops, the sunny side of his or mountains, dappled light on the ground and tree trunks, or reflections on water.
Texture: Add texture to the landscape, such as rough bark on trees, ripples in water, or details in the ground like small stones or grass. Experiment with scraping or printing to get different textures.