Nature and Landscapes

Landscapes seem easy (nature has no "wrong" proportions), but they're full of traps: lollipop trees, flat skies and messy detail everywhere. Good landscapes rely on simplification, value planning and depth.

Think in big shapes

A landscape is a few big shapes: sky, distant hills, middle-ground trees, foreground ground. Plan them with thumbnails first. Ask: what's the light source? Which shapes are light, which are dark?

Trees

1. Structure: draw the trunk and main branches. Branches get thinner as they divide, like a Y repeated. The trunk widens at the base where roots spread.
2. Foliage masses: group leaves into a few big clumps, each like a cloud or a sphere. Don't draw leaves.
3. Light and shadow: each clump is a form with a light top side and a shadow underside. The interior of the tree is darker.
4. Sky holes: leave small gaps where the sky shows through. They make the tree feel airy and natural.

Rocks, water and clouds

• Rocks are boxes with irregular planes. Give them a clear light top, a shadow side and a dark cast shadow at the base. Cracks follow the planes.
• Water reflects the sky and objects above it, vertically below them. Reflections are usually slightly darker than the objects in light. Calm water: clear reflections and horizontal strokes. Moving water: broken reflections.
• Clouds are 3D forms with a light side and a shadow side. They follow perspective: smaller and flatter near the horizon, bigger overhead.

Skies and light

The sky is the light source of the landscape. It's usually lighter near the horizon and darker overhead. Its value sets the mood: bright sky and dark land for a sunny day; dark sky and lit land for a storm.

Drawing outdoors (plein air)

• Bring a small kit: sketchbook, pencils or pen, a viewfinder (a cardboard frame).
• Choose a simple view first: a single tree, a corner of a park.
• Work quickly: light changes in an hour. Make a quick value sketch at the start to remember the light.
• Use atmospheric perspective (see depth) to separate the planes.