Drawing Scenery Landscapes

Drawing mountains, lakes, rivers, etc.

Landscapes can be tricky to draw. This quick lesson will go over some tips to help you draw them more easily. There are really just a few troublesome areas that most people have, and that's what I'm going to cover here.

The first thing you want to do is figure out where the horizon line is. This will help you get the perspective correct. Of course, it is less important if there are no architectural structures in the scene, but it is still important for composition. Determine whether the horizon line is high or low. If it is high, then you will be seeing more of the ground and less of the sky. If it is low, then you will be seeing more of the sky and less of the ground.

For optimal composition, I recommend putting the horizon line either at one-third or one-fourth the way up or down on the page rather than in the middle. Now, let's work on perspective. The two big things to keep in mind with landscapes are atmospheric perspective and angles. With atmospheric perspective, objects get lighter as they get further away. This is because air contains particles which have volume just like fog. If you look at a mountain or hill that is very far away, it will almost blend into the sky.

Also, as far as perspective goes, we want to get our angles correct. This means that if you draw a building or a house, you need to make sure that the lines on the house are in the correct perspective. I don't have time to go into a full perspective lesson today, but this is very important for any landscape containing architectural structures. If you are drawing a pure wilderness landscape, then perspective is not quite as important. However, you should still be familiar with it.