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Landscape Drawing Tutorial
Part Seven -“ A Change of View ”
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But all this is for another tutorial ahead in the future. I hope you´ve enjoyed this one, and if you came here looking for how-to-draw lessons or tutorials on illustration, you got to this point having learned what you were searching for.
And what about placing another feature in it?
Let´s say a tree is the centerpiece of the landscape.
In this case, it is just made of a shape, but as the whole picture is based on how the scenery is framed. You already have the house clouds and sky to give you that visual information that you´re looking up at the sky. We don´t even need to add details to the tree shape or even give it depth to make the picture work, as you can see because your mind assumes right away that when you look at the top of the tree, you´re seeing it from under the top leaves. This is because the whole picture is framed looking up.
But… If we would add details to the tree and wanted to give it a natural 3D sculptured feel…
Yes, there´s another type of imaginary grid to follow as now we want to work on the details of the tree, and those details also have to follow their own version of vanishing points.
Here they are.
As you can see, now there´s a difference in the grid that builds the sky. I´m pulling that one from a focal vanishing point entirely outside of my canvas.
Doing this allows for a more open angle to build the sky as it makes it parallel to the ground and helps to simulate even wider distances.
Notice that because the house on the middle ground now overlaps the background area of the sky, the shapes that define the roof above and below follow the grid lines that make the sky point from its off-canvas vanishing point. This is what simulates that feeling that you´re looking up. If your main lines on scenery are the ones that make the sky, follow them to build each object that rises from the ground, which, in this case, is lower.
In this example, the grid lines from the ground grid are not even that important.
Let me give you another example. This time, a view looking slightly up from the ground into the sky.
This type of framing is excellent if you want to create vast cloudy skies or beautiful sunsets as it pulls much of the attention to the sky and uses the ground features mainly to give the open sky its scale.
Have you figured out how I created this one?
Can you see the grid lines here with your mind?
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I´ve been creating fantasy landscapes as part of my freelance illustration work for more than 15 years, so I plan to reveal all my tips & tricks about how I do my children’s style illustrations to everyone who cares to read about my techniques.
Come back soon if you enjoyed this one.
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Although I did these images in Photoshop to get a more graphic look, this is how I plan and execute my own landscapes.
This technique works the same: either you work digitally, or you do your drawings traditionally in watercolors, acrylics, and colored pencils only.
It does not matter.
Have fun!