HOW TO SKETCH LANDSCAPES

Beginner's Drawing Tips & Quick Landscape

Sketching Exercises
By
Liron Yanconsky
 HOW TO SKETCH LANDSCAPES: Beginner's Drawing Tip & Quick
Landscape Sketching Exercises
Copyright © 2015 Liron Yanconsky
Published: December 2015
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 Table of Contents
1 – Introduction

2 – What is a Sketch?

3 – Inner Game: Sketching With Your Brain

a. The Correct Mindset
b. Visual Intelligence
c. Imperfection and Incompletion
d. Curiosity and Variety

4- The Basics of Sketching

a. Materials
b. Holding the pencil
c. Quality of lines
d. Correct use of your eyes and gaze
e. Direction of sketching

5 – Let's Sketch!
a. Rocky terrain
b. House on the lake
c. Busy street
d. Road and tree
e. More examples

6 – Conclusion
1 – Introduction

Hey there! Welcome to HOW TO SKETCH LANDSCAPES.

My name is Liron, and I have been drawing ever since I can remember
myself.

I was always fascinated with looking at things and sketching them, and my
school notebooks were always filled with more sketches than school related
stuff.
HOW TO SKETCH is a quick guide for sketching landscapes, that also
includes some valuable advice regarding drawing in general.

If you want to get straight to the exercises, skip to part 4. If you are a
beginner however, I do recommend, at the very least, skimming
through the beginning of the book.

I am a big believer in the "Anyone can do it" approach, and I promise you
that if you follow the instructions in this book, you will be well on your
way towards achieving your art-related goals.

I am super excited to have the opportunity to be your teacher, and can't wait
for us to start our journey together.

So without further ado, let's begin!

Truly yours,

Liron Yanconsky,

Artist & Published author

LironYan.com
2 – What is a Sketch?

This may be obvious to many people, but let's begin with the definition of a
sketch – both the dry definition, and MY definition.
Here is Wikipedia's definition:

"A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually

intended as a finished work.

A sketch may serve a number of purposes: it might record something that

the artist sees, it might record or develop an idea for later use or it might be
used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image, idea or
principle."

Okay, you got that down?

A sketch is a drawing. It can be simple or complicated. Light or dark. Fast
or slow. What really makes it a sketch is that it's usually not intended to be
a finished work.

Any time you doodle in your notebook, feel free to call it a sketch. If you
find yourself looking at an object, passing the time while drawing it, it's a
sketch. If you want to practice drawing, and you do that by creating quick,
simple drawings, feel free to call these sketches too.

A sketch can be as beautiful and as impactful as a final, finished,

“complete” drawing.

In fact, many times I find sketches even MORE fascinating than finished
drawings. The reason for this is that a sketch is more of a window to the
artist's mind. It's what he drew without being concerned about “what other
people might think” or how perfect and complete it should be.
To me, this is more exciting than looking at a finished work.

In addition, a sketch can be as simple as few lines, or very complicated and

intricate.
Here is an example of a very simple sketch of a penguin.

As you can see, this is a relatively rough sketch. I did put a lot of effort into
making it as accurate as possible, but it's still simple, rough and sketchy.
You don't have an infinite amount of time when trying to sketch a moving
animal.

Here is an example of a more intricate sketch.

This is a little more detailed sketch of an old building's wall. This sketch
was a lot more time consuming than the penguin. I didn't get all the lines to
be perfectly accurate, and the perspective may be a bit off, but I am pleased
with the gist of it.

Both of these examples are beautiful in my opinion, as they show the

process of portraying reality on the paper, in a very raw and lively way.

Sketching lets you draw many different things, while committing only to
whatever you choose. You can create many simple sketches, and further
develop the ones you choose. Also, this is one of the best ways to practice
drawing in general, as well as improving your visual skills, as we will soon
see.

And above all – sketching is a lot of fun!

So... we will now move on to the next part, and learn about the “Inner
Game” (the mental side) of improving our sketching skills.
3 – Inner Game: Sketching With Your Brain

In this part, we will talk about the concepts and mental side of learning how
to become better at sketching.

It is important to understand that in addition to your hands, it is your brain

that sketches as well. Your brain controls your hands, and is an important
part of the sketching process. Anyone can train their mind and thus improve
their visual intelligence.

When this understanding sinks in, you will also better understand why I am
a big believer in the “Anyone can do it” approach.
Part 3 is going to be mostly theoretical. If you really want to start sketching
right away, feel free to skip to part 4 (or 5 to get directly to the sketching
exercises).
However, I strongly advise you not to skip this part, as it contains the
(crucial) blueprint for learning how to sketch (and draw in general). If you
do choose to skip to part 4, be sure to come back later and read this part as
well, for a nice closure.
a. The Correct Mindset
So here's the deal: learning how to sketch is just like learning how to draw,
or how to sing, or how to become a bodybuilder. All it takes is practice. A
LOT of practice.
They say it takes ten thousand hours of practice to master a skill-set. This
can spread over as much as 3-6 years. But it doesn't mean you aren't going
to become really good FAST.

So the bottom line is this: practice.

Practice anywhere, anytime, and as much as you can. Carry with you a
small sketching notebook, and whenever you see something interesting,
sketch it!

Don't worry if you don't know where to begin yet, or how to actually do it.
We will talk about everything in the near future. For now, just try and soak
up the gist of my advice.
By constantly practicing, you will get better, and you'll start developing
curiosity and a willingness to take up challenges.
Another important mindset to have, is that of giving yourself credit and
“taking it easy”. Learning a new skill-set is a challenge. It requires your
brain to work. So don't worry if the beginning is hard, or if you don't get the
result you want right away.

Take it with baby steps, and give yourself credit for even small success –
you will make progress!
Trust your ability to improve, and improvement will come.

And by taking it easy, I don't mean being lazy or avoiding challenges –

quite the contrary! If you feel like you are making progress, don't be afraid
to try sketching more complex scenes and objects. But don't be hard on
yourself if the beginning is slow.
b. Visual Intelligence
In the beginning of part 3, I mentioned how your brain is drawing together
with your hands, and this is something I want to take the time to further
explain.
Drawing and especially sketching from real life, is a skill of observation
and perception. You observe your environment, and understand how it
looks and WHY it looks the way it does. Then, you sketch it.

Here is an example of a sketch that looks good because I understand why it

looks the way it does.

The reason this towel looks good is that I know and understand how cloth
works. I know how gravity affects the cloth. In fact, this sketch is taken
from a book I published on understanding and drawing folds and clothes,
which really helped me internalizing these concepts.

So which part of your body is doing the “observation” part? That's right –
your brain. Even if you doodle while on the phone, without focusing on a
specific object, it is still your brain that gives commands to your hands.
Visual intelligence, or visual skills, are simply understanding your object
of interest – the object you are sketching – and knowing how to put it
down on paper. You can view the first bold part as the “Inner Game”, and
the second as “Outer Game”. Both are critical to becoming good, which is
why this book discusses them.

If you can do the first part, you are well on your way to become better, and
all there is left to do is to learn the specific techniques.

To conclude: Your brain and your hands work together to create sketches.
Improving your visual intelligence (while working on your techniques) will
help you rapidly improve your results.
c. Imperfection and Incompletion
What I love most about sketching, is that it allows you let go of perfection
and finishing touches, while simultaneously letting you focus on your “raw”
skills.
Instead of worrying too much about keeping it clean, you get a wonderful
exercise in observation.

Instead of “wasting” a lot of time on finer details, you actually improve

when it comes to the “bigger picture”: proportions, composition and many
other super important skills.
Let's look at an example of a bear cub walking near a forest trail.

How much time do you think I had for sketching this cub? Very little. I
focused on the bare essentials (pun intended).

In this specific example, I tried to quickly grasp the location of the limbs
and the head of the cub, and sketch them out. The shading and other details
were actually added when the cub was almost entirely out of sight. And
even then, I didn't want to spend TOO much time on them. I care more
about sketching WHILE I see my object.

Did I care too much about the finer details, or the accuracy of this sketch?
Not really.

Does it still look great? You bet.

Did I get to practice the skill of drawing quickly while maintaining the
minimum necessary accuracy? You bet.

Did I let go of thinking about “what other people think about this sketch”,
while allowing my art and my skills to truly shine? You bet.

Was it super fun and challenging? Yes.

Do you get a sense of why I love this so much? I could actually let go of so
many things – important as they may be – and focus only on the essentials:
Flow, motion, competent accuracy, expression etc...

Keep in mind that other things are important too. Things like finish, colors,
ink, details and cleanliness are very important. But, the raw observation and
visual skills are (arguably!) more important.

To conclude: Sketching allows you to maximize your learning experience

in certain “raw” fields and skills, while letting go of others, creating
beautiful works in the process.
d. Curiosity and Variety
Here is a fun one.
Consider the process of learning how to sketch and draw in the LONG
RUN.
In the beginning, you see major improvement by simply sitting down and
sketching. You try different exercises, and try sketching different objects.

However, in order to continually grow in the long run, our mind needs a
challenge. This is where variety and curiosity come to the surface.

When I talk about curiosity, I am referring to the willingness to try new,

challenging things. Perhaps you never drew a body in motion. Or maybe
you never tried mimicking the shiny surface of a sport car. Maybe your next
challenge would be drawing water in motion, or the surface of a lake, or a
beach.
Whatever your challenges are, you should really find and conquer them. By
doing so, you will train your mind to learn a variety of skills and
techniques, that will benefit each other as well.

From the shiny surface of water you can better sketch the shiny surface of
an apple. At the time, you haven't even thought about it, but after trying it
you DO feel it helped you.

Variety is always KING. Remember that being an artist is never about being
a one trick pony. You are always on the lookout for new skills and ideas to
implement.

Variety prevents deterioration.

There is also another side benefit to this. With time, you will start
developing a unique style of your own. This happens because despite being
the same in many ways, people are also VERY different in the way they
perceive the world. The way YOU perceive the world will shine with your
art. And by challenging yourself to try new things all the time, the road to
discovering and refining that unique style will be shorter.
4 – The Basics of Sketching

After exhaustively discussing the inner game of sketching and drawing, it's
time to learn the basics of sketching.

We will begin by talking about tools and some basic techniques, and
gradually continue to more advanced concepts and exercises.
So c'mon, let's do this!

a. Materials
For the sake of simplicity, I highly recommend you use a pencil for
sketching. Any pencil will do. I personally used to love using mechanical
pencils, but later found out I'm getting better results using a graphite
pencil (the common orange pencil everyone knows and loves).
Regarding the hardness of the pencil, I recommend you use a medium HB
pencil, or something close (anything between HB and 2B). This is good for
beginners. Later on, you should experiment and see what feels best to you.

The gist of it is that the higher you go up the scale of B, the darker and
stronger the lines become. The higher you go up the scale of H, the brighter
and weaker the lines become. HB is right in the middle.

As for paper, any regular, printer paper will be good. I recommend A4 size
(again, the standard, most common size). I would sometimes work on
projects on A3 paper (double the size of A4), which is good for getting a lot
of details into a large work. For the sake of this book, A4 will be perfect.

I also recommend getting a small notebook that you can carry around with
you, in case you want to sketch on the go. It should have blank pages.

Erasing is not such a big deal when it comes to practicing sketching, but
there WILL be corrections necessary from time to time. I recommend you
use a kneaded eraser. It's an eraser you can knead into any shape you
want. This way you can turn it into a finer eraser, or use it to cover large
spaces when erasing. It also leaves NO DEBRIS, which means there's no
need to wipe away anything (and accidentally smear you sketch).

In addition to all of these, I recommend you have a black rollerball pen (the
common Pilot pens) as well. There is a very interesting reason I recommend
using it. I find that when I know I can erase my lines, I make more mistakes
and care more. But, when I know my lines are permanent, I care less, and
counter-intuitively, I do better.

So basically sketching with a pen is a good exercise in NOT being a

perfectionist, and in distinction between essential and non-essential.

And... that's it, we have everything we need!

b. Holding the pencil
Let's talk about the correct way of holding a pencil. I will explain and show
examples with sketches, to get you into the sketchy mood.

The first thing I'd say, is that the correct way of holding the pencil is the
same way you use for writing. It's what you feel most comfortable with.

Next, it's important to understand we can improve our range of

motion, by changing our grip of the pencil.

We normally hold the pencil in an angle of about 45 degrees from the paper.
Here is what it looks like.

This is good for some of the time, or even most of the time. But let's try
something here.
Grab a pencil and a paper. I want you to hold the pencil like I just showed,
and draw a relatively straight, quick, 5 inches long line, WITHOUT lifting
your hand off the paper. Don't worry if the line isn't perfectly straight. Aim
for your best, but this is not an exercise in accuracy.

Was that easy? You probably discovered that your range of motion was
limited to about 2-3 inches.

How can you get a better range? Here is the (simple) trick. Hold your pencil
at a lower angle, about 20 degrees from the paper. Also hold it more
towards its back.
Now try doing the same thing. A little easier, right?
We can make our range EVEN better, using another little trick. Ready?

Remember how I asked you not to lift your hand off the paper? Now let's
try lifting it off the paper, while maintaining an angle of 20-45 degrees
(whatever feels natural to you).

Now try drawing a long, straight line. Much easier getting a better range
this way, right?

And again, don't be too worried if your line isn't perfect, I just want you to
understand the goal of changing our grip occasionally.

So, what happened here?

When we placed our hand on the paper, the pivot for our movement was
actually our wrist. Try doing the exercise again, and feel where the motion
is coming from. It's your wrist. Here is a sketch to clarify it even further.
By lowering the angle, and holding back on the pencil, we actually gave
ourselves some more freedom of movement.

Later, when we lifted our hand off the paper, our motion's pivot was
actually our ELBOW. If this sounds strange to you, repeat the exercise
again, and try and draw an even longer line, perhaps about 10 inches long.
Where did your motion come from? Your elbow!

Our elbow has a much greater range of motion. This is a nice trick for you
to remember. In the future, when you have to sketch using longer lines,
you'll see how you naturally lift your hand slightly off the paper.

By the way, painters using canvases use the elbow as a pivot all the time.
They have no other choice!
After discussing range of motion, let's talk about the quality of lines.
c. Quality of lines
Depending on what you are drawing, you will need to use different lines.
Some types of lines would be:
• Straight
• Curved
• Jagged
• Short
• Long
• Parallel
• Dark lines
• Light / bright lines
• Large areas (fill)
In order to sketch these lines in the best way possible, you are going to
learn how to change your grip accordingly.

As a general rule, remember that it's easier drawing lines with motions
that move AWAY from your body.
Straight lines in general, are most easily created using your elbow as a
pivot. This is true especially when we are talking about long straight lines.
Holding back on the pencil, at an angle of 20 degrees will make our lives
easier, but lifting our hand entirely and using our elbow will produce even
better results.

Curved lines are also best created using your elbow as the pivot, OR by
using the 20 degrees angle grip. The reason for this is that our joints' range
of motion is circular, as we've seen earlier.

Here is a reminder.
Try it out now. Draw a few curved lines and feel how your wrist and elbow
naturally create them. Try longer and shorter lines.

Jagged lines are simple. Let's say you want to draw a dog's fuzzy fur, or
the leaves of a tree. Here is an example.

To get that nicely, I recommend the simple, 45 degrees angle grip we talked
about, just like when you write. Here is the reason. Just like it's easier
drawing longer lines by changing to a lower, 20 degrees angle, it's also
easier drawing short, fuzzy or jagged lines by holding the pencil at a higher
angle.
In fact, holding the pencil close to its tip, as opposed to the 20 degrees grip,
will further help us, as it provides more accuracy

Next, let's talk about the darkness and brightness of lines.

This one is also simple. The closer, high angle grip (45 degrees) is better for
creating darker, stronger lines, while the low angle, holding back grip is
better for lighter lines.
Also, I don't recommend lifting your hand too much in these cases, unless
absolutely necessary. If you need to get an exact tone (brightness /
darkness), using the paper or desk as support can help. If however you are
experienced enough, or want to try something new, feel free to experiment
with maintaining accuracy while lifting your hand off the paper.
d. Correct use of your eyes and gaze
You may have never thought about it, but your gaze and the way you use
your eyes are VERY important for sketching and drawing.
Let's try a little exercise... Here are two dots.

I want you to draw the same two dots on a piece of paper, with a distance of
about 5 inches between them.

Now, I want you to connect the two dots using the straightest line you can.
Pay attention to your gaze. Where were you looking? Did your gaze move
from the first dot to the second, or was it doing something else entirely?

The optimal use of your gaze would be having it somewhere in between

those two dots. You need to be aware of both of their locations. If you were
moving your gaze from one dot to the other, or only focusing it on one of
the, you may discover that your line didn't turn out the best.

Try the exercise again. This time, force yourself to focus on a spot
somewhere between the two dots, and see if you get better lines.

The ideal behavior will become a second nature when you practice on a
regular basis. I don't want you to worry about every small thing, such as
your gaze, but to simply be AWARE of such things.
Let's talk about our hands as well. In this situation, the easiest way of
connecting the dots for most people, would be to lift their hand off your
desk, and use the entire elbow as a pivot. If you completed this experiment
differently, I advise you to give this a try as well. You may find it A LOT
easier.
It may seem petty to talk in such detail about a single line, but remember
that a sketch is nothing but a multitude of lines. This is important.
e. Direction of sketching
I mentioned earlier how it's easier drawing in a direction away from you.
But let's zoom-out for a minute, and look at the ENTIRE work.
Let's say I was to sketch this building.
Where should I begin? In what order should I start sketching?
The answer is really simple. If you are right-handed, the preferable
GENERAL direction would be to sketch from LEFT to RIGHT. The reason
for this is that you'll be less likely to smear what you already sketched, by
accidently going over it with your hand.

If you are left-handed, the general direction would be from RIGHT to

LEFT, for the same reason.

Now, does this mean you have to follow this little rule 100% of the time?
NO. That would actually be impossible. But do remember that generally
speaking, this makes it less likely you will destroy your work. Sometimes
you will have to move in a different direction, and that is fine. Whenever
possible however, try following this rule.

And by the way, this practice is more strictly followed when using ink,
which can be smeared more easily than pencil, and is harder to correct.

Later, we will go over complete step by step drawings, accompanied by a

picture of the original object drawn, and you will get a FULL explanation
of the process. For now simply remember that the GENERAL direction is
from left to right if you are right-handed, and vice versa, and the reason is
to avoid smearing.
Let's continue our journey, and start sketching for real.
5 – Let's Sketch Landscapes!

I'm excited!
We will now practice sketching natural landscapes such as woods, rocks
and mountains. We'll also look at some urban landscapes.

I think this is a very fun subject to sketch, as it puts you in front of beautiful
views all the time. If you are someone who likes to travel and see places,
this may be the perfect thing for you.
There are so many different elements, textures and objects in natural and
urban landscapes, so you can learn so much from every sketch.

What I really want to do in this part, is SHOW YOU what I am about to

sketch, so you can understand how I approach each object. At the same
time, you will sketch TOGETHER with me, so that you will be able to tell
how you are doing. I will also explain each and every step, so that you
know why I do what I do.

So without further ado, let's begin!

a. Rocky terrain
We will start by sketching a rocky terrain.

There are a few key elements to pay attention to in this view. One is the
rocks. There are three main bodies of rocks. Two in the back and one in the
front.
Another element is the trees. Some of them are on the right, and one is on
the left, between the two rocks.
The third important element is the ground itself, which is basically a patch of
grass with some small boulders and rocks.

The first thing we want to do is indicate the main elements very loosely.
All I was worried about is getting the contours pretty close to the real terrain.
Later on we can refine it.
Next, we can actually start fleshing out the different elements, slowly
building them up. Let's start with the rock on the left.

In order to get that rock to look good, pay attention to how it looks like in
the reference. It is composed of thick plates of rock. This creates many
horizontal dents between them. That's why most of the lines are moving
horizontally.
Also, there are some vertical lines that are shorter, and indicate cracks in the
rock.
Next, let's flesh out the tree. This way we work from left to right.
Do this by sketching the branches as they appear in the reference. Then, fill
the area we created earlier with a leafy texture.
I wanted to try something a little different here. Usually, branches are
obstructed by the large mass of leaves. In order to be able to freely draw
these leaves, I wanted to first darken the tree trunk and branches. So for now,
I only lightly filled the area with leaves. Later we can get more detailed,
after we darken those branches.
Now let's work on the second large rock in the background. This rock is a
little different from the first one. It seems it is positioned in a different angle,
so that its plates are more diagonal. It is also slightly “hung” in the air, and
its bottom part is visible. This part will be considerably darker later on.

I didn't go as detailed as the first rock, as it appears to me that less details are
required here. I only indicated the main dents and cracks, as well as the part
to the right – where the rock is slightly bulged.
Next up, let's indicate the branches of the rest of the trees, and start adding
details to the third, front-most rock.

Nothing too complicated here. I indicated most of the important lines of the
rock, and lightly sketched the branches.
Next, we'll indicate the leaves as well.

Again, I'm creating the leafy texture only around the branches. Now we want
to finally darken them, so that we can add some more details.
I shaded the trunks and branches as simply as I could. The light comes from
the top-right, so you'll have to darken all the left and bottom sides of the
trunks and branches.
Let's take care of the leaves and grass next.

As you can see, I've done quite a few things here.

First, I added some more leaves on top of the branches, giving them a little
darker tone. This creates the impression that light comes from above, and so
the top leaves are brighter than the bottom ones.
Afterwards, I added the grass as well. I am sketching it from left to right.
This part is long and tedious. You must have patience when dealing with
large surfaces that require detailed textures. I also created some taller,
bushier grass blades to make it a little more interesting.
Also, be careful not to apply grass over the small boulders and rocks. Their
bottom parts should be partially obstructed by the grass blades, while their
top part should be easily visible. Notice how it gives the feeling that the
rocks are surrounded by grass that's growing around them.

Let's finish this texture up.

I finished applying the texture of the grass. Like I mentioned earlier, notice
how the scattered rocks appear to be surrounded by growing grass. This is
the important effect I was just talking about.
Now that we finished with the vegetation, we can finally start working on
the rocks. As always, we'll begin with the left-most rock, and slowly build it
up.

We'll start by shading the rock. What I love about this specific scenery is that
there is a strong contrast between the bright tones and the dark tones. The
shadows are very strong.
I shade mostly along the cracks, breaks and bulges. Bulges will create
shadows beneath them, while vertical breaks in the direction of the rocks
will create vertical shadows.
Notice the cool popping effect that is created by only applying this single
layer of shadows.
Let's continue making our way downwards.

I kept doing what I did with the top part of this rock. Notice how the left side
of the rock is almost entirely darker. This is where the rock surface's
direction “breaks”, which results in less light reaching it.

Let's move on to the next rock.

This is quite similar. Notice how the rock is hung in the air, with its entire
bottom part visible. This bottom part is angled in a way that allows less light
to reach it, and so it is considerably darker. Also, the bottom left part is
darker as well.
Let's continue adding more shadows to the rest of this rock.

Here we go. Notice how just like I mentioned before, the plates are more at
an angle here, causing most of the horizontal shadows and cracks to move
more vertically (and slightly diagonally).
Now the only thing left to do is shade the front most rock, as well as the
smaller rocks that are scattered across our grass patch.

Here it is. The same principles apply. Darker parts on the left and between
the dents and cracks.
And we are done!
b. House on the lake
In this exercise we'll draw a beautiful, small house on the lake. We will get
to experiment with drawing the surface of water, as well as with field of
depth.
Here is our little house on the lake.

In this kind of scenes, you want to work on recognizing the “layers” and
building each of them properly.
What I mean by layers is the things that are in the same distance from us.
Take a look at the reference. Can you see the mountains in the background?
They compose a different layer than that of the house.
Here is a possible breakdown of the layers in this scenery.
We'll soon indicate all of those layers, but first let's begin with the house.

This is similar to the example of a two point perspective house I showed you
earlier in the book. This time however, it is much simpler!
Here we don't really need to take care of any perspective, as the house's side
is facing us almost directly. Also, the distance between us and the house
makes perspective less dominant in this scene.
Just make sure to get the left-most, bottom horizontal line at a slight angle.
This is the only part that is affected by perspective here.
I am referring to this line.

Notice how it's a little diagonal.

Next let's indicate the riverbank.

This is a relatively simple step. Take a close look the reference and you'll get
it right.
Now it's time to finally divide the rest of the sketch into the layers we talked
about earlier. Here is how I did it.
From left to right, we have a layer that is closest to the river bank (1). Then,
a small slice above it (meaning behind it)(2). Afterwards we have that larger
layer of mountains (3), and another tiny layer behind it (4).
Right above the house there is a tree which I wanted to indicate in this step
already (5). Then we have that large layer that will be composed of trees (6),
the small layer below it (7), the right layer of another tree (8) and the layer at
the riverbank (9).
I thought numbering them could help you understand the large amount of
layers in this relatively simple view.
The reason I put such a strong emphasis on the layers, is that sketching them
correctly will have a large impact on how good our sketch turns out, depth-
wise.
The farther an object is away from us, the smaller it appears to be. This is
one of the rules I taught you when we talked about perspective.
I want to add another rule now. The farther objects are away from us,
the more faded they appear to be.

This rule isn't set in stone, and is definitely broken a lot of times. But many
times, it accurately represents reality. Simply take a look at the layer of
mountains in the background. It seems to be faded and foggier.
This usually happens because there is literally more air between us and the
object. This air is composed of particles. When there is a high enough
concentration of these particles, they can obscure farther objects, resulting in
what appears to be fog. This isn't actually a fog, in the traditional meaning of
low-hanging clouds. Think of it as a “depth fog” or “depth fading”.
And so, the farther a layer is away from us, the more faded it appears. Let's
continue and you'll soon see how we apply this to our sketch.
Let's start indicating the closer vegetation layers.

Since we can't actually draw every tiny branch and every small blade of
grass, I tend to find a generalized texture that will stay loyal to the reference.
In this case I used two different types of such textures that will preserve the
feel of the original scenery.

Let's continue with the other surrounding layers. They will mainly be
composed of trees.
As you can see, I do try getting in as much details as humanly possible. For
the larger trees I figured we can definitely get the branches in. I also use
different textures for the leaves. Some of them feel more scribbly while
others have more of a sharp feel to them. I try mimicking this in my textures.

Now let's move over to the other riverbank and work on the layer composing
it.

You'll notice how there is a short bushy wall running across the entire left
riverbank. Above it there are some trees that are actually visible. Behind
those trees there are more trees that are so much distant, that we can
probably portray as a “forest”. In other words, we won't draw each and every
one of them individually.
In this step I also added that small wooden pole in the water, just a little left
to the house.
For the next step, let's add some more details to the house, as well as create
the rest of the textures.
So the first thing I did was to tone and shade the house. I darkened the roof
significantly. I also added that small window, and the texture of the walls,
which appear to be made of wood.

There is a small terrace on the left side of the house. It is mostly obscured by
the house, but some of it is visible and I wanted to get it in. Next to the
terrace there is another small wooden pole, inside the water.

Aside from the house, I created that small slice of layer on the left,
connecting it to the layer I already sketched in the previous step.

I also used a VERY light tone to color the layer of mountains. Remember
what we discussed before? The farther a layer is away from us, the more
faded it appears to be. This is the effect in action.

Now that we are done with all layers, we can finally create their cool
reflection on the surface of the lake.

I want to briefly explain how I approach this part.

Generally speaking, the calmer the water is, the clearer the reflection will be.

If we were to look at an ocean, we would find the reflection to be more

blurry and less clear most of the time. This happens because with most
oceans, even their calmer version contains some waves. That's why a
sunset's reflection in the ocean is usually pretty blurry.
Here is a good example of what I mean.
Can you notice how the sun's reflection appears to be “broken” by the
waves? If there are enough waves, the reflection can become so blurry and
broken that it may not even be visible!

And here is an example of calm water, and how their reflection can be much
clearer.
Can you see how clear and smooth the reflection is?

Now let's go back to our scenery. In our reference, we get some kind of a
mix. The water is relatively clear, but still seems to be a little wavy.

Respectively, the reflection is indeed slightly blurry. When sketching it, try
using few strokes, while keeping your pencil on paper most of the time.
Also, try using small wavy strokes.

Now I want to add yet another “loose” rule. The closer an object is to
the water's surface, the clearer it will appear in the reflection.

What this means is that the top part of the reflection will be the clearest, and
as we move downwards, the reflection will become more wavy and blurry.
Here is how I did it.
Notice how the reflection isn't too clear, or too blurry. It's somewhere in the
middle. Also, the further we go down, the more blurry it becomes.

This will be a little easier to understand if you look at the wooden poles in
the water. Their base looks clearer in the reflection, but the more you move
downwards the less clear they become. This is more noticeable when
drawing taller objects.
I haven't created the house's reflection yet. Let's do that now.

Now we get a good example of the concept we just discussed. Take a look at
the house's wall that's facing us. The lower you go, the more blurry its
reflection appears to be. Eventually, it blurs so much it “fades away”.
And we are done! What do you say about that?
Now let's move on to the next exercise.
c. Busy street
We'll now take a break from sketching natural landscapes, and instead sketch
an urban landscape.

As you may or may have not noticed, we are looking at this street from a one
point perspective. This means we have one vanishing point towards which
all parallel lines converge.
Let's take a quick look at the reference to understand where the VP
(vanishing point) is, and which lines are parallel and converge to it.
Here is the VP.
As you can see, many lines converge to the VP. The sidewalks, vehicles,
sides of buildings, signs and so much more. With practice, you'll be able to
immediately recognize the VP and the converging lines.
So the first thing we want to do is get the VP in.
So I marked the VP in the center of the page. The location doesn't have to be
100% accurate, as long as you mark it in the center. If you were to mark it on
the extreme right or left, you would get a different point of view of the
street.
In addition to the VP, I also started lightly indicating the building closest to
us. It has two lines that converge to the VP (the top and bottom ones) and a
vertical line.
Let's indicate more buildings.

There we go. I used the exact same method for these buildings.
Notice how the building second from farthest is taller than the closer
buildings, and so its side is visible. The furthest building is spaced a little
further down the road, and so some of its side is also visible. These buildings
create a nice effect of depth.
I'd like to mention that I didn't use a ruler to accurately connect the lines
with the VP. Feel free to use a ruler, but I believe that for this kind of work, a
ruler will create too many pauses in the process. I also think this is great
practice for your hand-eye coordination and visual perception.

With that being said, some works require you use a ruler. If you want to
achieve a high level of accuracy it is a must.
Now let's continue with the other side of the street.
So I added some more buildings, and also made one of them a little more
interesting, with this little step decorating its side.
Let's finish up the right side of the street.

Notice the pattern of which lines converge to the VP.

Now let's create the background in the distance.
Nothing in the background converges to our VP.
These buildings converge to different VP's that we don't care to measure and
find for the sake of this scenery. We will simply observe and sketch them as
they appear. They will play an important role in creating the sense of depth
in this sketch.
Now we can start adding some more details to our street.

The first thing I wanted to add was the roof above this Chinese store, which
is located at the bottom-right corner of our street.
Can you see how the left lines of the store's roof converge to our VP?
Let's continue developing the right side. This next step will add a lot of
details, because this street is HUGE. But don't worry – I'll explain
everything.
The closest object I Added is actually the light pole with traffic lights and
some signs. I also added some more signs and roofs of stores and
restaurants.
Perhaps one of the more interesting things I added is the outer staircase of
the farthest building, which also adheres to our one-point perspective.
Here is a little something to help you see how all the details support the one
point perspective here.

I hope this makes it even clearer. Can you see how the signs, stairs, windows
and everything else works together with the perspective here?
Now let's further develop the right side of the street.
I mostly added some windows to the buildings, and colored some of them.
There is also a water tower on the right side, slightly in the background. I
also added some details to other buildings in the background – mostly
windows.
Next we'll begin developing the left side of this street.

Now you have the chance of seeing one of these outer staircases more
closely. Notice how the higher the staircases are, the more we can see of
their bottom side.
And remember, everything that's below the horizon line (which is at the
same height of our VP) – we are looking at from above.

Everything that's above the horizon line, we are looking at from below.
It's as simple as that.
Let's add some more details to this building.

I've added the windows, as well as all the stores on the street.
I want to zoom-in on the windows for a second, to highlight some of their
features.

I want you to notice how the inner-right side of the windows is visible, while
their left side is obstructed. It's actually obstructed by the building's wall.
Also, notice how the inner-bottom side is visible on windows that are below
the horizon line (and thus below the VP), and vice versa.
Getting those details in is very important. This is exactly one of the things
you want people to see in your sketch.
Now let's finish developing the street's left side.

Phew. I added the decorations of the top-most part of the closest building.

I also added some more details to the other buildings. Notice how the further
we go, the fewer details I add. This helps creating a sense of depth. This is
how it works in reality as well – the further you look the fewer details you'll
be able to see.
Now I want us to indicate the sidewalks and vehicles.

And just like I told you earlier, even vehicles adhere to our perspective. Here
is a highlighted version.
In order to draw the vehicles well, first look at the reference and try
understanding their shape. Then see how they fit inside the perspective, and
finally sketch them. They don't have to be perfect! Mine certainly aren't.
People only need to realize they are vehicles.

We are almost done. What I want to do next is add some people in, and
perhaps tone some of the buildings.

I added some people. The closer they are, the more I tried giving them more
details. The farthest people are simply a blur, a crowd. And it looks good this
way.

I also toned some of the farther buildings, and some of the buildings in the
background.
This is it for this exercise. This same scenery can be drawn and sketched in
many different ways and styles. Some will be hyper-detailed while others
will be a rough mess. All ways are fine, and I encourage you to try them all
until you find the perfect style for you.
d. Road and tree
In this exercise we'll sketch a winding road and a large tree.

For this exercise, I want to really focus on the tree itself, and so I'll probably
give less attention to the other details.
Let's begin this exercise just like we previously did, by indicating the major
layers of this scenery.
For the tree, I only sketched out its trunk for now. We also have the road, the
house and the trees in the background.
Now let's start building up the tree's shape.

I start by looking where the trunk divides into branches, and then I work my
way up. Let's further develop the branches.
I've done quite a lot in this step. The tree is really like a maze, and so you
have to carefully study it and recognize all major branches. Also, many of
the branches are covered so much that it's hard recognizing them. Do your
best and take your time.
We are almost done. Let's add the smaller branches too.

There we go. We now have the entire skeleton of the tree. The next step will
be adding the leaves. First, let's indicate where they will go.
I carefully studied the reference, and then drew a very loose line that defines
the area of the leaves.
This tree is pretty unique. It has most of its leaves in the top most part, and
significantly less leaves on the bottom part.
Let's start filling them in.

I'm slowly working my way from left to right. I am trying to apply a medium
toned layer of leaves, so that I can come back later and further darken what
is necessary.
I completed sketching the leaves. Notice how I also added some protruding
groups of leaves as decorations. If you study the reference you'll notice it
does seem to happen. Some of these groups seem to hang in the air. I will
soon connect them by adding some very small branches.
Next, I want to add some depth to the leaves by creating a second darker
layer. The light comes from the top-right corner, and so the lower parts of
the groups of leaves will be darker.

Looks much better, doesn't it?

Leaves aren't the only thing that needs shading here. There are many dark
branches. Also, we need to create some new smaller branches that will
connect the separate groups of leaves.
Let's add those in.
I've done quite a lot here, and look at the impact it has on the tree. It looks
much better now.
I added some dark branches in the background. They connect the separate
groups of leaves, and help make the brighter branches pop.
Next I want to shade the larger branches and the trunk.

Again, I adhered to the light source, which is coming from the top-right side.
I also added a little texture to the thicker parts of the tree. This further
establishes it as a three-dimensional object in space.

Also notice that nice contrast between the front bright branches and the
darker branches in the tree's "background".
Now we can move on to the background.
Here I sketched the bushes and grass that grows right below the three. I used
simple medium strokes.
Let's develop the other side of the road.

Again, I use some very simple textures that will get the message across, and
would feel like vegetation. No need to add in too many details, as we want
the tree to stand out here. The rest is support.
Next we'll add the trees in the background.
And finally, let's sketch that house.

For the house, I used strong straight lines. I indicated where the light comes
from by shading the parts of the roof that face to the left. I wanted to keep
the details to a minimum, as the house is located pretty back there. I added
some horizontal lines to the roof, and a small fence on the right side.
I also added some small details to the road.
And with this, we can wrap up this exercise. Next, I'll show you some more
examples of finished sketches.
e. More examples
Let's start with a natural landscape of a desert.

The main focus in this scenery is the tree in the front, and the rocks at the
background. The rocks were actually the most challenging part to draw, as
their texture was smooth as well as lumpy in different areas.
You'll also notice how the background view on the left side, which is
actually a mountain, is darker than the foreground. Surprisingly enough,
this is actually what it looked like in the reference.
Generally, you want to avoid making the background darker than the main
focus of your sketch, but this rule can be sidestepped occasionally.
Here is another natural landscape of a lake with some trees and a snowy
mountain in the background.
What I like about this type of views is that you can play around with it and
find different ways for portraying the snow. The simplest one would be to
leave it page-white.

Some people like to draw on a slightly darker paper, which automatically

gives them the medium tone, and allows them to use a white gauche color
for the highlights.

I thought I'd also include this very quick, rough sketch of a road.

As you can probably tell, this was sketched VERY quickly. I put an
emphasis on throwing the lines out there in mostly a single stroke. This is
definitely not the prettiest sketch, but it's a good example for some of the
works you are going to get when practicing this.

The last example I want to share with you is this beautiful city.

This sketch was mostly done by using single strokes.

Remember how I used to tell you that if you can get in with one stroke you
should go for it? Most of the times I would have used multiple strokes for
this kind of view, but this time I wanted to challenge myself by throwing
the lines out there and getting them to be as accurate as possible. I am
pleased with the result.
Another advantage to sketching this way, using a single stroke for each line,
is that it's quicker!
6 – Conclusion
"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser"
- John W. Gardner
I think this quote represents the truth when it comes to art and life, and in a
funny way!
In this book you learned the theory, and some of the practical tips for
sketching. Then, you went through a few exercises and examples for
sketching landscapes.

There is a lot to learn, read and study. And quite frankly, information is
abundant. It is the experience you want to obtain, and you should fearlessly
go about looking for it.
Remember that every day you have the opportunity of learning something
new, to enrich your skills as an artist and to live in the present.

Continue bettering yourself, in your art and in life, and you'll experience
great joy. And from time to time, try drawing without an eraser, and see
where you end up. You may be surprised at the discoveries you'll make
about your abilities and confidence.

And please, feel free to personally send me any of your sketches, questions,
comments and also corrections, to [email protected].

Also, if this book helped you, I would be VERY thankful if you leave a
review on Amazon, or tell a friend about it. It can really helps exposing the
book to more people who need it.

Finally, be sure to check out my website HERE, for more drawing tips and
advice.

I want to thank you for the opportunity you gave me to be your teacher, if
only for a short while.
I wish you success in any path you may choose to walk.
Truly truly,
- Liron Yanconsky

Artist & Published author

LironYan.com