How to Draw Landscape Outlines

How to Draw Landscape Outlines

Let us talk about landscapes. In the lessons before, we talked about the importance of an outline for the human body and the same goes for any drawing, painting or illustration you are working on. Landscapes outlines are just like figure outlines. The only difference is they have no structure. Sketching outlines for landscapes will be much harder. Not because of skill level, but because its easier to loose yourself in them. I like to start out blocking in the major shapes of the landscape followed by lighting and shadows. Lets take a look at some of the examples.

Example 1:

I found this image on Google by searching the keyword “landscape.” Now, this outline is very basic with no true detail. Its made up of lines and scribbles to show shape, direction, light and shadow. All my paintings, drawing and sketches start very loose and gestured like this. All I need to do is get down a simple guideline of what I’m trying to create. Nothing fancy or over detailed. It took me about 20 seconds to sketch this out. Like my art teacher told me, “Each outline should take about 15-30 seconds to complete.” As long as I understand what is going on in the sketch, I can build it up using detail until I feel the piece is complete.

Find the most important aspect of the image you want to create and start with that. Build the scene around it. Nature is never perfect so its ok to deviate from the original when dealing with nature. On the other hand, man made objects such as the house in this image has to be more defined, not with detail but more about the space in has in the image. In this image the house is the focal point so it must command the most attention. Notice how the house relates to the hillside it sits on. Notice the slope of all the hills and mountains. Capture the flow of the image in the outline so it will make it easier to add detail and depth later on. Build the image, getting tighter and tighter with details. In the end, your image will be masterful!

Here are a few more examples to help you understand landmarks, direction, light and shadows:

 

The key is to do it as quickly as you can and still get all the important information down. This will help you become any type of artist you want. It seems to good to be true but it's the truth. If you think about it, most storyboards are comprised of these such images to get an understanding of the overall look without spending a ton of time creating them. Once the framework is set, you can move confidently forward creating your next masterpiece!

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