Drawing, Photographing and Painting the Landscape
When you are planning to draw outdoors, take into consideration such factors as the weather, lighting conditions, time of day, and the angle from which you wish to capture your subject. Then make your tonal and compositional sketches (+/- colour plans) accordingly. A photo can remind you of lighting conditions, textures, colours etc but your creativity is what will determine the success of your work as a beautiful or meaningful artwork. Making it look like a photo won’t necessarily do this.
Photoshop is a program that some artists use in their planning phase to create several alternative studies, rearrange compositional elements, adjust tones and colours, adjust proportions and experiment with effects etc. Digital images (several of them) can be an aid to your creative development if you are digitally inclined. A Wacom tablet and pen is a fun drawing tool for those who have access to one.
Landscape Exercise
Draw a non-linear (nature) landscape from life or a photo (showing a full range of tones and textures. ( If you take your own photo at the drawing site, print it and keep it with your notes and drawings. )
a. Adjust the proportions of the image border to suit your needs ( square or rectangle or panorama). Use an A4 or A3 cartridge sheet for a larger version
b.Don’t simply try to copy the photo or the place, use the elements that you like and need and create your own arrangement (review Composition & Design Module to learn what you need to know about this).
The first image here has a very pleasing composition as is and could be great as it is, but you could always crop it or rearrange it.
One alternative is to try to crop it to a square, taking what you want and leaving the rest. Do your own landscape drawings using this or your own photos, or sit out on location. (I had a few years of intensive tree sketching practice as a teenager with my tree-hugging chemistry teacher.) We rode our bikes all over my little country area, finding interesting trees to draw. I love the barky Australian gum trees so much, I can draw and paint them in my sleep (even though they have not figured in my regular series for many years.) Observation and practice are the reasons why I draw them so easily (and an affinity for the subject).
A cardboard frame of reference is very handy when drawing plein-air (outside), it helps to contain your chosen area in the frame of reference.
Follow along the sections of the Foundation Drawing Module index, by clicking on each image in the grid
Hatching and Blending Practise
Elements of Drawing
Contour Drawing
Value Drawing
Drawing Shadows
Gesture Drawing
Human Proportions
Improving visual perception
Introduction to Drawing animals
Cross-hatching exercises
Introduction to Drawing People
Drawing the landscape