Here I will show step by step how to convert an initial composition into a finished pen and ink drawing. The composition, as shown below, includes deciduous trees, distant foliage, stones and mountains. If you haven’t look at tutorials for these, I recommend you to first go through the tutorials and then follow along the steps using template to create your own finished drawing. Click on the picture to see stokes in detail
- Following is the initial composition. Note that trees further out are smaller per perspective..
2. First, ‘leaf’ stroke is used to render deciduous foliage:
3. Darks are added to the foliage. This brings out the volume.
4. Next bark texture on the tree trunks is added.
5. Trunks are shaded using curved parallel lines to bring out their roundness.
6. Next, distant foliage is shaded.
7. Darks are added to distant foliage to give it depth. Also a bush is added to the composition on the right side of path.
8. Bush is shaded with ‘leaf’ stroke. Initial hatching lines are also put on the stones.
9. Stones are finished by adding darks and other texture marks.
10. Plane lines are draw on the mountains.
11. Shading is added to bring out the planes in the mountains.
12. Path is shaded on one side. This helps eyes to travel the path. Grass and ground flowers are also drawn.
13. Grass is draw. It is slightly darker in the distance near the distant foliage. Note how the grass pattern is not uniform. This adds to believability.
14. Grass is darkened at the bottom of trees to ‘root’ the trunk. Wild flowers are added near the stones.
15. Incline on the right side is finished with grass. You can consider the drawing finished at this stage or also add clouds as done next.
16. Add Outline suggestion of clouds. Clouds can be left like this or slightly filled in with dots as done next.
17. Use dots to give clouds volume. This finishes the landscape. Remember to sign your work and enjoy.
Template:
Click here to download PDF with initial composition, finished drawing and lightened finish drawing.
Pl. consult my workbooks for fully illustrated examples and hands on activities for techniques covered here. Next you can attempt Level 1 templates provided. These are not step by step but by now you should have the necessary knowledge and experience to attempt them on your own. Remember to practice often.
I will be regularly adding new templates and tutorials. If you would like to be notified of any new addition, pl. send me your email address in the form below. I would also like to hear from you regarding your finished work based on these templates and would try to display them on this site.
Happy Drawing,
Rahul