How To Draw a Forest Landscape Step by Step Art Lesson

Welcome everyone and today's sketch lesson will strengthen your drawing fundamentals with this step-by-step tutorial on how to sketch a forest landscape. For today's lesson I'll be using this 2B Staedtler pencil. It gives a nice balance between soft shading and crisp line control but any pencil that you have will work just fine. We're going to begin today's lesson by locating the horizon line along the bottom of our page. Now this is the line that separates the sky from the ground so over on the left side we're going to lightly sketch a line going across from left to right. Now I want to create a path coming down the center so over on the left side let's go out then we curve this coming in and then back out towards the left. Now this path is going to be narrower across the top than it is across the bottom so it gets wider as we come in go out and then down and we're going to line that path with a bunch of trees. So I'm going to move to the side edge of my pencil I'm just going to add some curves going up from the left side we're going to change the angles going up and we're just going to overlap some of these lines now we'll do the same thing on the right side of that path. Now these are just guides to help us build our composition. Now with our simple rough sketch in place we start to add some shape and a little bit more detail. So let's start on the left side of the path we want to curve this up and then out from this line just adding a grassy edge again using the side edge of our pencil I'm just going to rough this in so the path comes down in the middle just dipping this grass coming down along the side. Let's do the same thing on the right starting from the back curve the grass coming across that edge and then down. Now inside the path we're going to lightly bend this down and in so just dipping it down in the center with a slight curve texture. Now I'm going to add some thick trees inside these guidelines let's start with this one up here we start from the base we're just going to trace that curve and go a little bit wider across the bottom and then go up towards the top come down along the bottom and now this gets wider as it comes down. Now from the bottom it's going to add a little bit of texture and darkness just pulling this up it's going to fill the inside of that tree. Let's add a branch up here going up and then out now these branches are a little bit thinner than the main trunk you see that we spread it out and just blend it in towards the side of the tree. Let's add another one over here again going wider across the bottom it's going to bend this across the top of the path and again just darkening up the bottom and adding some rough texture inside. Let's add some more branches going across in behind I'm going to add another one a little bit lower on the left side you can play around with the width of these trees go a little bit thicker if you want along the bottom let's add a big one around the front just fill the inside with a little bit of bark texture and we'll add one more over on the right again starting with that thick base and going up and just filling the inside and it doesn't have to be perfect I just want to get some texture inside that tree. Let's add another one in between in the background up again it's okay to cross in behind or on top of the trees in front we'll come back and just clean that up after let's add another one down here now these get smaller as you go towards the back you also change the angles and go in between so you see now I'm just filling in the gaps in between the foreground trees also adding some extra branches coming out I'm going to switch to my 6B pencil to get some more contrast in the foreground elements so let's start with the tree in the front on left we start from the bottom it's going to darken up the outside contours and also layering in some contrast and texture inside so working from the bottom going dark I'm just pulling that bark going up just adding these short lines going across the tree from the bottom and working your way up and you can reshape the contour and shape of the tree along the outside I'm also going to place the light in behind so the area is going to be darker in the center so you can move to the side as your pencil just adding some shadow in the middle of the tree and we'll get a little bit of highlights along the outside so I want this thick texture in the middle we'll soften this up along the bottom just brushing this out and then along the base we're just going to add some thick grass just pulling this up and then out this will help mask the base of the tree also layering in some more contrast and detail on top now with this grass edge we're just going to darken up the tips and just fade that in so going across and then just fading that out towards the back let's do the same thing on the tree on the right so again just darkening up the contours and move to the side as your pencil I'm just going to shift the shadow more towards the right side since the lights come from the center coming out you'll see some of the highlight on the inside left edge we'll soften up the bottom and we're just adding some grass across the base and the edge of the path just pulling this in to create some texture now we're going to be layering some of that shadow from the trees on top after now this mid-ground of trees want to go a little bit lighter not going to go too dark with this but we're still going to push the shadows over towards the center left side with the trees on the left of the path and by going lighter we create a sense of depth in our drawing I'll also move to the tip of our pencil add some texture inside also refine the edge and contours and go really light with the background trees I'm just going to add some branches coming out also adding some fake trees in the background I'm just going to spill some of that dirt across the side of the path pulling that in towards the middle we've accumulated some leaves and rocks along the side and we just want to fill the inside with a bit more texture I'm going to have some of these branches coming across and then down our drawing and then just layering some of those branches and leaves coming down across that line so the weight is just bringing these branches down I'm just going to have a few ferns in between coming out on the side a few branches from the outside I'm just going to go back and just increase the contrast of our shadows now I want to bring that shadow coming across our drawing so we start from the top right side going across this way in an angle so this tree right here sort of darken up the base and just soften up the shadow going across the path towards the bottom left side you want to soften that up also adding a shadow across that foreground tree and coming down I'm going to add some light shadows in the background now as we near the end of our drawing I had a few more details and shadows and always be sure to sign my artwork and there's a sketch illustration of a forest landscape if you found today's lesson helpful give it a like and share it with someone else who's also learning to draw you can find more step-by-step lessons in the full sketch course playlist link below or explore other topics across this channel I want to thank you for joining me today keep practicing stay creative and I'll see you in the next one