Atmospheric Landscape Drawing

In this lesson, we'll take a look at creating an atmospheric landscape drawing with various forms of graphite. Hello there everyone, Matt here with the virtualinstructor.com. I hope everyone is doing fantastic out there today. In this video, we're going to take a look at the process of creating a very detailed landscape drawing with various forms of graphite, and we're also going to use some erasers in there as well. Now, this video is a condensed version of a 10 part lesson series that we just completed for members. This complete 10 part lesson series is available to members. Each lesson in the series is one hour long, so you get to see every step of the process. And of course, there's instruction along the way as well. If you want to have complete access to this lesson series, as well as our other courses, our other live lesson series, weekly critiques as part of the members minute, and also the year long curriculum we have for visual arts teachers, then you need to be a member. If you want to learn more about our membership program, I'll leave a link in the description below and you can check it out that way. Now, with that being said, we're going to go ahead and start with the materials and then we'll go right into the process. For this drawing, we'll be using powdered graphite, which you can make on your own if you wish, by just sanding down some soft graphite. We're also going to be using various forms of erasers. We'll be using a kneaded eraser, as you can see here, and we're also going to be using a couple of vinyl erasers. I'll be using my Mono Zero eraser for precision erasing, and I'll also be using an electric eraser as well. Both of these erasers are great for precision erasing. As I said, here's a close look at the Tombow Mono eraser, which gives you a somewhat fine point for precision erasing. Now, the real star of the erasing show here is the electric eraser, which will definitely remove the graphite from the surface. We'll also be using some blending tools to manipulate the graphite on the surface. I'll be using a blending tortilla and also a couple of blending stumps. For the bulk of the graphite applications, I'll be using my lead holder here by Stadler. This is a wonderful tool for precision mark making, and I'll be using mostly 2B graphite and 4B graphite inside of that lead holder for applications. I'll also be using a small mop brush to manipulate the powdered graphite applications. So the surface we're working on here is Stonehenge Polar White Paper. This is a wonderful surface for not only graphite, but also colored pencil applications. Now we're going to start here by applying the powdered graphite with the mop brush. I like to put just a little bit of the powdered graphite in the lid of the container, and that will keep the likelihood of a mess down just a little bit. But as you can see, this application is going to be a little bit messy. So I like to put a little bit of the powdered graphite in place and then move it around with the mop brush. What I'm doing here in the early stages is I am just trying to get the bulk of the darker shapes in place with this powdered graphite. We're going to manipulate the graphite on the surface by applying more graphite in pencil form and also removing some of the graphite with our erasers. So I am thinking only about the dark shapes at this point, and I'm also putting a light application in the sky in the distance. We really want to cover all of the white of the paper here, but we don't need to do it with this first application. We will gradually throughout the process. Once I have got some of the powder graphite in place, I can use one of my blending tools here, a blending tortillon, to just start pulling some of the graphite around on the surface. So this is a very light application of graphite, and I'm using the blending stump or blending tool to manipulate it. Now that we have a loose idea of the location of the tree and the bulk of the body of the tree, we can start going back and forth with our erasers and with the graphite applications to basically build out the details of the tree. Now, we're going to be thinking about shapes of dark and light value here as we do this. The leaves of the tree obviously create a pattern. Now, it's an irregular pattern, but we can replicate this pattern in our drawing. In other words, we don't have to copy every single leaf or every single branch that we see. Instead, we just want to replicate the pattern that we see. And this pattern is developed through contrast in values. So that gives us a little bit of freedom in our own drawing to create these shapes of leaves and these branches as we see fit. Now, it's the relationships of values. Value is the darkness or lightness of color, if you are unsure about that. But it's the relationships of these darks and lights that ultimately lead to the illusion of texture and form. So not only do we need to build up dark values, but we also need to build up light values as well. So our erasers are going to be doing the job of removing the graphite, creating lighter values and lighter grays. And our graphite pencil is going to be doing the job of creating darker values. Gradually, we will create an expanded value range, meaning that we have the darkest darks and the lightest lights and all of the grays in between. But of course, this only develops through patient application. So this means that we need to work slowly and deliberately. Keeping in mind that, again, we don't have to replicate everything that we see in the image, but the larger shapes of light and dark, we do need to try to capture in our drawing. So you can see here as we're working gradually from the left to the right, I am switching back and forth between my erasers. I'm using both the Tombow eraser and also the electric eraser to remove light areas within the picture plane. And then I'm going back in with the graphite pencil, applying the darker values and darker shapes that we see. Now, if you work very slowly and you pay special attention to your relationships of values, you can accomplish this level of detail. It's not so much drawing the details, it's more so drawing the relationships of darks and lights. And if you keep this in mind while you're working and just focus on what you are actually seeing, the relationships of dark and light, then your image will gradually appear on the surface and you'll be successful with your illusion. Now, you'll also notice that I'm working at the top of the picture plane and working my way downward. I'm doing this simply to keep my drawing clean. Now, if you put the palm of your hand down onto an area where you have powdered graphite or even some softer graphite, you're going to smear or smudge your drawing. So I like to put a paper towel underneath the palm of my hand to prevent this from happening, but also working from the top to the bottom. And in my case, I'm right handed, so I'm working also from left to right. That will reduce the amount of smudging that occurs because some smudging will still occur even when you're using a paper towel underneath the palm of your hand. So now I'm working down to the base of the tree. But before we do much of the work in the foreground, we will go back to the middle ground. Now, when you're creating a drawing of a landscape of space is very important. Space, of course, is one of the seven elements of art. So you want to create the illusion of space in your drawing. This means that we're going to have some overlapping. That's one way to create the illusion of space. And we're also going to create some value contrast to create the illusion of space and atmosphere in this drawing as well. So objects that are further away are going to be lighter in value typically, and the relationship of contrast in values is going to be lessened. So the contrast in value is going to be greater as we work closer to the foreground. So now that we've worked down to the bottom of the tree, I'm going to go back to the middle ground and start addressing this line of trees in the distance. Now, of course, we want to create the atmospheric look that we have in our reference. This means that we're going to be using the blending stump in our erasers a lot in this section, and we're going to keep the level of contrast down so that this area looks like it's further away from the viewer than an area that's closer, like the base of the tree. We're still going to take the same approach in this area, though. We're going to use our eraser to remove out highlights, and we're going to use the pencil here to create darker values. But they're not going to be quite as dark as what we see in the foreground. Of course, the illusion of details are going to gradually emerge through the manipulation of the graphite that we apply on the surface. We can add some lines here and there to indicate some branches and some very subtle details, but for the most part, our details need to be muted in this middle section. If you're creating a drawing like this, it's important to step back every once in a while and take a look at the relationships of values that you have, analyze your own drawing and determine if you're creating the illusion of space effectively or not. Sometimes when we're working on a drawing that's highly detailed like this one, we get kind of lost in the details. We kind of focus in on one specific area of the drawing and we can lose the big picture. But by stopping every once in a while and taking a step back, we can make sure that we're on the right course here for completing the drawing in a manner that creates the illusion of space. Now, in this drawing, there is a distant bridge right in that area of focus, right where I want the focal point to be. So I'll add that small bridge there with just a couple of lines. And now that we've developed the middle ground, we can bring that big, distinctive branch down over the top. We purposely left this branch out when we addressed the tree because we knew that we had to address the middle ground before applying these marks over the top. We'll also add a few more branches to the side of the tree here just to make it look a little bit more realistic. Now we'll work our way down to the foreground and here we're going to have a greater level of contrast, but we still have that atmospheric look that's happening here. There's a little bit of mist over the water. So we're going to use the kneaded eraser to lift out some of the lighter areas. But we're also going to use our vinyl erasers as well for more precision and detailed erasing. And then just like we have throughout the process, we'll go back with the graphite pencil, adding some of the darker details that exist here. And just like we did with the details on the leaves of the tree, we don't have to spell everything out exactly as it is in the reference. We can locate and recognize patterns and replicate those patterns in our drawing to create the illusion. And of course, we'll continue to be patient with the process. This means that you need to work slowly and deliberately. Don't rush this process. So if you start feeling a little bit impatient, stop and take a break from your art for a little while and come back to it. This drawing took around 12 to 13 hours to complete in total. And that may seem like a lot, but it's really not that much for a drawing of this size with this level of detail. So if you're not used to spending that much time on a drawing, it's understandable that you might get a little bit impatient. So just be very patient and work slowly and work in smaller areas at a time if you're struggling with this. And you might just find that your drawing skill improves dramatically just by slowing down. Now we've worked our way over to the grassy area in the extreme foreground. And here again, we're going to just use the eraser and the graphite and gradually pull out the relationships of value and create the contrast necessary to understand the texture here. And we'll work our way over to the path as well. And here our process stays the same. You can see here just how subtle we can make the transitions of value using a light touch with the vinyl eraser. Now, the values in this location are fairly similar, so we need to create contrast in a different way so that we understand that the path is actually there. And the way that I decided to do this in this drawing is by having more horizontal stroking along the path, contrasting with the more vertical stroking of the grasses on either side of the path. So even though the values are very similar, we can create a different directional stroke to create contrast in both of these areas. Contrast, of course, deals with any type of difference. It doesn't have to be just difference in value. Now, as we work our way to the remaining section of the drawing, I see that I need to go back and add a few details here and there. Now, I've been doing this throughout the process, so it's totally normal to work an area that you feel like you've worked to completion and then move on to another area and recognize that you need to go back to areas that you've already developed. This could be due to changes in value value relationship. So as your drawing gets darker, as you start adding more values, you might see that some areas are a little lighter or in my case, you might recognize that you need to go back and add additional details just to add a little bit more interest. Now, in this final section, we'll address it the same way, of course, starting with the eraser, erasing out some of the lighter values and then adding some of the graphite in areas. Now, our stroking here is very important. We want to create some more diagonal, more vertical stroking to create the illusion of these grasses. And as you can see in my drawing, I've decided to create more contrast here in the foreground. So my lighter values are a little bit lighter than what they are in the drawing just to create a more detailed oriented drawing and one that has more contrast. You really want your drawing to be more interesting than the photo reference that you work from. Now, at this point, I'm going back with a 6B matte graphite pencil, adding in some very dark areas. I see that I need to make some values darker on the trunk of the tree, along some of the branches and even in some of the areas in the foreground. And now the drawing is complete. We can remove the tape. And as the tape is removed, you can just see how dark the drawing actually is. And now our graphite drawing of a landscape is complete. Thanks so much for watching this video. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you were able to pick up a couple of things here and there. Remember, if you're new to the channel or if you haven't done so yet, make sure you subscribe and click on that notification bell so you're notified when new videos are posted. And if you like this video, make sure you give it a like as well. If you want to learn more about our membership program or gain access to this specific live lesson series, there are links for both of those things in the description below. And if you want to just check out three of our course videos and ebooks for free, you can do that as well. I'll leave a link in the description below for that as well. Thanks again for watching. And as always, I wish you all the very best in your artistic success.