How To Draw a Mountain Landscape Step by Step Art Lesson

Welcome everyone to today's step-by-step sketch art lesson. In this video I'll be showing you how to draw a realistic mountain landscape. For today's lesson you'll need a sketch pad and a pencil. I'll be drawing with this 2B styler pencil which will help us get some soft shading but any pencil that you have will work just fine. Now for a sketch pad I'm just going to rotate this so it's horizontal. Let's start with the horizon line. So we start over the left side along the bottom. It's going to lightly sketch a line going across. Now this is the line that separates the sky from the ground. I'm just going to pull this all the way across towards the right. Now with our horizon line in place we start blocking out the composition. Now over on the left side I'm going to bring a mountain in the foreground. So starting from the top I'm just going to wobble this line coming across our page and then in. Now I want to create a little bit of a valley going in towards the center. So let's start stacking the mountains in behind. So we're starting on top left. Go up with an angle line. So adding these little angles coming down. And then we'll add another stack stepping up. Now the mountains are going to get lower as it comes down towards the right. So we're going to create that little valley coming down. And another peak down. Now I start to bring this up so it comes down along the sides and then back in. So go up towards the top and then down off our page. Now with our mountain range in place let's add some trees along the bottom right. So we start down here. It's going to angle this up and across. Now this is the tip of the tree line. Now it's going to pull this in towards a lake. So right here it's going to pull this back in and back out. So there's a bit of land coming in across the lake and out. Bring this across the bottom then over towards the left. In this outcropping here it's going to add some trees. It's going to add some lines going up just to define the height of these trees going across. And then along the background it's going to pull these lines for the tips of the trees. Now I want to add a few more layers across the left side. So I'm just going to bring a little hill going across and then up. Now I'm going to move to the tip of my pencil and start adding some detail and definition. So starting from the top and bring this down. Just lightly sketching our way across the mountain and down towards the bottom. And you can modify the shape if you need to. Right here just blending that out. You can also add some trees along this line. So along this line I'm just going to add these lines going up. Just changing the angle slightly. Let's go back and define that horizon line. Now this is the edge of the water going across. And right here let's add some thickness to those trees going up. And this outcropping we're just going to fade this in towards the water. And then blend that back in. Now we're going to go back and just add some more detail to the mountains. Along the back. Just adding a few more points. And I'm also fading that out towards the bottom. You can also add a few more layers along the top. I'm just going to go back and just add a little bit of shadow across the bottom edge. So we'll just darken that up and pull it across that hill. And then with the trees we're going to add those separate branches. Starting from the tip. Now these are just pine trees. We're just going to pull this down. Just get wider as it comes down towards the base. And then just do the same thing to each of those trees. It's really building up the volume. And they don't have to be symmetrical. We just offset these so they're a little bit different in shape. Just adding a few in between. Now we don't need to get too detailed at this stage. We're just blocking in the volume. Let's add some lighter trees in the background. So they sort of fade out into some fog and atmosphere. See these trees I'm just fading that down towards the bottom. Adding more trees in between. I'm just going to darken up the trunk of the tree right in between. Now with these mountains I'm just going to pull some layers coming down. Of rock across the edge. I'm going to lightly add some shading in between. So this layer is going across the mountain. Now with the mountains in the back I'm just going to add some snow caps. So I'm just using the side edge of my pencil to add these layers. I'm just going to layer in these cracks and crevices. Now I'm just going to go a little bit lighter with the next mountain. The side in the background. Also fading the detail as it comes down towards the waterline. I want to go back and just increase the contrast in the foreground. I'm just going to add some larger trees over on the right side. Just sitting along this outcropping here. Now along the base we're just going to add some logs just stacked up. Push to shore. And again we're just roughing this in. You don't need to get too detailed with this. I'm also going to add some logs across the foreground. Just stacked up. I'm just going to fade this detail out. I'm just going to lightly add some ripples across the water. I'm just going a little bit darker and heavier on the side. I'm just going to get a little bit of reflection of the mountains in the water. So we just want to blur this out. So this outcropping here. Darken that up. And just mirror the shape coming down. You can also rough up the edges. Also the trees on the right side will reflect in the water. And as we get closer to there I'm just going to tighten up my details and shadows. And always be sure to sign my artwork. And that's pretty much it. There's a sketch illustration of a realistic mountain landscape. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson. If you did please be sure to subscribe for more videos each week where I'll show you how to draw different scenes just like this. You can find more step-by-step lessons in the full sketch course playlist linked below. Or explore other topics across this channel. I want to thank you for joining me today. Keep practicing and I'll see you in the next one.