Landscapes

We are learning to:

• draw a landscape

I will know I'm successful if:

• I can divide a landscape into sections

• I can use lines to draw the shapes in a landscape

• I can add colour and shading to a landscape drawing

Frame up a scene. You can use your fingers, a cardboard frame, or take a photo.

Pick a view that interests you and has interesting features. Try to find a scene that has lines in it, for example, a hill, a path or a creek.

Turn a blank page to landscape.

Place it on a flat surface.

Use a HB pencil. This is soft enough to add some shading.

Divide the page roughly into thirds. Draw some light guidelines on your paper. Look at your scene in thirds too - background, middle ground and foreground.

Sometimes it's better to divide the landscape and page in different ways. There was a tree in centre of Celia's scene so it was better to divide the page into quarters for this drawing.

Here are some steps to draw a landscape from Celia's photograph

Draw in a rough outline of the tree, the river and the main rocks.

Draw a line showing where the trees meet the sky in the background.

Use your light grid guidelines to help put everything in the right place.

Don't worry about showing every branch or leaf, just record the main shapes.

Use light pencil marks and an eraser as necessary.

Add more detail, such as some leaves on your trees and plants.

Make some of your lines darker.

Shade in the darker areas under the trees and between the rocks.

Draw what matters to you.

Rub out your guidelines.

Add some colour. Use whatever supplies you have - watercolours, pastels, coloured pencils. I used coloured pencils in this example.

Experiment with different colours and different pressure. When I added darker green next to the river it made it look more like a valley.

Experiment with making ochre - paint from rocks. Rub rocks together to make rock dust. Rub the dust onto your landscape to add some earthy colours. Or mix the rock dust with a little bit of water and use it like watercolour. You can use charcoal too if you don't have sensitive skin. Using materials from Country gives an authentic colour - Dharawal paint for Dharawal Country.

Celia shared something her art teacher Liz Cumming once told her, "There is more than one type of green in the bush." You might need to mix colours together to make sure you have some brighter and darker greens, plus some shades in between.