Essential Guide to Drawing: Landscapes

By Barrington Barber

Landscape presents endless possibilities for artists, from simple garden views to mountainous panoramas, seascapes and urban scenes. This handy guide shows how to create successful landscape drawings, with advice on choosing your composition and rendering elements of the natural world such as water, trees and rocks. Whether you are an experienced draughtsman or a complete beginner, the inspiring examples and step-by-step exercises in this book will help you achieve the best results.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Essential Guides to Drawing are practical books for artists who wish to improve their skills in a particular subject area. The series covers Animals, Landscapes, Perspective & Composition, Portraits, Still Life and Landscapes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Jun 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839405044

Barrington Barber

Born 1934, Barrington was educated at Hampton Grammar School and later Twickenham Art Schoo for which he received a National Diploma of Design. He then practised as an illustrator (Saxon Artist) and Graphic Designer, was Art Director at Ogilvie & Mather and S.H. Bensons, and was a lecturer in Graphic Design at Ealing Art School. Other credits include freelance work, designer, illustrator, animator and painter at Augustine Studios. He was awarded a one man exhibition in 2000 at St. Oswald Studios, and also exhibited in Putney in 2003 and Cork Street in 2004. He was Head of Art at St James's Independent Schools. He now paints, draws, writes about art, and enjoys sports, walking, philosophy and meditation.

Book preview

Introduction

When we study something in order to make a picture of it we chiefly use our eyes. However, surveying a landscape involves all our senses. Out in the open, we are suddenly aware of the prevailing weather and the sounds and smells around us. From the narrow focus of a still-life group or reclining figure, we switch to the view of distant horizons, big skies and stretches of water. Landscape drawing does not mean representing everything as precisely as a camera might, any more than the Impressionists did with their paints. The power of the marks that you make with your pencil, pen or brush lies with their ability to tap into our most fleeting memories and our boundless imaginations.

Landscape is an enormous and variable subject and any preparation for it will never be wasted time. What you’ll soon notice is that it is all about textures, from the reflective surface of still water to rough grasses and rugged stony ground. You’ll also begin to realize that what you draw on a small scale can be replicated on a larger one, which will give you confidence: if you can draw a foreground rock convincingly, you can draw a mountain too.

Materials

Any medium is valid for drawing landscapes and I have shown a range of possibilities here and later in the book. You probably don’t need to buy all the items listed below, and it is wise to experiment gradually. Start with the range of pencils suggested, and when you feel you would like to try something different, do so. For paper, I suggest starting with a medium-weight cartridge paper.

Pencils

HB B 2B 4B

Conté charcoal pencil

White carbon pencil

Graphite pencils

Fine line pen

Fine nib push pen

White chalk

Conté stick

Willow charcoal

No 5 sable brush

No 2 nylon brush

Scraper-board tool

Clutch pencil with silver wire point

Drawing ink

The World Around Us

To begin to draw landscapes, you need a view. Look out of your windows. Whether you live in the countryside or in the town,

Reviews for Essential Guide to Drawing

[Rui Caldeira · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It takes you through a few good examples and describes them in a way more suited to someone with intermediate and advanced drawing capabilities rather than a beginner. I'd say it is good for references on how to tackle certain landscape scenarios but not to 101 teach you how to draw them.