How to Draw Trees, Shrubs, Grass, and Mountains

Capture the beauty of any natural scene you choose! In this lesson, join artist and instructor Nancy Ellen Thompson and learn foundational techniques for drawing landscapes in pencil with lifelike dimension, texture, and detail. Nancy takes you through three demonstrations that show how she uses shapes and lines to create realistic trees, shrubs, grasses, and mountains in her landscape compositions. You’ll also get helpful tips on choosing the right paper for your project and how to keep your drawing from smudging while you work on it!

Nancy begins this video by guiding you through the various shadow patterns in trees, showing how an understanding of your light source helps to create believable dimension, whether she’s creating a preparatory sketch or a more finished drawing. Then, follow along as Nancy moves through the process of turning basic compositional shapes into clearly defined landscape elements, showing you how to vary your line quality, work reductively with your eraser, and add detail. These techniques allow you to differentiate between those elements, even when they’re close together. Finally, learn to include mountains in your composition without using harsh lines.