Traveler's Urban Sketchbook 2: Drawing Landscapes

Starting at the ground level, I show you my symbol for grass, ground cover and then small shrubs.  In this video, you will watch me create these symbols, and then stop the video to practice each line and symbol in your sketchbook until you feel proficient. With the first grass symbol, you will also watch and then copy my technique to draw a trashcan and add grass around it to "ground" the object. Then you will move on to shrubs and some accent small plants, watching, learning and practicing along the way.

The Resources section in Lecture One contains many valuable handouts that you can print and keep in your sketchbook if you ever forget how to draw a plant or tree.  The supplies list is also found in Resources Lecture One, but it really is as simple as a sketchbook, pencils, pens and an eraser.  Doesn't get much easier than that!

Tall shrubs can act as a focal point or a backdrop to a sketch so in this lecture, I teach you a symbol that varies from the small shrub, giving a hint of more detail.  This symbol adds individual leaves to the overall shape of the shrub adding variety to your drawing.  The addition of individual leaves can be used for tall shrubs as well as tree canopies.  Follow along as I teach you the symbol, turn off the video and practice and then move on to hedges.

Each drawing I create in this section is completely out of my head so you can recreate the drawings I do or you can make up your own imaginary landscape with small shrubs, ground covers and tall shrubs.  Don't forget to review the resource images for ideas and to keep in your sketchbook if you ever get stuck coming up with a symbol for a plant.

In this video we move outside to view a low, shrubby landscape and then capture it in a sketch.  Watch as I move through the steps of combining the symbols I have taught you with the reality of what you see in front of you.  My rule of thumb is 80% symbol, 20% what you see.  In this first sketch from reality, you will see how I primarily rely upon the symbols to abstract or illustrate the idea of what I'm looking at, not capture every last detail like a camera does.  The key to learning how to sketch or paint is the ability to translate what you see in reality into a form of art that captures the same feeling or idea of what you're looking at without recreating it exactly.  This is not an easy task, but this video shows how the symbols aid you in creating your own version of the landscape in front of you.  You should watch the video and then capture your own version of a small shrubby area either from reality or from the photographs in the Resources section of Lecture One.

This is just like the last lecture except we are now looking at a tall, shrubby landscape.  Use the other symbols you practiced in Lecture 2 to create this landscape.  I draw a hedge, a tall shrub, a blooming agave plant and a flowering ground cover foreground in this sketch.  A variety of symbols are used to create an interesting, but a well organized drawing with the focal point being the blooming, agave stalk.  You can find a similar landscape area to draw in your vicinity or work from the photograph I provide in the Resources section of Lecture One.

In this lecture we begin to explore symbols for trees, starting with a Standard (single trunk) and a Multi-trunking deciduous tree.  You will see how the lines you practiced and hopefully mastered in the shrub lectures are now used to create tree canopies.  I will go through a sample of each symbol and then encourage you to take a break and draw the symbol in your sketchbook.  That way you will follow along with me as we add trees to our palette of landscape material.  Fill two pages or more in your sketchbook with standard and multi-trunking trees following my instruction and using the handouts in the Resources section of Lecture One.

The second set of trees in the landscape is covered in this lecture.  Evergreens like Eucalyptus trees and pine trees are added to your palette, as you watch me show you my symbols for these trees.  As in the deciduous tree section, you will see how the grass and accent shrub symbol can be modified to turn into the canopy symbol for the pine tree. Watch is I show you different styles of pine trees that can be used to represent cedars, cypress, yews, and other types of tall, thick trees with fine leaves or needles.  Take breaks during the lecture to fill two pages in your sketchbook with both "pine" type tree symbols and then Eucalyptus symbols.  I live in California so we have a lot of Eucalyptus trees, but this graceful, tall open canopy tree symbol can be translated to work for many types of tall trees.  Stay inside during this whole lecture, just getting the symbol down so that you can use it when you are out in the landscape.

Palm trees are the accent of all accent trees and whether they grow in your area or are only a part of a beach vacation, they are an easy and fun tree to add to your drawing palette.  In this lecture I cover three types of palm trees, the Mexican Fan Palm (think Beverly Hills or an exotic tropical island), Queen Palms (Miami beaches or California backyards) and then the king of the palm trees, the Canary Island Date Palm.  Each of these palm trees has a unique line pattern used to create the frond that you will learn and then practice before moving on to drawing the tree.  Watch as I draw a few of each of these three types of palm trees and then turn off the video, filling a couple pages of your sketchbook with these symbols.  Rely on the handouts in the Resources, Lecture One to practice your palms without watching the video or to keep in a folded pocket of your sketchbook for when you take that tropical vacation with your sketchbook-and a Mai Tai of course!!

Here we go outside once again to take what you learned in the classroom about symbols for trees and apply it to real life.  Watch how I use the 80/20 rule to simplify but still represent a particular tree in the landscape around me.  In this lecture I will draw a standard deciduous tree (Crepe Myrtle) and a multi-trunking, leafy tree (Strawberry Tree). 

In the second drawing of the Strawberry Tree, I will add the ground cover below it and a little bit of house information that occurs behind the tree.  Follow along, watching the video and after each tree, take a break and draw a tree from a landscape around you or from the photograph of the tree I drew found in Resources, Lecture One.