10 Tips For Sketching Nature



1. Summer hills are covered with trees and winter hills are just plain.

2. Land has many different textures, don’t draw land the same. For example: you can draw differences in the shape of the land by stippling. (Drawing dots around each other.)

3. You can draw animal tracks to show detail.

4. Draw dots (or stipple) for a rough texture

5. Don’t draw figures first, draw land first.

6. There are 5 different types of mountains: folded mountains, wrinkled mountains, dome mountains, volcanic mountains, and ice-carved mountains.

7. Draw clear water by showing the underwater also.

8. Only detail the surface of muddy water.

9. If you draw a plant, make it lean toward the light, because plants always grow toward the light and you want to make your picture realistic.

10. Plants look different at night then day. So if you draw a plant in daylight draw it differently than at night. For example: In daylight the plants look normal. At night time they droop a little and the plant looks like its dead.

Tips for Drawing in Motion

1. If the object you are drawing moves, you should change the shape of the shadow to frame the movement of the object.

2. When you draw an object running, draw heavier lines at the front of the body to show weight being pushed forward.

3. Make sure the shadow follows the shape and lines of the surface it is on.

4. Use very light lines to draw breakable things.

5. Shading helps to create distance. For example when the object is up close, shade lightly, when it is far away shade a little darker.

Tips for Drawing Animals in Motion

1. When you draw an animal, draw them with an expressive face, it will look like they will move.

2. When you draw an animal in winter, make sure you draw footprints behind the animal in the snow.

3. When an animal touches the ground, it should touch it’s shadow too.

4. Dry hairs stand up and separate and wet hairs stay in clumps.

5. If your picture is in winter, draw a thick overcoat for the animal that you are drawing.