![]() Once the foreground is done, the fields seem too bright (they look snow-covered), so I tone them down with the flat of an H pencil. I also create some horizontal streaks with a kneaded rubber eraser to help enliven the sky. I erase more graphite from the sky to enlarge and whiten the clouds. I complete the tree and begin work on the foreground, using HB and 2B strokes to suggest grasses and a few rocks, a fence, gate and path. ![]() Higher, where the trunk and branches are seen against the light sky, I draw them positively with HB strokes. I hatch the lower trunk area with light HB chisel strokes and then draw the trunk negatively - that is, by darkening the spaces around the trunk. With more pressure, I use a slightly chisel-shaped 2B pencil to draw the darker “holes” in the foliage. Remembering that the light is coming from the upper left, I gradually darken the right side of the tree as well as the undersides of foliage masses. Over those strokes I hatch and crosshatch B and 2B strokes, trying for a convincing suggestion of foliage textures. I continue filling out its form with H and HB hatched strokes. It’s time to get serious about the main tree. I begin laying in the big tree in the same way, using hatching with an H pencil as a starter. The sun is at the left, so the lighter hatch marks (facing left) will represent the sunlit portions of the foliage. Leaving the fields white, I begin drawing the rows of trees and bushes, first hatching with an H or an HB pencil and then hatching and crosshatching with a 2B. In other areas I use drafting tape as a mask, twisting or cutting it into the shapes I need (as shown above). The mask helps me avoid having stray strokes intrude into the sky area. In that case, I place the card-mask against the sky while I draw the mountain using hatched HB pencil strokes. I use such a mask, for example, to draw the distant mountain. To get crisp edges, I cut curves along the edges of an index card and then use the card as a mask. At this point, I keep the fields white because, until I establish the tree lines, I’m not certain how dark I should make the fields. I leave the distant mountains undefined and hazy for an atmospheric effect. I draw the most distant sections first and work my way forward. Later, when the rest of the landscape is developed, I’ll be able to better judge how much further to carry the cloud rendering. I’ll leave the clouds as shown here, only partly formed - it’s difficult to see at this stage just how far to carry them. I begin forming clouds by erasing, dabbing with a kneaded eraser and pressing more firmly with a plastic eraser. I start with the sky because if I make a mess of it (by not getting the sky smooth enough) and have to discard the drawing and start over, I won’t have wasted work done on the trees and fields. I begin by carefully laying in a flat value for the sky, using first HB and then 2B pencils held flat against the paper. I use paper with a plate finish to help achieve a smooth sky. I’ll create the soft edges later when I form the clouds by lifting them with an eraser from a darkened sky, as I did in my previous sketch. I haven’t drawn in any cloud formations because I want only soft edges in the clouds. Here is the final outline drawing on Strathmore bristol plate-finish (smooth) paper. I like the effect and decide to go ahead with it in my drawing. I make the sky in the sketch gray with the flat of a 2B pencil and then “lift” (erase) clouds from the gray using a plastic eraser. I think the sky is too large an area to be left all white, with no action at all, so I decide to experiment. But now I have a lot more sky to deal with. As I add the tree and make the sky proportionately larger in the picture frame to accommodate the tree (see image 3), I solve the problem I mentioned earlier - the equal sizes of sky and foreground. Its height allows me to let it thrust into the sky to provide additional visual interest. Its broken shape is better and has more visual dimension and visual interest than the one in my first reference photo. I find this taller tree in my box of photos. When I begin, I have in mind drawing the landscape pretty much as it appears in my reference photograph (above), but I make a quick sketch and see that there are problems: 1.) The tree on the right is an uninteresting blob 2.) the tree is the same height as the distant mountain, causing too much symmetry 3.) the foreground and the sky in my sketch seem too nearly equal in size and shape. Select a reference photo and make a quick sketch.
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