Title: Winter № 2

Whether I'm going for a long backpacking trip or taking a simple day hike, I always try to have a sketchbook as well as the camera with me.

This drawing was inspired by a landscape scenery from the place I hiked to after the first snow that year. Once I was there, I sketched a quick simple drawing as a reference to potentially use it in my work. So later I decided to make a final drawing from initial sketch along with some photographs that I took that day.

The video above is a final drawing along with some documented footage of me sketching in the field.

Enjoy and Thanks for Watching!

Step 1: SIMPLIFY

In the following steps, I'll be sharing my drawing tips that I also use in most of my drawings.

TIP I: SIMPLIFY objects into basic forms

First, I begin this drawing by simplifying detailed forest into simple vertical lines and adding more gesture strokes as the drawing progresses. Now because I'm drawing a landscape, it is easier to simplify different elements such as forest mass into a lightly shaded value instead of geometric shapes. In addition, I'm adding single pencil strokes for individual trees in the foreground. Once I'm happy with the entire composition (the placement of objects arranged according to paper dimensions) I can now start adding darker tones on top.

My favorite pencil to use in this step is HB

As the drawing progresses, I'll keep adding more and more details with darker lines which bring me to the next step >

Step 2: LIGHT to DARK

TIP II: DRAW FROM LIGHT TO DARK

Drawing lightly at the beginning allows me to easily map out the entire drawing as well as to change the placement of any object without much erasing. In fact, I don't worry about erasing most of the lightly drawn lines from the beginning of the drawing because they would still be covered by darker values later on.

When drawing a sky, I'm lightly shading the entire area with HB pencils, and than using a blending stump to give it a soft effect, I smooth out the pencil strokes. Adding clouds is easily achieved by erasing certain areas and soften the edges with blending stump. After finishing with sky, I continue adding more trees and other details which I'll cover in the next step>

At this stage I'm still keeping the strokes very light using HB and 2B pencils

Note: Opposed to dark heavy lines from 8B pencil, which also makes indentation on the paper, it is easier to erase multiple times lightly drawn strokes from HB pencil without any affect on the surface of the paper.

Step 3: DETAILS

TIP III: ADDING DETAILS LAST

Adding details last helps me to concentrate on the entire composition from the beginning and not to get caught up with small details too soon. As the drawing progresses, I keep adding more details with darker lines to give the sense of depth. As as rule of thumb, I leave objects in the background lighter and less detailed opposed to foreground where objects are darker and more defined. Using eraser to erase highlighted areas helped bring out the contrast areas.

Also having images from the hike helped me to reference the type of trees and grass I witnessed that day.

For details most commonly pencils I use are soft B type pencils ranging from 2B to 8B

For the list of materials used in this drawing, please go to the next step>

Step 4: MATERIALS

MATERIAL LIST

Pencils: Derwent Graphic Pencils, 24 Count
Sketchbook / Paper: Moleskine Folio, A4, Hard Cover (13 x 9.5) (Professional Folio Series)
Blenders: Blending Stick/Stump: Size No. 4, 5
Eraser: Derwent Art Eraser
Brush: Common Dusting Brush

GEAR