How to Draw a Landscape With Charcoal
A landscape is an image that primarily features an outdoor scene. Landscapes can include animals or people, but these figures are not the focus of the landscape. The focus of a landscape is the land. When drawing a landscape with charcoal, take advantage of the smears and smudges you can produce by running your fingers and hands over the page. By smearing and smudging the charcoal, you add visual interest to the drawing. This also makes the drawing process a more interactive experience that is rewarding to the artist as well as the viewers.
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Instructions
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Turn the charcoal on its side and lay it on the paper at the edge of the point where you'd like the horizon to be. Run the charcoal over the line of the horizon, producing a thick line. Use the side of your charcoal to color in the rest of the ground to the bottom of the page. Lay your hand flat on the paper over the charcoal and smear the charcoal so the shading over the ground appears to be smooth and even.
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2
Lay your charcoal down on its side so that the charcoal is laying on the paper perpendicular to the edge of the ground. Draw upward in a thick, slightly curving, vertical line. This is a tree trunk. Draw as many tree trunks as you wish in your drawing.
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3
Lay your charcoal down on its side at the top of each tree trunk and draw a few lines shooting off from the top of the trunk, each line moving at a different upward angle from the trunk. These are branches.
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4
Lay your charcoal down on its side and lightly color a large, irregular oval at the top of each tree trunk, completely covering the branches of each tree. These ovals represent the leaves. Do not color so dark that the branches of the tree that you drew in the previous step are obliterated.
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Smear the leaves with your hands. Let your fingermarks stick out at the edges of each oval.
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Tips & Warnings
Add details to the drawing as you see fit. You might include mountains in the distance, clouds overhead or even a bird in flight in the sky. Look at photographs of landscapes for inspiration.
