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Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. Today, we're going to learn how to draw landscapes. Now,
taking into consideration I'm a cartoonist, as a cartoonist I use landscapes more as just
a filler so I keep the subject or the objects very simplified. So, if I draw a desert landscape
for instance, I might draw some mesas, add in the background just some simple shapes,
and maybe draw a saguaro cactus or two in the foreground; maybe disappearing into the
background. Some other cactus shapes
just to kind of fill up the space a little bit for whatever character I'm puttin' in
the front. So, even though it's a desert scape, and a desert can be very complicated in the
background I try to avoid that because what I'm in interested in is what's in front of
that. So, if my desert scape is drawn even the mesas kind of disappear into more of a
silhouette in the background, and I might throw a real subtle long cloud in there just
to kind of give it a feeling of aridity, a very dry scape. And then, if I want to go
to the mountains the mountains are even easier. It's just a bunch of peaks; maybe with a snowy
field in the front, snowcaps on the mountains. Transition it between two or three even, and
then maybe these clouds are a little more full of moisture so they'll be a little more
bulbous than the clouds I used in the desert. And again I come in, and even though they
have snow on the top these mountains are pretty much shapeless, and the snow in the foreground
is just white, a white line. And lastly, maybe we want to draw a seascape, so the classic
water is always just a bunch of half circles leadin' up into maybe a wave cresting. And
again, like the mountains you have a little bit of white crest on it which goes back to
the half circles, and maybe another wave off in the background. And then, in the background
you might have a craggy cliff, again, in silhouette; maybe a lighthouse at the top. And then, come
in and do some subtle shading, nothin' too serious. And again, this is my idea of a,
of the landscape at the ocean. And again, as a cartoonist landscapes aren't as important
to me, but that's how, as a cartoonist, I would draw landscapes.