How to Draw a Realistic Palm Tree Beach Landscape in Pencil

This video will show you the steps I took to create a completed palm tree beach landscape scene using different pencils and tools.

Follow me!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tylersartshack
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/TylersArtShack
Google+: https://plus.google.com/115405....344518849808905/post

Supplies:
Pencils: Faber Castell 2H, B 4B
Erasers: Tuff stuff Eraser Stick, Kneaded eraser
Blending Stump
9x12 90Ib Drawing Paper

What is going on everybody, welcome to a brand new tutorial/drawing video. In this video I was just going to do a simple tutorial on how to draw a palm tree with a simple backdrop to give the scene a nice simple look. I started the drawing with putting in that light backdrop to set the scene and decided to make this a completed drawing with lots of details.

I started with the sky. I had never really made a very detailed and cloudy sky before in a landscape scene. Until recently, clouds were an element that I had a lot of trouble drawing. I had spent quite a bit of time drawing clouds in my sketch book and using that as a reference helped a lot when drawing these clouds. I started them out by using a 2H pencil and lightly shading around where I wanted the clouds to be. I usually leave the areas where I want clouds white on the page. After shading the page a bit darker I started to add in some details for the clouds. I started by using a kneaded eraser and softening the tops of the clouds while using a blending stump to blend out the bottoms of the clouds so that they blend in with the sky. I then used the blending stump with graphite all over it to start adding some shadows to the clouds themselves to give them some depth and volume. Then using a small eraser, I lightened up the tops of the clouds with a small white eraser to make them pop. With some fine tuning after this, the clouds took shape.

The next stage in this drawing was drawing in the distant rocks/mountains. I just did a simple outline for placement and shaded them in with simple tones. I didn't want to give them a lot of details because they are far back in the distance. A good way to portray that something is far in the distance, is by leaving it with minimal details. I still wanted to show that they were rugged rocks so I left them with a rough texture in the end.

The next step in the drawing was adding in the water. Water is a simple element to draw in but can be easily over done. I start in the back horizon and add strong horizontal lines close together. I space those lines out as they get closer to the picture plane. This helps to show that the water is receding into the background of the image. After I got most of the line work down, I used a blending stump to soften the water out a bit. I found that the texture was a bit too rough and wanted to calm it down a bit. I also added in a bit of reflection for the distant rocks but did not want to over do it.

Next comes the closer water details. I imagined from the start that I wanted to have a nice wave crashing on some rocks. So I started to map out where this wave would be and added some shading to it. I also showed some white water crashing around the wave as it was hitting the rocks. In the shading of the wave, I used my fine eraser and erased out some foam for details in the water.

Like I said in the beginning of the video, I wanted to have a palm tree demonstration so I had to decide where I wanted them. I wanted this image to be a dynamic landscape and the placement of these palm trees was crucial. If I had place them on the left side of the drawing near the distant rocks, it would have lead the eye right off into the horizon of the water on the right side of the page and it would also hide those rocks from the viewers eye taking away a lot of the visual interest. I did not want to lead the viewers eye off the page when they looked at this drawing. I decided that the best possible place to put them would be on the right side of the page. It was lacking in details as it was because the only object on that side was some rocks and the distant horizon line. When I was drawing in the trunk or main section of the palm trees, I was careful of the shape and direction of them as well. I wanted them lead the eye into the middle of the page where the wave was breaking on the rocks.

I got the general placement of them down and I like to draw the trunks of trees with texture. I did this by using 2 different pencils. I used a 2H pencil to draw in some horizontal details going up the trees and then used a 4B pencil to shade it. Because of the difference in tonal range between these 2 pencils, it left all that detail on the trees and also left the 2H pencil marks light making it look like highlights.

The final stages of this drawing were drawing in the palms themselves. I used a 2H pencil for the undertone and used 4B to make them a bit darker. After this it was adding in some final details for the rocks and added in some grass for the base of the palm tree.