How to Draw a Fantasy Landscape (digitally)

The practice of art is to be able to create worlds, at times those worlds will be ones impossible to visit. It is never impossible with the proper steps to make that impossible world a reality.

• Any digital art program
• procreate(what I use)
• adobe illustrate
• sketchbook
• reference images of interesting landmarks
• rivers
• lakes
• mountains
• trees

Imagine something that cannot exist, existing in our world. Islands cannot float in air, water cannot flow up, take a phenomenon and twist it to your advantage to create something new. Use a lighter sketch brush to loosely place your landscape. Use broad shapes to plan your composition to make an interesting piece.

Use a darker color brush on a new layer to clean up the lines of your sketch from rough shapes to an actual idea. Use your reference photos to nail down the portions of your design that are true to life. Add the most details to the foreground and allow the rest to fade into the background as supporting details. Have some minor details the remain the same throughout the piece to create unity, in this case the roots and waterfalls are similar at each island with minor variations.

Add a base color to the features filling in underneath your line art layer, imagining that no light exists. Use the same colors throughout the piece using less saturation for the smaller and therefore farther away details in the back. A warm tone of colors creates a warm environment and something more exciting, a cooler toned pallet of colors creates a more blissful environment more common in fairy tropes. Don't worry about shadows or hard lines yet until you have the rules in your universe solidified. This is the last planning stage.

Now that you know where items are, decide where your light is coming from and make your shapes 3D. By adding a bluer tone of the original color you put down you can make true to form shadows. The shadows will replace your lineart to make the piece more realistic. Use various layers for things like water and trees to add light in different places to give depth. The closer the and larger the object is, the more bits of details you will show. Don't blend out all of your coloring, using a little texture and several different sizes of brushes will create diversity and more intrigue. It also gives you the option to stylize your image and make it more unique to you. Add some natural details to the foreground, roughness to rocks, bark to trees, shadows leaves and mist to water. Add movement to the features, is there wind? Is there gravity? Think of how they affect the finer details of the picture, not everything will be straight up and down. Refer to your references again if you need a base.

Make a layer, and color the entirety of the panel using three analogous hues then blend with gaussian blur. Choose the colors based off what time of day you want it to be, and what mood you would like to set. Set the layer to overlay and lower the opacity. Lower the opacity to your eraser and use smooth strokes to the direction of the light lessening pressure from the shadows outwards. These will work as your highlights and give even more dimension.