How to Draw GRASS & FORESTS

 

Learn how you can draw… or learn how to think when you draw with the Etherington Brothers!

Grass

Within environment design, grass is often used merely as a surface texture, but with a little thought it can become a visually interesting, characterful design feature.

Add variety and style to short clumps of grass by thinking of them as quiffs of hair.

Experiment with inventing new shapes for the blades of short grass.

Use grass to add to, and help describe the form of solid objects in your environment.

Try adding long grass where you would normally expect only short grass to grow.

Long grass has a decreasing scale of rigidity.

Remember that the blades fan out in all directions.

There are a great many seed formations you can use to add loads of character.

Create miniature landscapes within your short grass by adding tight seed groups.

Mix together short grass, long grass and seeds for rich, varied designs.

Forests

In this next forest tutorial, we’re going to look at…

The top ten tips for designing and drawing Forests.

Vary trunk widths!

Show Decay!

Branches grow towards and away, not just sideways.

Cast shadows to suggest the off-panel forest canopy.

Use shadows to establish focus, and foreground /midground/ background.

Block your characters’ way!

Make the forest floor a patchwork of surfaces and textures.

Remember your forest doesn’t always grow on level ground.

Try theming small forest areas around repeated shapes.

Add damage. Break branches, trample foliage, fell trees.