Digital Landscape Tutorials
If you can draw figures and forms easily, the next step in creating a complete composition is to draw/paint an engaging, interesting and believable background for your subject(s). One of the most common ways to do this is through the use of a landscape. I’ve gathered a few tutorials together on how to create stunning landscapes with beautiful colours, details, dramatic lighting and depth. You can apply these techniques to your process to enhance your landscape work and increase the visual interest and quality of your work.
Skyships
Patrick Keith shows us his workflow method for creating a landscape for this commissioned piece. This tutorial is great since it contains techniques that are not software specific.
Depth by colour – Ground Rocks
Mahesh Bhat over at KalaaLog has a variety of interesting tutorials on digital painting techniques. Here is a tutorial on creating a simple landscape with rock formations – there are some basic color theory tips and light/shadow techniques as well.
Cloudy Sky Tutorial
Dan LuVisi (commonly known as Adonihs) has created a cloudy sky landscape tutorial for an article in 2D Magazine – his use of painting techniques, blending and muted colour palettes produce a soft painterly effect for his concept work.
Painting a Landscape
Alain Descamps beautiful concept renderings have earned him some huge accolades in the Digital Art world. This tutorial is a simple landscape that can be rendered with such precision and ease. The results are astonishingly realistic. His portfolio can be found at www.adesconcept.com If you can read French, check out his tutorials (tutoriaux) section for some excellent methods on creating visually stunning landscapes and backgrounds.
Matte Painting Tutorial
Shantanu Jahagirdar creates a mystic landscape scene with moody, dramatic lighting using a mixture of painted and photographic pieces. The finished piece is srtiking and intense. Here’s a tutorial on the full process.
Desirable Thirst
Niklas Forsberg has created a painterly waterscape with rich vibrant colors and thick brushstrokes. He has produced a step-by-step walkthrough on his method. This tutorial also includes some efficient workflow techniques (shortcuts, controls) to help you speed up your own work.
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And there you have it – a number of tutorials on creating interesting landscape/backgrounds which should help you maximize your compositions. Try a few of them out and then develop your own techniques in your own style!
