How To Draw A Forest Background

How To Draw A Manga Forest Background In Pencil

For this 'How to draw' video tutorial you will need a fine tipped mechanical pencil, some smooth textured sketching/drawing paper and an eraser. What you can expect to learn and produce by the end of this is a firm grasp of proportion and perspective within a landscape drawing but also the ability to draw heavy details like leaves and the bark on a tree relatively simply via the use of a few special techniques.

So the aim of the game is to produce a life-like manga style background featuring a few trees with some great perspective and interesting textures. The artist begins by drawing a rectangle in pencil which he will use to contain his forest inspired landscape, once he has this in place he roughly sketches a horizon line maybe 2 inches down from the top which will act as his guide for perspective and placement of the trees. To stick with the organic theme he decides to draw the foreground tree off centre to the left which will be easier and more natural on the eye whilst viewing but also allow more room for random placement of the background trees.

The lines used to draw the tree are kept loose and intentionally rough looking to mimic the bark of the tree and it is the additional textures which are added via a series of long vertical lines combined with short quick horizontal. This is an extremely quick yet very effective way of achieving textures within an anime/manga format! There is then the use of shaded inverted triangles which have been drawn at the base of the tree to represent the roots but it is also the quick loose drawing of floral and grass vegetation at the base which creates the illusion of a 3D illustration.

Again following on from the organic feel the artist draws faint loose lines veering up to the right of the page in a bid to naturally guide the viewer's eye to his next set of trees. Drawing leaves and the use of firm deliberate diagonal lines which are used to represent depth and shade are also explained thoroughly whilst the drawing of the background trees are under way. This art tutorial is very very useful for the beginner illustrator and manga fan and with its excellent narrative is an ideal source for you to learn from.

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Who Uploaded This Tutorial?

I have studied art for most of my life and would easily say that it was my number one passion. I appreciate everything surrounding art but I gear most of my efforts towards anatomy and the human form. I believe there is nothing more beautiful and rewarding than being creative to produce art which does the human figure justice. I hope you enjoy my portfolio and if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. I also travel the world whilst maintaining this website in the hope to broaden my horizons and discover all the different types of art around the globe.

This Video Tutorial is Tagged With:

background, illustration, illustrative, paper, pencil, sketch, Trees