Prompt
Use at least 3 reference photos to invent a fantasy landscape. Create depth in the landscape by using a diverse range of scales, atmospheric perspective, and composition.
Examples
@pandapufkin, Steen, Trent
Reference images
You can shoot your own photos, find photos online, and use our free reference photo collection.
Tips
Experiment with using reference images that are not literal representations of what you will transform them into. For example, if you are drawing a tree, try not using a reference photo of a tree.
In Cat’s painting, a reference photo of chicken feet turned into tree trunks!
Thumbnail sketches
- Draw a minimum of six thumbnail sketches to figure out your composition.
- Aim for having as much variety in your thumbnails as possible.
- Tweak and re-crop the thumbnails until you’re satisfied.
- Choose one thumbnail sketch to use for the final drawing.
Recommended software
Procreate, Krita, Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool SAI, Adobe Fresco, MediBang Paint, Gimp
Inspiration
Richard McGuire, Victoria Vincent, Alexis Rockman, Yves Tanguy, David Wiesner, Maxfield Parrish, Leo Lionni
We want to share your progress!
- Did you do this lesson?
- Submit to have your work to be posted here on this page or mentioned in a live stream.
Fantasy Landscapes in Procreate
See how you can create an fantasy landscape in Procreate, using a broad range of reference photos. You can dramatically manipulate and transform your reference photos to blend together into an unusual landscape.
Simple strategies like atmospheric perspective, texture, foreground, middle ground, and background to create a convincing landscape. Demo by Teaching Artists Cat Huang and Deepti Menon.
Why Your Art Needs a Background
Do you rationalize to yourself why your artwork doesn’t need a background? Time to stop making excuses and see the immense potential that backgrounds can have on your artwork, regardless of the media you work in.
Backgrounds are not just visually rich and dynamic, but they contribute tremendously toward communicating a narrative, atmosphere or tone to your artwork, they are a powerful tool you don’t want to skip on!
Discussion with Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artists Cat Huang and Deepti Menon.
