Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 220 A Tangle of Textures, Vines, and Grasses Vines and underbrush are great fun to draw; you can get as lost in the drawing as you can get out in the underbrush itself. Pick a place that has a lot of complexity, but some kind of structural device that frames or limits the tangle. A stone wall or some large branches can work well to frame a mess of underbrush. A trellis or arch will support a massive vine, and you’ll get an interesting contrast between the curves of the vines and the architecture of the trellis. Follow these tips when drawing this type of foliage: ➤ Draw the vines or the tangle lightly at first. ➤ Start seeing the overlaps of branches and the twining of vines as you draw them. ➤ Use tone to emphasize where one branch goes over or under another. ➤ Work in some flowers when you can. They are set off by the underbrush nicely. ➤ Play with the tones of the background. This will greatly help to set off and define the complexity of the tangle. ➤ You can squint or blur your vision as you work on the background. You will see the beginnings of shapes behind shapes that you can define into more tangle in the back- ground. How far you go is up to you. Wrap a few vines around your drawing pencil. 221 Chapter 17 ➤ This Land Is Your Land ➤ Grass is a lovely addition, but it needs to move like grass, not look like a rug. Think about direction, gesture, and texture. Grass is as individual as any landscape feature. Beaches, Rocks, and Cliffs Rocks are wonderful elements in the landscape. They can be playful, formal, architectural, massive … you name it. When you start drawing rocks and dunes, think about form, shape, space, volume, weight, and texture. Consider form, shape, space, volume, weight, and texture as you draw rocks, dunes, and other landscape features into your drawing. Take a look at these dunescapes for a selection of solutions to executing a common subject. Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 222 Sky and Clouds The sky provides a daily show of tones, patterns, and textures that literally change with the wind. Think about pattern and texture, with form for bigger, thicker clouds. 223 Chapter 17 ➤ This Land Is Your Land Water and Reflections Water, water, everywhere—it’s easier than you think. Bodies of water need to sit flat, which means eye level and an elliptical curve in the bank or shoreline that works like the edge of a big dish out there in the landscape. Some things to consider as you draw water: ➤ Think about eye level and making the water lay flat like a dish in space, then add light and flickering texture. ➤ Reflections are fun, just see them and draw them like the objects themselves. ➤ Think about pattern on a surface you’ve already drawn—it could generate an entirely different drawing. Even though it’s not drawn, the sky above these cliffs is an impor- tant landscape feature. It’s about space—the ab- sence or presence of—as a compositional element of your drawing. Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 224 The Best for Last: The Small Things It is no secret that Lauren prefers the small things in nature to the big picture. She spent her childhood hikes looking at the ground, and nothing has changed. The detail in small individual specimens has always fascinated her, and it may be the view that you like best as well. Capturing reflections on water can add interest and detail to your drawing. 225 Chapter 17 ➤ This Land Is Your Land Wherever you go, look for the small things, and get to know them as you draw them: ➤ In the woods and mountains, there are delicate wildflowers in the spring; at the higher altitudes, they are there most of the summer. ➤ Mushrooms are some of the most erotic, sensuous shapes out there. They can be fun to arrange on a page as if they were talking in a group. ➤ Lichens, mosses, and other fungi are there for the seeing and drawing. Even the galls on tree branches are interesting. They are made by the tree or leaf in response to a bug’s trying to burrow in to lay eggs, and every tree makes a different one. ➤ The woodland wildflowers could occupy a lifetime of drawing only they, from the del- icate mayflower and Solomon’s seal to the exotic jack-in-the-pulpit and lady’s slipper. All have their own story. ➤ The seashore is a treasure trove of goodies to see and draw. The complexity of seashells, the funky shapes of crabs, the structure of big pieces of driftwood, the tex- ture of seaweed, shore plants, and the unending rocks are all waiting for you. As Your Drawing Progresses Balancing all the elements of your landscape is a juggling act, but you can use your tear-out reference card checklist at the front of this book to help. Remember that you don’t have to fill in every inch of the page to get a good drawing. Remember, too, that you don’t have to finish each drawing the same way or the same amount. Light, Shadow, Atmosphere, and Contrast Look at tones, the lights, and shadows in a landscape. As you do, consider the following: ➤ Strong shadows can be interesting—but they can be confusing, too. ➤ Make sure that you can see the main shapes of the landscape. ➤ Remember to balance the foreground detail with the amount of space you are trying for. ➤ Experiment with suggesting tone rather than filling it all in everywhere, or changing the tone of an area for greater contrast. A study of driftwood on the shore can be as mon- umental and compelling in composition as a cliff or dunescape. The drama is in the drawing! Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 226 There are endless ways to finish a drawing. No two drawings will ever end quite the same way—it’s part of the fun. Detail Is, As Always, Detail Careful study of individual landscape elements will make it easier and easier to draw them into the view you have selected. The more you draw trees, the better your trees will look, and so it goes. ➤ Try drawings that are about big land shapes, and try drawings that are about intersect- ing wedges of land or belts of trees or bands of rocks in interesting patterns. ➤ Try drawings of small corners of your world—a favorite place or a hidden refuge, for example. ➤ Try to see trees as individuals. Think of them as wood spirits having their portrait drawn. Most of all, find the little things in the woods, in the mountains, in the fields, or at the beach that are the tokens or talismans of the place. Bring them home and draw them. That way, you can treasure them always. Chapter 17 ➤ This Land Is Your Land Your Sketchbook Page Try your hand at practicing the exercises you’ve learned in this chapter. Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 228 The Least You Need to Know ➤ Any specimen, scene, view, or vista, from close-up nature studies to the big picture panoramas in the landscape, is open to you—make the time and effort to go out and see and draw it. ➤ The vantage point, eye level, framed view, and format on the page will all con- tribute to the feel of your landscape. ➤ Close and careful study of specimens from nature will put you in touch with the unmeasurable phenomena in the world. You will heighten your powers of minute observation and discover the great variety in nature. ➤ Drawing from nature increases your sense of place, of really being there, of being truly awake and alive. Chapter 18 Made by Man: Out in the Landscape In This Chapter ➤ Adding human-made elements to your landscapes ➤ In the countryside ➤ On the waterfront ➤ Trains and boats and planes Some of the most unusual adventures I have ever had came as by-products of casual sketching trips made after breakfast on days off from my newspaper work. It is a hobby that leads to queer and uncommon human contacts. —Clayton Hoagland Not everything in our world was made by Mother Nature, and human-made elements are just about everywhere you look. Whether it’s a fence crossing a field, a sailboat rocking in an inlet, or a satellite tower topping a mountain, the things made by humans can add a sur- prising dimension to your landscape. Evidence of Human Influence Of course, there are landscapes without human-made elements, but they are getting harder and harder to find. These days, the human influence seems to be almost everywhere we look, even if it’s only the winding road we are looking out at in the distance. Making peace with human-made elements in your landscape drawings is not so bad. In fact, you can use the many human-made things in your landscape to frame and order the space, draw the eye into your composition, or add contrast and textural detail. At the same time, some human-made elements are more attractive than others, and there are some you’ll defi- nitely want to leave out. . checklist at the front of this book to help. Remember that you don’t have to fill in every inch of the page to get a good drawing. Remember, too, that you don’t have to finish each drawing the same. Least You Need to Know ➤ Any specimen, scene, view, or vista, from close-up nature studies to the big picture panoramas in the landscape, is open to you—make the time and effort to go out and. del- icate mayflower and Solomon’s seal to the exotic jack-in-the-pulpit and lady’s slipper. All have their own story. ➤ The seashore is a treasure trove of goodies to see and draw. The complexity of seashells,