Want More Depth in Your Landscapes?

[@nvwruz713]

With your guides, I started hatching better, Mr Travers thank you for your lessons 🙏 😊 👍

[@stephentraversart]

Great to hear. My pleasure 😀

[@tinyfacemcgee9211]

You are a honest, straight forward, easy to follow instructor. I really appreciate how generous you are with your skill. Please help me draw a golf course.!

[@stephentraversart]

What a generous comment. But I don’t think I can help with a golf course. Too many variables and outs my art or sport experience I’m afraid McGee😀

[@thebuttermilkyway687]

I have really benefited from your techniques and teaching about a variety of drawing challenges, from portraying rich detail, to showing the real shapes of trees, and much more.

[@stephentraversart]

Great to hear. Thanks for sharing this with me 😀

[@prof_jucemar_morais]

Amazing!!! I am learning a lot with your videos! Thank you!!!

[@stephentraversart]

That’s what I want. Have fun. 😀

[@karincarter4962]

Thank you! Just what I needed! I tend to overdo my drawings so the purity and simplicity (!?) in your work is inspiring!

[@stephentraversart]

Glad to be helpful. Sometimes less is more.

[@verdedoodleduck]

Watched and listened to you do it - still intimidated. I've done quite a few but they are always hard for me to parse into managable pieces. My emphasis on detail is also sometimes irregular for the area of the drawing (or bad)... As I read what I wrote, I know that the proper thing to do is practice it specifically but I don't generally learn in a focused fashion like that so I'll just have to watch try to employ what I can when I can... I do seem to retain a lot of the tips over time though...I think because the best ones are really based on some kind of common sense about drawing...

[@stephentraversart]

I like to think all my videos are based on common sense about drawing. I’m a pretty pragmatic fella. Dividing the scene into various planes does really help me switch in my mind to a different focus for representing detail for each plane of depth - and often a different pen as well. Don’t give up. 😀

[@kevinevin9262]

Mr Stephen, Thanks to you I have improved a lot in my drawings. Even my art teacher asks me how I draw pictures like this haha

[@stephentraversart]

I hope you share your secret with all the class!😀. Great to hear 👏

[@algirdassalomskas9050]

II understand if you will not have time to read or respond to this. am loving your drawing lessons, I am blown away by how natural looking at your drawings feels and I have a question I would really appreciate your input on. Currently my biggest issue is over connecting the lines, making my drawings look heavy and hard to read- drawing things too ''litteraly'' so to say, I am trying to get through your video about the illusion of detail, and I am slowly improving via trial and error, but it still feels like I am hitting a wall, with my attempts looking like a soup of shapes rather than a world. I am practicing for a large fantasy map with recognizable landmarks, landscapes and buildings, with everything being largely proportional and at equal distance in an isometric perspective, could you recommend any of your videos that would help me? I am slowly improving over all, but I would really appreciate guidance in addressing my main weakness of over connecting my lines when drawing tiny but clear buildings, trees, landmarks and landscapes.

[@stephentraversart]

The size we draw and the pen size we use are important relative to the scale of the subject: how much detail, how many lines, have to be put into a given space. You can make the object bigger, or the pen thinner, or reduce the detail you draw. And practice. Understanding what’s not working is a big part of working through it. Sounds a great project. All the best with it 😀

[@algirdassalomskas9050]

@@stephentraversart thank you for the advice and reading my long comment, Stephen! yes, the pen size is definetly one of the things to change. I have decided on both- buying an extra fine nib fountain pen for the project and some bigger paper. been using an M nib fountain pen so far with brown ink. Will still practice untill I get the right tools. thank you again for the advice and the great video lessons

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@algirdassalomskas9050 Fountain pen? Have you tried flipping the pen over and drawing with the nib "upside down"? Most pens can do it... ish. Some get dry as they go, and force you to shift, but the answer there is having a couple places acceptable to draw, some with heavier, thicker lines, and some where you want the lighter lines from the "wrong" side of the nib... I've even gone as far as a small "scratch-pad" to occasionally "revive" my nib and ink flow between going after those thinnest lines... I'm currently working with Jinhao 35's and 85's (so cheap) if you're interested, and the only difference is one posts while the other doesn't... a little bit of plastic at the back-end to fit into the cap... I think the seller was "U.S. Pens" on Ebay, where I got a set of ten (supposedly all 85's, so I don't know which is which.. haha) for around $15 (US)... Just the usual casual observation, cheap in fountain pens doesn't mean "bad"... (also haha)... AND just like "the regular way" when upside down, the lines do thin noticeably as you go faster in the stroke, so it's already easier to skip that way... just so you know ahead of time. Hope this helps. I know figuring out the upside down bit helped me... Good luck! ;o)

[@algirdassalomskas9050]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 thank you for your advice, I have tried the upside down method and it did ''work-ish'' as you described, but the method of reactivating the Nib really helps out now, in the mean while I will work like that on my project, though the nib interacts a bit rougher this way, this is still great advice. the Jinhaos don't seem to be available in my continent from a quick search, I think I might go for a Hongdian Black Forrest pen, it takes international cartridges too. but yeah I am not planning to spend more than the equivalent of 25 dollars. Thank you again and good luck with your drawings as well!

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@algirdassalomskas9050 ALWAYS welcome! I'm just glad something is helping you along... I've heard some good things for Hongdian... On the casual sides, though, it's just worth note that Japanese companies (like Pilot, for instance) have a reputation for a little "finer" line from their "extra fine" nibs... AND should you find an appropriate source of truly CHEAP pens, there is the option of a rotary tool or even a diamond plate and some "manual shaping" if you care to have a go... I've picked up some dubious skill with it, just watching "Doodlebud" demo the process on his channel on YT... (by that same name to be clear). There are also "Nibmeisters" who make their business for doing that for people, but you'll want to know (at least sorta) what kind of tip/point you want... again, not to sound like an ad'... BUT Doodlebud AND the Goulet Pen Company (also on YT) do examine what the different nib types and grinds do. OF COURSE, with that added caveat that you justify such expenses over time. Just some things to look at while we get "there" I suppose. ;o)

[@larryglatt2548]

Stephen, you know how much I like you, but I am confused; why isn't this landscape taken photographically as a horizontal shape & or drawn that way & not vertical? Thinking panorama!

[@thebuttermilkyway687]

It has much more depth if the vertical slice is taken. A panorama would flatten it by reducing the dynamic interplay of foreground, middle ground, and background!

[@stephentraversart]

Because it is difficult to video the drawing showing both the reference and the drawing process if both the photo and the drawing are too wide. The camera would have to be glued to the ceiling and we would see little of either. In truth, what’s on both sides extending off the paper is more of the same. But it’s the vertical which has the transitions of distance which require a changing technique for capturing the effects of the scene. But yes, the word panorama has associations of wide and thin. I did crop the sides of the photo to allow more clarity in the section I chose. Life is often a compromise. 😁

[@larryglatt2548]

@@stephentraversart Yes, isn't it? I completely understand your explanation about the showing the 'depth' better as a vertical, my old brain keeps seeing the horizontal.

[@larryglatt2548]

@@thebuttermilkyway687 IMHO, it can be done, depth can be shown in several ways, but thank you for your opinion.