how to draw a forest on a map

How to Draw Forests

From the gloom of Mirkwood to the condolement of the Hundred Acre Woods, forests are one of the most iconic settings in storytelling. Whether you see them as a place or foreboding or sanctuary, they are a great characteristic to include on your fantasy map. In this tutorial, y'all will learn some simple steps then yous tin draw forests of your own.

All of the brushes I will exist using for this tutorial are available in Map Maker Essential Brushes pack for Procreate & Photoshop.

1: Sketch the Shape

The get-go thing yous'll desire to do is draw the shape of your forest on its own layer or sketched with a pencil. This is of import, because it gives you a guide to follow when you begin drawing the individual copse. If you leap into cartoon trees too before long you'll oftentimes find yourself having to erase and redo sections when the woods's shape begins looking unnatural.

2: Add the Front end Row

Now that you know where y'all want your forest, you can brainstorm cartoon the copse in the forepart row. I find it best to begin at the bottom and work your way up. This allows you to draw them "behind" the other copse then they overlap and give a sense of depth..

Using Custom Brushes
You lot can ever use a standard hard round brush to depict the copse. Merely here I have taken the brush I am using in Procreate and modified it to give it some more character. In this case I had turned up the "jitter" and added a texture to the brush's background to make it feel more organic and random.

You can get the Weathered Liner Brush I'grand using Here

3: Complete the Outside

With the front row of trees in place you lot can begin working your fashion around the rest of the forest. On the sides of the forest, brand the trees overlap more than they did in the front. Then in the dorsum all you lot should see are the very tops.

four: Add together Main Tree Tops

A common challenge when drawing forests is preventing them from looking too flat. I thing you lot tin do to help overcome this is to begin by calculation some tree tops that curve with the terrain then that it looks like they are on hills. The amount is up to you but I observe this helps to requite it some more graphic symbol.

v: Fill in the Details

With your main rows of copse in place, you can begin filling in the residue of the wood. There is no right or wrong number of tree tops to include here, so just experiment and encounter what looks right for you.

6: Adding the Tree Trunks

The amount of detail you include for your forest is dependent on the scale it will appear on your map. In this example, the wood is fairly large similar it would exist on a regional map. This allows you to include more detail than information technology would if the scale was much smaller. I am drawing a line on each side of the body, also as some horizontal lines radiating out from the trunk to give a fiddling ground texture.

What if it is Smaller in Scale?
If yous are drawing trees that are pretty small in scale then you won't be able to include much more a single line under each tree to indicate a trunk. I do remember this is worth doing though considering information technology really adds depth to the forest.

7: Describe in the Details

With everything in identify, you tin can at present add some texture and details to the individual trees. Draw slightly curved horizontal lines that follow the form of the tree. If the lines are as well straight and apartment is will look unnatural.

Besides, try to vary the spacing and location of the detail marks from tree to tree. You lot'll quickly realize that this can exist a little challenging, because the tendency is to put marks on the same place of all your copse. Try to avert this as much as you can though so they don't appear also similar.

8: Add together Some Scattered Copse

The terminal thing you can practice is to add a few actress trees scattered effectually the perimeter. If you lot await at actual forests you'll notice that they don't naturally have hard edges. Instead the copse gradually get more sparse until the forests transitions into a grassland or some other terrain.

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9: Cake in the Main Color

With all the line fine art washed, you tin now begin coloring in the forest. If you are working digitally, create a new layer below your line work, and use the middle dropper tool to select the anile paper background. You can and then shift the hue toward the greens until you discover a color yous're happy with. Then lower the brightness until you get something that harmonizes but contrasts with the background.

Coloring the Line Art
The other thing you can do if you're working digitally, is recolor the line art itself since black tends to await too stark. Assuming all your line art is on it'south own layer, all you have to exercise is turn "Alpha Lock" on for that layer and pigment whatever color you desire over it. If it's working right, you lot should only be able to apply color to your line art.

x: Paint Bones Shading

Once y'all accept your base colour in identify you lot tin add some basic shadows and highlights. Rather than shading individual trees, effort to add some broad shading as if the wood is ane object.

The Shadows
In this case, the low-cal source is coming from the upper-left of the canvas. You can then take a darker version of your base color and begin painting in some broad shadows to the bottom edge of the principal wood. Yous can also add together a little bit of shadow for texture in the middle of wood between the tree tops.

The Highlights
With the shadows in place yous can begin calculation some highlights to the tops of the trees. Continue things pretty simple and loose at this point equally this is primarily giving some form and texture to the wood.

For this stage I am using the Old Sponge Filler Castor because information technology has a little softer, random edge, just still retains a bit of texture.

12: Paint in Darker Shadows

Now that you have some general shadows and highlights on the forest as a whole. You can paint some harder shadows on individual trees to requite more contrast.

For these shadows y'all can employ the aforementioned textured brush that was used for the line art. This will requite yous a lot of command over the shadows while still having the organic character of the brush. So it is simply a matter of hitting every tree and tree height with a fleck of shadows on the side that is subconscious from the light source.

13: Add a Popular of Highlights

Start with your base color once again, only increment the brightness and lower the saturation slightly, then shift the hue a piffling toward yellowish. Then use the same technique you did in the previous step but utilise it to the contrary side of the trees. You lot volition exist surprised how much a few highlights can add to your illustration.

14: Blend with the Surrounding Terrain

You lot're almost done! But the last affair you desire to do is paint some shadows on the terrain itself to make the forest feel similar it's a function of information technology. Just have a darker shade of the newspaper background color and paint it on a layer beneath your woods colour. Once more, just brand sure to be aware of the light direction so that your shadows stay consistent.

Drawing so many private trees can certainly be time consuming, especially if the woods is large. Even though you may lose feeling in your hand by the stop, I think you'll find the result is worth it.

If y'all constitute this tutorial helpful be sure tofollow MapEffects on Instagram and tag me with the map y'all create following this tutorial and I may feature your work! Thank you, and I look forward to seeing y'all map your story!

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Source: https://mapeffects.co/tutorials/forests

Posted by: guyloctatintoo.blogspot.com

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