Term landscape refers to natural scenery in art, be it painting or photography. The sceneries have mountains, valleys, fields, woods, and anything that you can see outside. At times the scenery can include man-made structures and people.
In this lesson, we will take a look at things you should take into consideration when starting with the landscape concepts.
Landscape references are easy to come by. Just one web search provides massive amounts of images, and you can find them even closer if you look out of the window. Take photos of interesting things you see even if you don't need them at that moment.
If you haven't started collecting images, it's a good idea to start now. Have a folder consisting of images from any sort of environment, like mountains, foliage, and rivers, for example. This way you can access images, that already have piqued your interest.
Telling stories is one of art's missions, especially when it's environment art. For example, if a videogame has a time traveler that has ended up in a moment in history, the environment around them is one of the first clues on what has happened and how things differ from the modern era. Visual elements pass on the silent knowledge and history.
Coming up with scenery can start just closing your eyes and envisioning a place that you have in mind. Maybe you are just coming out of dark woods, and the first thing you see is the vast valley between high mountains and a castle in the distance.
Shape language has an important role in environment art. Sharp triangles present a potential threat and dynamic places, square shapes are reliable and strong, and circles are approachable and harmless. Keep the shapes in mind when you want to express certain aspects of your environment.
If you are making a concept art first time for an environment, be it for a videogame, animation, or a book illustration, it's a good idea to start with a reference board that is a collection of references. You might have a general idea and vision of the concept, but sometimes it can be challenging to bring it to life visually.
The reference board above includes some general aspects of an environment that has tall mountains with a structure on top and foliage made of reddish/green plants and pine trees.
Setting the scale is easy by dividing the image into three parts: foreground, middle ground, and background. This can be made by drawing recognizable objects, such as trees. In the foreground, they are much bigger than in the background, and adding people into the environment is a classic way to set scale. This also adds a sense of depth to an image.
All right, now that we have the light theory out of the way, let's move on to the assignment. In the next lesson, we will make a landscape step-by-step.