How to learn to draw nature with a pencil step by step. Nature drawing lessons

How to draw nature? The question is interesting, but even more fascinating is the process of artistic depiction of the world around us. Nature is vast, it can be different, depending on the time of year, it is subject to the lunar calendar, depends on solar activity and many other factors. How to draw nature in order to at least partially convey its charm? There are several ways that you can follow to achieve good results.

Home artist's creativity

First of all, you need to decide how to draw nature step by step so that the artistic process is enjoyable. After all, even any sketch or sketch requires painstaking work; the image appears on a blank sheet of paper gradually, step by step. Much depends on whether the master has experience. For example, the question of how to draw nature seems quite difficult for beginning painters, but artists with skills cope with the task easily. The final result also depends on the talent of the performer and his creative abilities.

How to draw nature with a pencil step by step

Any image can be divided into separate stages. First you need to make a sketch, then draw additions that will reveal the artist’s intention in detail, and the drawing will become more meaningful. The next step is to combine the individual fragments into a single whole. Another step in creativity is applying pencil strokes that highlight individual details of the picture.

How to draw nature with a pencil, felt-tip pen or paints

Black and white or gray images of trees, meadows, lakes or rivers may not be enough to convey the beauty of the world around us.

How to draw nature so that all the signs of its splendor are visible in the sketch? Is this possible? It must be said that even great painters cannot do this, since nature is infinitely diverse. It is customary to divide the subjects of paintings according to the seasons: the theme of spring contains one set of signs and criteria, the winter theme is another set, summer is depicted using its own special rules, and autumn also has only its own characteristics.

Paintings by seasons

The autumn theme of the drawing is subject to a certain color scheme, this is the gold of fallen birch leaves, the red copper of maple foliage, the brown yellowness of an oak leaf that strewn the ground. Autumn is depicted using yellow colors of all shades, bright saffron flowers, lemon yellow and crimson. How to draw the nature of the autumn period is already clear; you need to use all the listed colors and halftones based on them. And if you successfully color the elements of the autumn landscape, you will get a good picture.

In winter, nature is less colorful, the color scheme consists of white, black, dark brown and gray. Birds can become bright spots in the picture: bullfinches, finches, tits. In addition to birds, the winter picture will be organically decorated with berries of viburnum, rowan and frozen rose hips. The artist’s imagination can add other colors to the drawing, for example, the bright colors of the clothes of people sledding down an ice slide. In winter, dark green pine and spruce trees look beautiful against the backdrop of snowy expanses; they can also be depicted.

Spring nature blooms with fresh greenery, cornflowers, lilies of the valley, lilacs, and colorful meadow flowers. Paintings with spring themes always turn out colorful and cheerful. How to draw nature step by step when there are a sea of ​​spring flowers around is not a difficult task. You must first draw the stems and leaves, then the contours of the petals, and at the last stage, color all the flowers brighter. The ground can be covered with a continuous green carpet. There is a color in the artistic palette that is called “herbal green”.

Summer in the picture looks no less colorful than other seasons. You can draw a landscape in which there will be a forest, a clearing, a meadow and a lake. In summer there is a very beautiful sunset and an equally impressive sunrise. These natural phenomena are easily depicted provided the correct selection of pink shades is used. All the clouds in the picture must be painted with a pale red color in their lower part, and in this way we will get a real morning or evening picture. And in order to distinguish the signs of sunrise or sunset, you should remember that the sun at sunset is depicted as a large red circle, and the rising one always looks like a relatively small golden disk.

Natural phenomena

There is a particularly colorful phenomenon in nature called the northern lights. A drawing on this theme will turn out great if you depict ice hummocks of blue color, and above them - flashes of cold lights that cover the entire sky. A representative of the northern kingdom will not be out of place in the picture - a polar bear making its way between blocks of ice. Or a seal lying in the snow near an ice hole. The plot can be varied indefinitely.

No less impressive will be a drawing of the night sky strewn with large stars. In this case, you can depict the well-known constellation Ursa Major and the North Star, and between the stars you can designate falling meteorites.

Inexhaustible topics for creativity

Drawing nature in all its diversity is always interesting; there is no need to look for subjects, because they are all around us. For creativity you only need a sheet of paper, pencils, watercolors and a little imagination.

Looking at the paintings of famous artists, you involuntarily admire their creativity and ability to depict the world around them in bright colors. Each of us can also try to master the art of drawing and make this hobby our favorite pastime. Here are beautiful gouache drawings for beginners; they will allow you to test your talent in painting and master the technique of painting with paints.

To master the gouache painting technique for beginners, you need to have:

  • Set of gouache paints of twelve colors.

  • Sheet of paper.

  • A pair of flat pig bristle brushes.

  • Palette and dishes with water.

The aroma of gouache paints is familiar to everyone from childhood. It is not difficult to understand how to draw with gouache; the technique of such drawing is quite simple. You need to draw, starting with a pencil sketch.

A palette knife is used to apply paint and mix it. With its help you can apply paint in even strokes.

From an early age we draw a simple, unpretentious landscape in gouache in an album. But, you can paint patterns, flowers, mountains, and even city buildings with such paints. For beginners, working with gouache is simply an ideal option.

By drawing a sketch with a pencil, you can avoid mistakes and do the work accurately. If you smear and mix paints directly on the canvas, you will just end up with dirt on the painting. Therefore, you can add a little water to gouache and it will turn into watercolor.

To learn how to draw beautifully with gouache, you need to get acquainted with the step-by-step technique. This technique involves applying gouache only horizontally during painting.

First of all, we will draw the dark fragments of the picture, and only then we will depict the highlights with a light color. As a result, we get the desired color without traces of dirt.

Gouache painting techniques

Among the techniques known to artists for painting paintings with gouache, the following are common:

  1. Apply a wet layer of paint over the not yet dry layer. In this case, the paint applies tightly and takes a long time to dry. This method is more suitable for painting with watercolors.
  2. Using a dry brush, gouache paints are applied to the dried layer.
  3. Using a sponge, a textured picture is created. This technique is ideal when we are painting an autumn landscape; we can easily depict the bright colors of golden autumn.
  4. For a beginner, the technique of splashing paint on the canvas will cheer up and help overcome anxiety. It is enough to wet the brush in paint and spray the gouache on the paper or canvas. The result is a bright and beautiful painting. Be sure to learn this method of applying paint, which helps train your hand.

Of course, we cannot paint a picture without the right brush. It is advisable to choose brushes made of nylon, goat or pig hair.

On video: how to beautifully paint the sky with gouache.

Types of gouache

Gouache is suitable for painting on cardboard, paper, canvas and other surfaces. But not every gouache has such universal properties. Let's look at the main types of such paints:

  • Suitable for use on surfaces intended for painting only. It is absorbed into the material and allows you to apply a second layer, making the colors in the painting more saturated and bright.

  • It has a more saturated pigment and bright coloring abilities. It is used to decorate theatrical scenery. Children's gouache contains PVA glue, so it dries quickly. This gouache is convenient to work on plywood, ceramics or canvas. But acrylic paint fits perfectly on any surface, and after drying it does not wash off and does not lose its original color.

  • Fluorescent gouache. Amazing in its properties and quality. It glows when exposed to ultraviolet rays. The color is too bright, which gives the picture a special beauty.

A step-by-step method helps even children understand the basics of painting with gouache. Such lessons will allow you to master this wonderful creativity and learn how to paint in a certain sequence, choose the right paints to reflect the real beauty of nature, representatives of the flora and fauna on canvas.

To create pictures of nature, like drawings on any other topic, you need to start with a pencil sketch. It's easiest to draw by starting at the top of the canvas or piece of paper. As a rule, at the top is the sky, which is colored blue along the pencil contours.

Clouds are painted with whitewash, brushing white highlights across the blue sky.

Mountains are depicted in brown colors, and vegetation in green tones. The trees below are depicted in lighter or darker green gouache. The main thing is that the colors in the painting look like in reality. Paints can be mixed directly on the sheet, changing the water periodically. To create fine lines, you need to choose the right brush.

When using gouache, you must adhere to the following tips:

  • You can buy gouache in tubes or jars; everyone chooses the most convenient packaging for themselves.
  • The colors you need to choose are those that will be needed to work on the painting.
  • Tests should be done on the palette, only after selecting the desired color, transfer it to the canvas.
  • If the paint cracks, add a little gum arabic to it and stir thoroughly.
  • To apply the next layer, you need to wait until the previous one has dried.
  • It is advisable to coat the painting with varnish after drying.

Having mastered the technique of drawing, you can achieve success in artistic creativity. Moving step by step, from simple to complex, beginning artists gradually master the technique of painting with gouache. Below are video tutorials, the purpose of which is to help you depict the chosen plot on the canvas as accurately as possible. This step-by-step approach allows you to quickly learn how to work with paints such as gouache.

Gouache painting lessons for beginners (2 videos)


More ideas for drawings (27 photos)






























Lessons for beginners: drawing a summer landscape with paints and pencils.

The bright colors of summer give a huge boost of positive energy. Landscapes drawn by a child’s hand evoke particular tenderness and delight. They encourage little artists like those who have already painted this picture to create something similar.
You can draw such a work of art yourself, it is not very difficult.
Don't know where to start? Then this article is just for you.

How to draw a beautiful summer nature landscape with a pencil step by step for beginners?

We prepare in advance:

  • White paper for drawing
  • Rubber band for erasing
  • Set of colored pencils
  • Fine marker - black
  • Semi-hard pencil

Let's start drawing:

  • The landscape will contain a house wall element. To place it correctly in the projection, you must take the following steps:
  1. Draw the horizon line with a pencil
  2. We mark on it the central point of connection of the projection
  3. We sketch the outlines of the house, connecting auxiliary lines at the vanishing point
  4. Notice how this is done in the example below

  • We design windows in a similar way

  • We lay a narrow path heading towards the design point
  • Outlining images of trees

  • Detailing sketches of trees

  • Let's diversify the foreground with a sitting cat and a flowering mallow

  • We outline all the contours with a marker

  • Using an eraser, remove the auxiliary drawing

  • Matte the path with brown color
  • We shade the grass on the shady side of the trees with a dark green pencil
  • The rest of the space is filled with light greenery.

  • We paint the pine trunks in a dark brown tone, highlighting some places with an eraser

  • Our cat will be bright red
  • We paint the remaining unpainted foreground in a soft green color, detailing the greenery with a dark green pencil
  • Add the necessary shadow elements throughout the clearing, using brown and green pencils, achieving a natural look

  • In the background, we paint the forest area with mixed blue-green tones

  • We give the foliage cover of pine trees a light green color
  • To give volume to the foliage, we make dark strokes on it in places with a green palette
  • We shade the celestial space with rich tones of blue
  • Coloring the mallow with pink and crimson tones
  • Make a yellow speck in the center of the flower

  • All that remains is to paint the walls of the house brown
  • We shade the windows and foundation with gray tones

Video: Landscape with watercolor pencils

How to draw a beautiful summer landscape of nature with paints, watercolors, gouache step by step for beginners?

Painting with paints is a little more difficult, so let's draw a simple sunny landscape.

  • We visually divide the landscape sheet into three zones.
    Of which, the top two are for the sky, the bottom is for the earth.
  • For the skies we use white and yellow paint, carefully mixing, and creating whitish and yellowish areas

The sky is colored

  • We create sun glare in the sky, highlighting individual areas with white and yellow paints
  • In the center of the leaf, in a brown tone we form tree trunks
  • Experimenting with colors, mixing paints, adding greenery to dark colors

Fantasy sketching methods

  • Using yellow and green flowers we divide the tree into separate branches

Summer tree trunk

  • Reviving the tree with wide branches
  • Using whitewash we highlight some points on the trunk

Branches appear

  • We draw the following larch in a similar way

Second tree

  • Apply green foliage with a wide brush

Let's move on to the green crown

  • For a natural palette, add yellow and a little blue paint
  • We treat some areas with paint, applying it to an almost dry brush.
  • Take a thin brush and mark the second row of trees in the background
  • We apply the crown with light green paint, in some places by spraying
  • First add dark green, then yellow and white.

Leaves by sprinkling

  • We touch up some areas of the leaves with a thin brush, mixing green, white and yellow tones

Emphasizing the beauty of leaves

  • On the right side of the sheet we draw a distant forest area. To do this, mix blue, white and yellow paints

We complement the picture with small details

  • Let's emphasize the glare of the sun's rays with bright yellow spots in leaf gaps
  • Let's make an accent with a white dot in the center of the spots
  • Draw a yellow line along the tree line

Moving to the foreground

  • Next, we form a green array on the left side, exactly the same as on the right

Let's go back a little

  • Using a wide brush, paint green grass, adding some yellow and blue strokes

Adding beauty to the earthen massif

  • We shade the ground with gray paint, which is in the shadow
  • Cover it with yellow spots on top

A few more shades

  • Apply white paint by sprinkling it with a hard brush

Finish with beautiful splashes

How to draw an easy summer landscape with a pencil for beginners?

To work you will need:

  1. Black marker
  2. Simple hard pencil
  3. Assorted colored pencils

Stages of creativity:

  • Visually mark the horizon line on a piece of paper
  • Along the intended visual line, sketch two hilly hills with a pencil

Hills on a summer landscape

  • The hills are divided by the curving lines of the river
  • At the peak of the hills we form 2 paths directed to the reservoir

small river

  • On the right side of the background we draw a forest: spruce, wild apricots or cherries, oaks, pines
  • We write large trees that are located closer, with a clear image of the details. In the background - smaller, making schematic outlines

Greening with nature

  • What is a summer landscape without bright sun? Draw his round face above the forest
  • Decorate with long rays
  • Let's cover the sunny corner a little with a lush cloud

Sun disk in summer

  • Let's bring the picture to life with a flying bird

fluttering bird

  • Make the contours clear using a black marker. Remove all unnecessary strokes with an eraser

Uncolored project

Let's move on to coloring.

  • Our solar disk will be a rich yellow color
  • For brightness, let’s dilute it with red and orange strokes
  • We highlight the area around the bright star with a yellow palette
  • Let's make the sky and clouds naturally blue
  • We paint the forest area with natural green color
  • To add volume to the drawing, we tint some places with a rich green pencil.
  • Reflections of the sun's color are reflected with yellow strokes: in the clearing and treetops
  • We paint the hills with a soft green color, smoothly turning into a thick green tone
  • We saturate water bodies with a blue palette


Summer landscape in gouache

The undoubted advantage of drawing pictures in stages is that you can start this process at any age.
The main thing is to have desire and patience, and of course the necessary material at hand. And over time, your understanding of the stages of drawing any image will come.

Video: Drawing a landscape with birch trees in gouache

This is quite a difficult lesson, so it may take you quite a lot of effort to repeat it. If you didn’t succeed in drawing nature the first time, don’t despair and try again. Try your best to complete this lesson. If, however, it still doesn’t work out, you can try to complete the “” lesson. But I believe that you will succeed.

What you will need

In order to draw nature we may need:

  • You need Photoshop program.
  • A little patience.
  • Good mood.

Step by step lesson

True nature in all its beauty can only be revealed if you draw it from life. You will be able to draw much better if you look directly at nature. If this is not possible, then ordinary photographs, which are simply in abundance in search engines, can help out.

By the way, in addition to this lesson, I advise you to pay attention to the lesson “”. It will help improve your skill or just give you a little fun.

Tip: Perform different actions on different layers. The more layers you make, the easier it will be for you to manage the drawing. So the sketch can be made on the bottom layer, and the white version on the top, and when the sketch is not needed, you can simply turn off the visibility of this layer.

As you complete this tutorial, please note that due to differences in software versions, some menu items and tools may have different names or be missing altogether. This may make the tutorial a little difficult, but I think you can do it.

I’ll start the lesson with what won’t be in it, so as not to disappoint anyone. It will not contain information about color, aesthetics, composition. The illustrations are in no way intended to be photorealistic. I just wanted to show how you can use Photoshop to create a painting that looks like a real oil painting. And also - describe how I draw and give some tips on creating digital images. Okay, enough chatting, it's time to get to work.

For our example, I set the size to half the normal size and the RGB color model. I usually use CMYK because I expect my work to be printed. Work at higher resolutions, even when using the Internet. In another case, say with a resolution of 72 dpi, the pixels will look coarser, areas of the image will be “compressed” and it will look like a smaller copy, and not like the original, painted with natural colors. In addition, some details will disappear - be prepared for this too.

After creating the document, I paint the background with a neutral color. I try not to paint on a white background - this disrupts the perception of colors and the relationships between them. If the image is dark, I use a dark, warm or cool color for the background that will be a good base for the other colors.

With this resolution it is better to use hard brushes of sizes 5, 9, 35, 45 and sometimes an airbrush size 100. I set the spacing to 1 to avoid the appearance of “swirls”.

In this sketch I only sketched out the outlines. For more complex images, of course, a more detailed sketch is needed. I used a small soft airbrush. The color of the brush is gray so that it stands out from the background, but not black.

Add a new layer above the background. We draw on it. This allows you to avoid spoiling the background, which can be useful. Especially if you've been working on it for a long time.

In our example, I used muted, medium colors for the rocks and foliage. But in nature, everything is not so regular and uniform, so it is worth experimenting with different colors to reflect the difference in lighting.

I chose an airbrush (hard brush, size 100 pixels, in the settings - Multiply). Color - the same as the background - sample (determine with the Eyedropper tool).

I want to show the shaded areas in the image and at the same time create a darker version that I can use later for sampling.

Typically, when painting, I switch between the airbrush and the eyedropper by pressing the Alt/Option button.

Having created several shaded areas, set the Screen parameter in the Layers panel.

So, the yellow-brown turned out a little warmer than I wanted. Set the airbrush to Normal and make a few strokes with a more muted, lighter color.

Switch back to “screen”, use a pipette to sample the yellow color from some part of the rock and begin to draw the shapes of the leaves of the bush with a brush of 5-9 pixels.

When working on the bush, I switched between normal and screen mode when I needed to draw in the dark and light edges of the leaves.

Draw the details (airbrush in normal mode). At this stage I simply sample the dark and light tones with an eyedropper and paint with a 5px brush.

Now we designate the long “arrows” of the grass. We start from the bottom, with quick, curved upward movements of the pencil. Use the colors you like, but don't forget to add shades to add variety.

Now let's move on to the rock on the left side of the picture. Do some rough strokes with a 35 brush to show the texture.

You can appreciate the changes - just look at the rock on the right side of the picture. Shadowed areas are brightened and smoothed with brush strokes of the sampled color.

I usually do a few strokes, sample, paint, sample again until I achieve the desired effect.

Let's increase the scale, make the image clearer and use rough strokes to create the illusion of irregularities on the surface of the rock. I usually work with the brush in a sweeping manner, using light touches to try to blend the colors, but also making brighter, more noticeable strokes. This is one way to make an image look different from digital.

Now we sample the color of the shaded area and “smear” the brush back and forth to draw the texture.

The same with the leaves - we sample and work with the brush until the shape begins to appear.

Here I added a few details to represent the crack and ridges on the right side of the rock. To do this, use a brush set to Highlight to paint the shaded area - using back-and-forth movements, we will create the illusion of a play of shadows on an uneven surface.

We use a similar technique for the rock. It is worth changing the color and texture to make the image more interesting and different.

Let's zoom out a little and see if the rock fits into its surroundings. If not, we edit further.

But I had already decided to switch to grass. There are already dark areas outlined here, but there is nothing reminiscent of a rock.

Let's sample the shadow color and darken some areas of the image so that the rocks do not stand out from the overall picture.

From bottom to top, using sharp strokes of a very small brush, I create a base for the grass.

We do as the artists on television advise - we emphasize the light with shadow and vice versa.

Now we make upward strokes over these areas to create depth.

I usually do a few rough strokes back and forth to quickly fill in the image. This creates a base on top of which I work on the details.

Now let's add long blades of grass. Then we sample several colors from the surface of the rock and make a few strokes to diversify the image and achieve unity of style.

Here is the final version. Between the rocks I painted grass. In the background I used quick upward strokes. It is worth using the Ctrl/Command + Z combination to quickly remove blades of grass that do not fit into the overall picture.

Finally, I drew a small friendly lizard behind the bushes. I didn’t tell you in this lesson how I drew it - maybe I’ll do it in one of the next ones. I can only say that its color is the inverted color of one of the rocks, so it fits into the overall color scheme.

The whole job took two hours, including the lizard. Experiment, try different methods. Try creating a realistic planet in Photoshop from scratch. And observe the world around you - this is the artist’s source of inspiration.


If you need to draw a rosebud or a bouquet of roses, then this lesson will help you do it correctly. I offer two options for how to draw a rose flower.


How to draw a Lily flower
The drawing of the lily was made on a graphics tablet, but you can use this lesson to draw a lily step by step with a simple pencil. Step by step, adding more and more lines, you will definitely get the same picture of a lily.

Video on how to draw a lily step by step with pencils.


This tutorial for beginners will help you draw the shape of an apple correctly. Only at first glance, it seems that drawing an apple is easy. In addition to the correct shape, you also need to be able to make a two-dimensional drawing of an apple three-dimensional.

In this video, a drawing of an apple is made with colored pencils.


It's not difficult to draw a banana. It is enough to make the initial marking in the form of a rectangle and divide it into two parts. The main thing is to be able to paint the banana correctly.


Let's draw the mushroom step by step, first with a simple pencil. In the last step, you can color the mushroom with paints or colored pencils. You can draw leaves and grass nearby to make the picture of the mushroom more realistic.


A tangerine drawn on a graphics tablet looks like a real fruit. Try to draw a tangerine with a pencil step by step, and then color the drawing with colored pencils.


Drawing nature, especially in summer and autumn, is very exciting. Drawings of autumn nature are, first of all, a unique palette of colors of tree leaves. Ordinary leaves transform the surrounding nature into a fabulous picture.


Drawings of nature are not only plants and flowers, but also an ordinary, unattractive snail. The snail has a simple structure, and therefore drawing a snail is quite simple. It is very important to make the correct dimensions of the outline of the snail’s “house” in the first step.


The main decoration of our nature can be considered the butterfly. There are no such colors in nature that an artist could accurately convey in a picture the beauty of its wings.


Paintings on the theme of the sea are painted by marine painters. It is very difficult to convey the full depth of colors of a seascape in a drawing, but I have a simple lesson for children. Step by step, step by step, you can draw the sea with a pencil, and then paint it with paints.


We are so accustomed to the trees around us that it seems quite easy to draw them. In this lesson you will find out if this is true.
Trees and plants are the basis of our nature. Take care of nature!


There are millions of flowers in nature on our planet and each flower is unique. In this lesson we will learn how to draw flowers in a bouquet step by step with a simple pencil.


Everyone can probably draw a picture of a daisy. Several petals, a stem with leaves and a picture of a chamomile are ready. But for some reason, painted daisies do not always turn out the same as in nature. The reason is that you start drawing a daisy with the petals.


This is one of the simplest lessons on the topic "Drawings of Nature". To draw a sunflower correctly, start by first drawing the stem and leaves, having first drawn the general outline of the sunflower flower.


A drawing of a New Year tree and Santa Claus is the most New Year's theme. You can draw a Christmas tree in different ways, the main thing is to draw the needles correctly. I offer my version of drawing a Christmas tree for children with a pencil.


A tulip flower is not difficult to draw, especially if you draw it step by step. It is much more difficult to paint a tulip drawing with paints and accurately convey all shades of color.


To draw a picture of a snowflake, in addition to a pencil, you definitely need a ruler. Are there any patterns for drawing snowflakes? No, of course, each snowflake is a unique part of our nature and has one single crystalline form.


The ladybug must be colored with colored pencils or paints, or even better, draw it against the background of the nature around it: green leaves, bright flower buds.