how to draw fantasy map trees

How to Draw Forests

From the gloom of Mirkwood to the comfort of the Hundred Acre Wood, 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 feature to include on your fantasy map. In this tutorial, you will learn some simple steps so you can draw forests of your own.

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

1: Sketch the Shape

The first thing you'll want to do is draw the shape of your forest on its own layer or sketched with a pencil. This is important, because it gives you a guide to follow when you begin drawing the individual trees. If you jump into drawing trees too soon you'll often find yourself having to erase and redo sections when the forest's shape begins looking unnatural.

2: Add the Front Row

Now that you know where you want your forest, you can begin drawing the trees in the front row. I find it best to begin at the bottom and work your way up. This allows you to draw them "behind" the other trees so they overlap and give a sense of depth..

Using Custom Brushes
You can always use a standard hard round brush to draw the trees. But 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'm using HERE

3: Complete the Outside

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

4: Add Main Tree Tops

A common challenge when drawing forests is preventing them from looking too flat. One thing you can do to help overcome this is to begin by adding some tree tops that curve with the terrain so that it looks like they are on hills. The amount is up to you but I find this helps to give it some more character.

5: Fill in the Details

With your main rows of trees in place, you can begin filling in the rest of the forest. There is no right or wrong number of tree tops to include here, so just experiment and see 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 case, the forest is fairly large like it would be on a regional map. This allows you to include more detail than it would if the scale was much smaller. I am drawing a line on each side of the trunk, as well as some horizontal lines radiating out from the trunk to give a little ground texture.

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

7: Draw in the Details

With everything in place, you can now 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 too straight and flat is will look unnatural.

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

8: Add Some Scattered Trees

The last thing you can do is to add a few extra trees scattered around the perimeter. If you look at actual forests you'll notice that they don't naturally have hard edges. Instead the trees gradually get more sparse until the forests transitions into a grassland or some other terrain.

MORE TUTORIALS YOU MAY ENJOY

9: Block in the Main Color

With all the line art done, you can now begin coloring in the forest. If you are working digitally, create a new layer below your line work, and use the eye dropper tool to select the aged paper background. You can then shift the hue toward the greens until you find a color you'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 look too stark. Assuming all your line art is on it's own layer, all you have to do is turn "Alpha Lock" on for that layer and paint whatever color you want over it. If it's working right, you should only be able to apply color to your line art.

10: Paint Basic Shading

Once you have your base color in place you can add some basic shadows and highlights. Rather than shading individual trees, try to add some broad shading as if the forest is one object.

The Shadows
In this case, the light 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 main forest. You can also add a little bit of shadow for texture in the middle of forest between the tree tops.

The Highlights
With the shadows in place you can begin adding some highlights to the tops of the trees. Keep things pretty simple and loose at this point as this is primarily giving some form and texture to the forest.

For this stage I am using the Old Sponge Filler Brush because it has a little softer, random edge, but 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 give more contrast.

For these shadows you can use the same textured brush that was used for the line art. This will give you a lot of control over the shadows while still having the organic character of the brush. Then it is just a matter of hitting every tree and tree top with a bit of shadows on the side that is hidden from the light source.

13: Add a Pop of Highlights

Start with your base color again, but increase the brightness and lower the saturation slightly, then shift the hue a little toward yellow. Then use the same technique you did in the previous step but apply it to the opposite side of the trees. You will be surprised how much a few highlights can add to your illustration.

14: Blend with the Surrounding Terrain

You're almost done! But the last thing you want to do is paint some shadows on the terrain itself to make the forest feel like it's a part of it. Just take a darker shade of the paper background color and paint it on a layer below your forest color. Again, just make sure to be aware of the light direction so that your shadows stay consistent.

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

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

PIN FOR LATER

bryanttheyettept.blogspot.com

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

Share this post