How to Draw an Urban Landscape
Hello everyone and welcome to this article where we will explore how to draw an urban landscape. We will cover some essential techniques to know and we will also look at an example step by step to guide you through the process.
Get your pencils, paper, and most importantly your creativity ready, let's go!
REMINDER ABOUT PERSPECTIVE
In urban landscapes, perspective is omnipresent, so it's important to understand it to be able to continue. Here's a little reminder:
The horizon line: this is an imaginary (or not) line towards which the gaze directs in the distance, generally marking the separation between the earth and the sky.
Vanishing points: these are imaginary points towards which the lines of objects will converge.
The vanishing points are ALWAYS on the horizon line.
One-point perspective is used to draw scenes where all parallel lines converge at a single point on the horizon. This creates the illusion of depth, like a road that appears to narrow in the distance. It is ideal for simple frontal views.
Two-point perspective is used when looking at an object or building from the side. Parallel lines converge towards two different points on the horizon, creating an illusion of volume and depth. It is perfect for building corners or oblique views.
Three-point perspective is used for extreme views, with three vanishing points: two on the horizon and one either at the top or the bottom. This allows for drawing scenes of great height or great depth. It is ideal for views from a skyscraper or the base of a building.
CREATE BUILDINGS EASILY
When you draw urban landscapes, buildings are omnipresent. They might initially seem complex, but upon closer inspection, buildings are primarily a collection of simple geometric shapes, most often parallelepipeds and triangular prisms (to put it simply, rectangles and triangles).
To start drawing urban landscapes, you can practice by drawing individual buildings using simple perspectives. You can choose to be inspired by real buildings or create them from scratch.
Don't forget, start with very simple volumes and then add the details.
ADD TEXTURE
I'm not telling you anything new when I say that nothing is ever perfectly smooth, and in urban landscapes, this is especially true. You can see for yourself, our cities are filled with a multitude of textures. You can choose to learn to draw very realistic urban landscapes, but in this article, we will focus more on urban landscape sketches.
Sketching means saving time. For this, I encourage you to find texture patterns that you can reuse to easily suggest textures. Here are the ones I use, they are very common, but also very effective.
The best way to create a texture pattern is to observe the roughness and copy it. Then it's up to you to create your own!
To check if your patterns work, you can take some of the buildings you have drawn before and try adding texture to them. Focus on the key elements that make a building recognizable (the roof, the walls...) and keep it simple.
SKETCH URBAN ELEMENTS
What would an urban landscape be without all the elements that make it up? Signs, vehicles, vegetation... Landscapes are full of life, and it is precisely the presence of so many elements that is essential to make an urban landscape believable. If you have the opportunity, I strongly encourage you to take a sketchbook and a pencil and go out to draw all the elements you see and that catch your eye.
Use the same technique as for buildings: start with simple geometric shapes to create the structure, then add details. These sketches will become a goldmine of inspiration when you create your landscapes.
THE URBAN LANDSCAPE: FROM SKETCH TO FINAL DRAWING
Here we are at the point of putting all this into practice!
There you have it! Now, you have all the necessary knowledge to start drawing urban landscapes. To begin with, I recommend drawing from real life. It will be much easier to have a reference and will allow you to work on the fundamentals. And most importantly, have fun! 😊
Writer and Illustrator: Chloé Pouteau