Calling all beginner artists! This list of the 25 best forest scenery drawing ideas is perfect for you.
You’ll find lots of ideas to make a beautiful nature drawing and even some tips on how to get paid to draw in the forest. Seriously, that’s a thing!
Want a printable cheat sheet of these ideas that you can use anytime? Just scroll down to the bottom to get the list and print it for free.
As a beginner artist, it’s helpful to have references to help you draw. Having a list of drawing tips on hand is great for practicing and improving your art skills.
Scenery drawing is a drawing that shows a scenic view. It can be a stand-alone drawing or a drawing that is a combination of landmarks, nature, and perspective.
I get commissions for purchases made through some of the links in this post. There is no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
What is scenery drawing?
The subject of a scenery drawing can be any of the following:
- Night scenery
- City skyline
- Village
- Seaside
- Mountains
- Lakes
- Rivers
- Monuments
- Parks
- Meadows
- Sunrise
- Forests
- Valleys
- Countryside
As you can see, the list is long, but we’ll focus on forest scenery in this post.
Want a printable cheat sheet of 25 Easy Forest Scenery Drawing Ideas? Just scroll down to the bottom to get and print it for free.
Fun Facts about Forests and Art
Forest backgrounds can be found in many landscape drawings and paintings.
Did you know that the word landscape comes from the Dutch language? The dutch word for landscape is “landschap” which means the area of land that a person can look at all at the same time, a picture showing a view of the countryside or the general appearance of a landscape.
Source: dictionary.cambridge.org
Getting Paid to Draw in the Forest
Did you know that you could get paid to draw in the forest? Seriously! There are over 150 protected areas known as National Forests in the United States.
Since the late 19th century, famous artists have created paintings in the western forests of the US.
To continue the tradition, the National Parks Service hosts over 50 artist-in-residence programs every year. You can apply to be a part of the program. With so many forests and national parks to choose from, you’ll have plenty of creative inspiration.
“There is at least one National Forest in all but ten states in the United States of America: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Dakota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island (although Kansas and North Dakota have national grasslands).
In addition, Puerto Rico contains El Yunque National Forest. Alaska has the most national forest land with 21.9 million acres (8.9 million ha), followed by California (20.8 million acres, 8.4 million ha) and Idaho (20.4 million acres, 8.3 million ha).
Idaho also has the greatest percent of its land in national forests with 38.2%, followed by Oregon with 24.7% and Colorado with 20.9%.”
Source: Wikipedia
2 Most Common Types of Scenery Drawings
When it’s time to choose a type of scenery drawing, you have two major options
. Depending on your artistic preference, it may be either one of the following two types:
- Realistic Scenery Drawings
- Abstract Scenery Drawing
4 Essential Elements of Good Scenery Drawing
To draw effective scenery drawings you should incorporate the following four elements.
- Light
- Perspective
- Nature or Landmarks
- Shadow
The better you are at mastering these four elements, the better your scenery drawing will be and the quicker you will see improvement.
Should You Draw from Imagination or from Reference?
The answer to this question can go both ways. Relying only on your imagination can be risky because the perspective is more likely to be off.
Your imagination will lead you to believe that certain lines should be straight and symmetrical when this is not the case in nature.
This may work for an abstract scenery drawing but not so much for a realistic scenery drawing.
The reason that you may want to draw from imagination is that most likely, you have already used both you imagination and reference photos in the past.
When we were little kids, we all started by making drawings from imagination. Then we as we got a little older, we traced our favorite cartoon characters. Eventually, as we advanced, we tried using reference images.
What can you do if you don’t have much experience with the subject? When you are inexperienced and want to improve your artistic skills, it’s better to draw using a reference image.
This way, you can easily see the perspective of the scenery.
By studying the landmarks in comparison to other items in the reference photo, you can get a better idea of where to position each item.
I’m sure that you are aware that nature is not perfectly symmetrical. Things in nature have smooth lines, rough edges and vice versa. So a realistic nature drawing should reflect this.
If you’re making a realistic scenery drawing, choose a reference picture to help you better depict these natural lines and curves.
In the end, no one option is better than the other. Using a combination of both drawing from imagination and drawing from reference is necessary.
How Do You Become Good At Drawing Backgrounds And Scenery?
The short answer is that it takes practice to become good at drawing background and scenery.
My advice is to start with short daily drills. Drills are exercises done in a small amount of time to improve a skill.
Take 25 minutes every day to practice one art drill. Some experts would advise practicing for one to two hours per day.
That’s great if you have that much time, but I think that when you’re first getting started, this can seem intimidating.
The last thing you need is to get overwhelmed! This will just make you want to give up before you see any real progress.
Every day, choose a different item from the list of forest scenery drawing ideas below and draw everything that you see in twenty-five minutes. Don’t worry about trying to make it perfect.
Just draw to get the general idea of the scene. Then, move onto another picture the next day.
Easy Ideas for Forest Scenery Drawing
25 Easy Forest Scenery Drawing Ideas + Drawing Supplies
This list of the 25 best forest scenery drawing ideas is perfect for beginner artists. You’ll find lots of ideas to make a beautiful background or landscape drawing.
25 Forest Scenery Drawing Ideas
Angeles
Angelina
Apache-Sitgreaves
Apalachicola
Arapaho
Ashley
Beaverhead-Deerlodge
Bienville
Bighorn
Bitterroot
Black Hills
Boise
Grand Mesa
Green Mountain
Gunnison
Helena
Hiawatha
Holly Springs
Homochitto
Hoosier
Humboldt-Toiyabe
Huron-Manistee
Rio Grande
drawing pencils
Mix media paper pad
Art markers
Light table for tracing
List of Forest Scenery Drawing Ideas
- Angeles
- Angelina
- Apache-Sitgreaves
- Apalachicola
- Arapaho
- Ashley
- Beaverhead-Deerlodge
- Bienville
- Bighorn
- Bitterroot
- Black Hills
- Boise
- Grand Mesa
- Green Mountain
- Gunnison
- Helena
- Hiawatha
- Holly Springs
- Homochitto
- Hoosier
- Humboldt-Toiyabe
- Huron-Manistee
- Rio Grande
- Santa Fe
- Tuskegee
Now that you have this list of forest scenery reference images, check out the images to go with them. I made a forest scenery Pinterest board.
In it, you’ll find images of forest backgrounds and scenery to use as references for your daily practice drawings.
Click the button to follow the board. I’ll be adding more images to the board to make sure that you have a steady supply of beautiful images whenever you need them.
Michael Yaw
Tuesday 25th of July 2023
Very good...