Learn to Draw Mountains and Mountain Landscapes

If you like to paint landscapes, it is useful to look at how to draw mountains. This online tutorial shows how to illustrate rocks and mountains and thus also the method of drawing mountain landscapes.

Mountains are very often part of landscape paintings and drawings. However, the representation of mountains and rocks is a problem for many hobby drawers. Quite often I hear or read the question: How do I draw mountains? But a mountain is not that difficult to depict and it is no matter the medium you use.

A graphical observation of a mountain

When you look at a mountain graphically, you can see that a mountain consists of a characteristic contour, structure and shadow. If you paint mountain landscapes with colored pencils, oil or acryl colors, the composition in terms of color comes into play.
Consider each of these four aspects individually.

Drawing of mountains

Contour of a mountain

The contour of a mountain represents simply its outline. The artistic tool in this case is the line. We all know how mountains look like - most of them run together to the peak. The mountain usually does not stand alone in the landscape and consists only of one peak. Most of the mountains ad up to a whole mountain landscape and have several higher or lower peaks.

A single mountain with a peak is more characteristic of volcanoes. The mountains as we find them in the Alps are not caused by volcanic activity, but by the clashing of tectonic plates. For this reason, the mountain’s crest extend over a greater distance and form whole mountains.
If you want to bring a change in the drawing of a mountain landscape, the top of a mountain can sometimes also flattened - some mountains also look like this.

If you would like to learn more about the theory of the emergence of the Alps, here is some information: history of the Alps

Illustration of the contour of several mountains

Structure of mountains and rocks

Another characteristic of a mountain is its structure. From an artistic point of view, the structure is a design element as well. We can represent them with different lines.
Mountains generally have an angular structure. The edges are formed by the straight fractured surfaces typical of stone and rocks. We draw rocks of a mountain with a suitable angular structure. Thus you can already draw a clearly recognizable mountain landscape through the structure in combination with the contour.

Illustration of the structure of mountains and rocks

Draw shadows of a mountain

The next step in drawing mountains is to sketching of shadows. Shadows can be realized with any drawing technique.
When drawing the shadows you have to observe the shape of the rocks of the mountain. The various rocks that stand out of the mountain throw also shadows on each other. With the correct representation of these shadows, you create the three-dimensional form of rock and mountain is.
Drawing these shadows is probably the most difficult part when drawing mountains. An artist, who often depicted rocks and mountains in his works, was Caspar David Friedrich - a German painter of the Romatic.

Shading of a mountain

Color design of mountains

As for color design it is noticeable that mountains have a strong blue tinge. This is true at least for mountains, which lay in very far distance.
The blue hue comes through the air between the viewer and the mountain. This perspective effect is also known as the aerial perspective.

Tips mountains, mountain landscapes and rocks

These were my tips in this online drawing guide for drawing mountains, mountain landscapes and rocks. In the other tutorials, you'll learn more about drawing landscapes and drawing techniques.