Have fun Illustrate a Fairy Tale Landscape: Easy Procreate Illustration

1. Welcome!: Across time, landscapes have inspired many artists to create beautiful artworks. As an illustrator or fine art creator, you'll want to depict your subject in a natural environment and capture the whimsical feeling of a place. Working with layers can be quite difficult, but they are the key for a successful landscape composition. Hi, my name is Christine, and I'm a visual artist. After finishing a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Fine Art, I've discovered a lot of painting techniques that helped me expand my knowledge and skills in art. This class is useful for any kind of artist who wants to learn landscape concepts while also creating an eye-catching iPad Illustration. You will get to identify the big shapes that describe the landscape and create a gorgeous nature-inspired composition by better understanding layers. Whether you prefer digital art or more traditional art mediums. The ideas found in this class about landscape are universal. If you are new to digital illustration or you want to get a better grasp over the procreate landscapes, this class is for you. With fun and informative step-by-step guidance, you will create your own landscapes in no time, you will find plenty of useful tips and tricks along the way that you can apply in your own digital artworks. To complete the project of this class, you'll need an iPad, the Apple pencil and the Procreate app. If that sounds like something you want to do, let's get into the class. 2. Sky Color and Foreground Land: To begin this wonderful adventure into the magic of landscape creation, the first thing you need to do is to create a new Canvas in your procreate gallery. This Canvas will be displayed on landscape and it will have 5,000 by 4,000 pixels. This will give you nine layers, which will be more than enough to organize your gorgeous fairy tale landscape. Let's press the Create button and now that the Canvas is displayed, let's see the color palette you will use for this illustration. The color palette is called Coffee Time and can be found in the resource page of the class. From the color palette, you will need just a couple of them so don't be overwhelmed by its diversity. Now it's time for a little warm-up. Let's start by looking a little bit at this very simple but powerful landscape, as you can see, is very straightforward. The top side is covered by a beautiful blue-colored sky and the lower side of the Canvas is covered by a beautiful green hill. On the line from between the two, there are a couple of details that are remarkable. The first is that this sky is slightly lighter in color as it gets lower on the Canvas and darker as it reaches the top of it. Another detail is that the smooth contour from between the two colors is beautifully decorated with a tree. That tree's position and singularity, it has a very powerful presence. The tree is the main character of this landscape. This is a very important moment to keep in mind when creating a landscape. Keep things simple. Landscape compositions can get very complex and difficult to break down. What is important is to understand the basic principles which will become your best friends in your adventure. Another delicate detail is the shape of the hill. Even though it looks straight, the direction of the contour changes very subtle, creating a simple but organic hill shape. Now let's get back to our landscape composition. Of course, for the background color, you will start with a darker nuance of blue as your sky warmth needs to be white. Let's take this beautiful blue color from the bottom. After the color of the background is set, we will start to create on the first layer of this composition some light-colored textures on the bottom to break the flat look of the sky. The only two brushes you'll need in this landscape exploration are the inking almond brush and the textured kiwi brush. The two brushes are found on the research page of this class. Now to create the fluffy feeling of the sky, let's go to the color palette and pick the middle gray from the right. While creating your illustration, don't forget to adjust to your liking the size and the flow of the brush by dragging up or down the two slides from the side. Don't go too light with the color so the textures do not create the contrast that is too strong. For these textures, you will use a higher size and a medium opacity so you have time to build these textures. Now starting from the bottom with horizontal moves, slowly move upward until you reach the middle of the Canvas. This will be great as the sky will create a gentle contrast with the hills from the bottom side. As you're using this middle gray, you can go even darker with the textures over the first ones to have an intermediate nuance. Of course, you can create this gradient the other way around starting from a lighter color and applying the dark blue over it. But this is much easier and efficient as in the end the sky should be rather darker than lighter. As you can see, this process helps the colors combine with each other and at the same time making the textures appear smoother. Now this guy is ready for the first element, the horizontal line of the foreground. For this, you will want to go to the layers and add one more layer on top of the other one. Now because we want to start drawing, you will want to pick the inking almond brush from the brushes. Before drawing, make sure your brush has the opacity and the size you need. In this case, the opacity and the flow have to be at maximum. Let's not forget to pick from the color palette this beautiful middle green from the top left side and after this, you are ready to draw. Let's start creating a horizontal line on the lower side of the Canvas. The line does not need to be perfectly straight, but make sure that is closed on each side of the Canvas and there are no gaps left between the line and the edge of the Canvas. After the line is traced, let's grab from the top right corner the color and drag it underneath the line. Now the shape of the foreground is done and ready to be modeled. Let's give this hill an interesting shape with the help of the move tool set on warp. As you can see, by dragging the grids lower or higher, you can give the hill an interesting and more organic shape so it doesn't look like a simple straight line. You will want to make this land seem like it has soft and nice hills so make sure you add these details. These changes are very subtle, but really help the composition to bind and feel whole by balancing different curves and inclinations. After you are satisfied with the shape of your little hill, you can undo the move tool by pressing once more on it. Now, it's time to make this hill look a bit more real by getting rid of the flat look from its top. You can do this by adding small details like rocks or flowers or grass blades. For this layer, let's add some small grass blades that pop out from the top contour of the hill. A little bit of grass will make this layer much more interesting in no time and with minimum effort. Now, as for the sky, you'll want to create a textured gradient on the lower side of the hill to make it look like it's fading. Let's go to the layers and pressing on the layer of the hill, you will want to press the Alpha Lock option from the new panel. This will allow you to freely customize your hill without changing anything outside this contour. Now the hill is ready to play. Let's pick from the brushes the textured kiwi brush. You can lower the flow and the size to have more control over the textures you are making. Now that the brush is ready, let's pick the darkest shade of cold green from the top. Starting from the bottom of the Canvas, let's create this gradient on the top of the hill, very lightly passing with your pen over its shape. Of course, you can adjust the size of your brush anytime to make the brush fit the size of the space you want to cover. Don't make it too dark on the bottom, just enough to break the flat look of the hill. Of course, if you feel like you went too far with the dark nuance, you can pick once more the color of the hill and edit over the dark textured gradient to rebalance the colors. With this, the foreground is done. Look at how easy is to create it. Now we can move on to the next elements of the foreground. Let's go to the layers and undo the Alpha Lock of this layer. Now that the first step is done, let's get ready for some foreground elements. These will make the frame of the composition much more immersing, giving a feeling of safeness and closeness to the composition. 3. Foreground Elements: First Tree: Now that we have a foreground, it's time to play something on it in order to create that beautiful feeling of perspective that's given by the elements. In this case, you will use trees to create that feeling. Now, let's have a look at this composition example and get some inspiration. As you can see, this landscape is very atmospheric. The light breaks through the irregular shapes of the trees and beautifully radiates around, creating a gorgeous contrast and defining the shapes in a very interesting way. Looking at the right side, there is a tree trunk that because it's very close to the viewer, a big part of it gets outside the frame. This offers a bit of shelter for the viewer and creates a very immersive feeling for the composition. Another detail is that the light source that is placed in the background creates on the left side of the tree a very gorgeous slide counter that greatly contrast with a dark color of the tree. Looking at the tree foliage, the contrast is still present and the light culture as well. In-between those strong light contrast, there are some vivid green nuances that give just a hint of color. This is another detail to keep in mind. Now starting from the front, you will add on the right side near the viewer a beautiful tree. In order to create the perspective, these tree will get out of the frame on the top and the bottom of the canvas. This and the details from it will make it look very close to the viewer. Let's begin by going to the layers and add one layer on top of the others. The layer should be placed on top of the foreground layer. Now for the drawing of the tree, let's pick from the brushes that inking almond brush and from the color palette, the dark green used previously for the bottom of the hill. Before starting, remind yourself to check if the almond brush is at maximum opacity and size. This is a very good habit to have. Now let's create two vertical lines on the right side of the canvas. As for the hill be careful to close the line on top and the bottom of the canvas so the color won't escape the shape. Now, hold the pencil down to make sure the line is straight. Now, let's move closer to the right side of the canvas and create one more line, just like the first, living a little bit of space away from the edge of the canvas. After the two lines are straight and closed on the edge of the canvas, you can drag the color from the right corner and drop it between the two lines. If the color fills the entire canvas, make sure the two lines created are closed with a canvas on the top and the bottom. Now, if the tree is too close or too far from the right edge, you can use the move tool on uniform to drag it away. Let's make the top and the bottom side of the tree a bit bigger than the canvas so it can stick out of it. If you place the tree too close to the edge, it will make the frame feel much more tight. Give a bit more hair to the edge. At the same time, try to not place the tree too far away from the edge so it doesn't stay in the way of the view. After you have found the sweet spot for your tree trunk, you will select the move tool from the top. Now, it's time to make the tree look more realistic by adding some elegant little branches on the top of this trunk. For that you will want to descend from the top of the canvas with a thin twig that gets thicker as it reaches the tree trunk. Let's place one right between the edge of the canvas and the tree trunk, and let's add a smaller one attached to the first. As you can see, these branches are rather elongated and thin. This will help the tree look taller. Now, let's do the same for the left side, descending with a line that curves to the tree trunk. After the two little branches are done, it's time to create some beautiful wood patterns on the length of the tree trunk using the eraser. By doing this, you will make it look much more immersed into the composition and also a bit less obvious. As you can see, these lines are concentric and they are formed around the branches like some rings. Make these curved lines on the length of the tree trunk to make the tree seem taller. The longer the lines, the better, just like the branches. Let's move to the lower side of the tree and create some more of these long lines. As you can see, the top of the hill is now visible through the tree, and you can see how it continues to the right side, which is quite wonderful and decorative. Let's create some small curves across the branches to express their volume as well. It's so easy to make these trees and they look so decorative and fun, love making them. Now the tree trunk need some green foliage on its top side. For that, you will want to go to the layers and add one more layer. Because the foliage of the tree will be placed behind the beautiful tree trunk and branches, you will want to drag the newly created layer underneath the one of the tree trunk. Now for the shape of the foliage, you will want to use the same color as the foreground land. This will create a striking contrast later on. Now it's time to draw. Let's create around the two branches from the top two circle-like shapes that close with the edge of the canvas. One smaller on the top-left side and one bigger on the bottom right side. Of course, fill the two shapes with color. Now, as for the foreground land, you will want to create some textures over the shape of the foliage. To do that, you will need to firstly go to the layers and having the layer of the foliage selected, you will want to press on it and also lock the layer, selecting the option from the panel. After this, let's go to the brushes and grab the kiwi brush from textures. As you can see, the brush keeps its setting used previously for the foreground heel. Let's not forget to change the color into a darker one. You will grab this dark green used previously. Let's make sure the opacity is maybe a bit higher, and now we can add these textures over the top of the foliage. This will make it look much more dense and will offer a little bit of cover over the corner. At the same time blending with the color of the tree trunk as well, making the tree look whole. Look at how beautiful the color of the leaves matches the one of the hill. As you can see, it's not complicated at all to start giving contour to a landscape. Now let's make the tree look more detached from the background by creating some highlights over its contour. This slide will harmonize very well with the next elements of this composition. Let's go to the layers and make sure the layer of the foliage is Alpha locked and now going through the color palette, grab the light yellow from the top right side, because we want this light to look sharp and clean on the edge of the tree, let's decrease the size of it. Now following the edge of the foliage place just a little bit of this light yellow on the edge of it, focusing the light on the top left side of the foliage shape. It's so interesting to see how the yellow is turning the green from underneath into a much more fresh looking one. Just a little bit of this slide is enough to make the foliage pop out from the background. Let's play some of this yellow texture on the second curve of the foliage, again, focusing on the top left side of it. Now it's time to get sunlight or the tree trunk as well. Let's go to the layers and selecting the layer of the tree trunk, click on it in order to set Alpha lock. As for the foliage, you'll place this light colored texture on the top-left side of the tree trunk and over the base of the branch as well. You can descend with this highlight till the middle of the tree trunk, but don't go too low, as the light is coming from the top of the composition and we don't need such a contrasting color to near to the bottom edge. Lowering the flow will help blend the light with a dark color of the tree trunk, making it a tiny bit smoother and easier to control. Look at how beautifully the light makes the tree come out of the 2D look of the illustration. Take your time to make any more adjustments over the layer before going further. For example, it feels like the shape of the tree foliage can take some improvements, like making the edge a tiny bit more lighted to make it even more visible. You can as well increase the contrast by adding more of this wonderful shadow on the top side of the tree. If you feel like making the color of the light more intense and warm, you can go to the color palette and grab this beautiful bright yellow from the bottom-left side. Applying this light orange just a little bit over the yellow, right over the edge will make the light much more intense and vibrant without making the yellow flat and too saturated. Just a little touch will be enough to make it seem like the light is coming from a source from the middle of the composition. With this, the first three of our landscape has found its place just right next to the viewer, giving comfort and sheltering. Now let's go to the next step and create the second tree of our composition. 4. Middle Ground Elements: Second Tree: Now that we have surrounded ourselves with such a beautiful foreground, it is time to move further to the second tree of our composition. This tree will be placed on the left side, and it will signal the beginning of the middle ground, and it will be significantly smaller than the first one as its entire shape will fit in the canvas. Let's look at this composition once more. As you can see, the trees are all around, is very dynamic composition and they are of different sizes but what is obvious is that the tree from the foreground is significantly bigger than the one from the middle ground. The placement of this second tree is very good for our composition. It will fit nicely on the left side. Let's get one more example. This landscape composition is very powerful and interesting. Is lighted very generously from the left side and on the contour of the tree, those strips of light are once more present bringing into attention the shape of the trees. This happens as the light is coming somewhere from the left side on the back. The perspective of this composition is very tight. Look at those trees progressively getting smaller and smaller as they get further from the viewer. Another detail to keep in mind is that even though the lens seems quite flat and straight, actually is formed by multiple shapes that cross each other. To create the second tree, let's firstly go to the layers and add a new one on top of the others. After this, to create the contour of the tree trunk and the branches, you will need almond brush, so let's go to the brushes and pick it from inking. Now, as for the tree trunk from before, you will need this dark green color used previously, so let's get it from the color palette. You will position this tree trunk to the left side, almost in the middle of the space remaining between the tree from the right and the left edge of the canvas. Leaving from the middle of the blue sky, descend sun a straight line until you reach the bottom of the canvas. After that, wait till the line gets smooth and straight and then you can go back to the top and create one more line mirroring the first, taking just a little bit of distance from it. Hold the pencil down until the line becomes straight and now you can go to the top and link the two lines with a short one. Now that this long rectangle has been created, you can drag the color from the corner and fill the shape from between the two lines. After the shape of the tree trunk is created, you can continue with a couple of cute branches following the same features from the first three. Let's start with a number of three tiny ones going up from the end of the trunk to make that end look less stabby, one on the left and two more on the right emerging one from the other. As you can see, the branches have an elongated shape and they all go towards the top of the canvas, slightly angled to the outside. By making this, you can make the tree seem taller and it's easier to place the foliage nicely packed in the back of the branches and now the tree trunk is ready to be placed in the back of that first beautiful foreground land so it may seem further than the first tree. You will want to recreate once more that gorgeous tree pattern. Let's grab the eraser and lower the size of the brush in order to make these lines fit the slim trunk of this tree, a number of two around the branch from the bottom-left and two more around the one from the top right, and now the pattern is almost finished. You can take your time to make any more adjustments of the lines if you feel like. In this case, it seems like the branches need a bit of polishing, so let's add a couple more lines across the trunk where you see an empty space on the top and the bottom. Look at how fast the tree has integrated into the composition by matching the first tree and these features. After you have finished creating the tree trunk and the branches, you are ready to create the foliage of this tree as well. For that, you will have to go to the layers and add one more layer, then drag it below the tree trunk layer and now it's time to draw some beautiful round shapes. Let's change the color by grabbing from the colors this middle green from the top and now you can create in the back of these beautiful branches a simple oval shape. Try to not make it symmetrical. Give it a loose, organic look and now let's fill this simple shape with color. Moving more to the left, you will create one more oval shape to include the rest of the branches and then fill the shape as well with color, very easy to create these little trees. If you want, this is the time to add very small details around the edges if you want to break that regular shape of the tree. Feel free to add any small details like little leaves, or irregularities that can give you a little tree more personality and break the smooth shape of the foliage. Now that the shape of the entire tree is finished, your tree is ready for some shadow and light. This step is very important because it signals from where the light comes. In order to do that, you have to go to the layers and select the Alpha Lock option. Of course, let's change the brush with the textured kiwi brush and adjust its size to about 40 percent. For the shadows, let's pick once more the beautiful deep green from the top, and now let's add it to the bottom left side of the tree. It seems that this could work with an even higher size and opacity to match the big surface of the tree and make the process much easier, don't go over the right edge of the tree. Keep the right side for a beautiful gradient made with the light. Let's go to the color palette and grab the beautiful bright yellow from the top right side, decrease a bit of the size and now gently apply the light just on the right side over the edge not getting too much inside the shape. Remember that this light should appear like a contour because it radiates from the back. Before making the light from the leaves too intense and bright, let's get a bit of light on those beautiful branches as well selecting the layer of the tree trunk, click on it, and select the Alpha Lock from the panel. Now, making the brush a tiny bit smaller to have more control over the textures, let's get closer to the right side of the branches and apply some of this textured light a little bit on the trunk as well and on the branches from the right, press lightly to gradually build the light. You can move even higher on them to make them more obvious and beautiful, contrasting with the dark color of the tree foliage. Look at that beautiful light casting on the delicate branches. Now, it's time to make a little bit of cleaning into the layers to make more space for the next beautiful steps. If you want to make any more adjustments or the trees or the foreground, this is the perfect time. If you are ready to continue with the next layers, let's start from the top and clicking on each of them, merge down the layers pressing the Merge Down option from the bottom of the panel. The layers that should be brought together are the one of the two trees and the foreground land. Make sure you don't include the gradient from the sky. This should always stay separate and on the back of the other layers. After all the elements are placed on the same layer, you can create one more layer and drag it underneath the foreground one. Now, make sure the dark green from the top is selected and the almond brush from engaging as well. After this, you are ready to trace the top of the middle ground on the top side of the first, starting from a lower level and then creating a little hill in the back of the foreground tree. This little hill will be very important as it will host the next beautiful trees of this composition. After the line is closed with the two sides of the canvas, you can drag the color from the corner and fill the shape of this beautiful middle ground. Look at the gorgeous contrast created between the foreground and the middle ground. As for the other shapes of this landscape, this layer needs a little bit of light and play to break that flat look of the land. For that, let's go to the layers and Alpha Lock the layer of the middle ground. Now going to the brushes, let's pick the textured kiwi brush and from the color palette, the middle green from the top left side. This time, unlike the foreground textures, you will create the textures from top to bottom with a lighter shade. Make sure the opacity is at a comfortable level and the size of the brush is at maximum to fit the big size of the land. Now hovering over the top of the middle ground, apply these textures very lightly, leaving the bottom of it nicely shadow so it can still contrast with the foreground land. With this, the foreground and the middle ground are finished. As you can see, using a limited color palette, clean lines, and smooth gradients created with the help of the textures, you have obtained a balanced landscape that already has a strong sense of rhythm and harmonious proportions. Using a limited color palette, the composition has a strong sense of unity and personality. Let's get into the next step and create some cute little bushes to sprinkle around this beautiful landscape. 5. Middle Ground Elements: First Bush: In this step you will take further this composition by adding another element that will help harmonize even more the shapes already existent. Some little bushes will create a connection between the vegetation of the trees and the ground and will create diversity in size and shape. Their size will create a bridge between the green of the trees and the green of the hills. Let's get into this step. The first thing you will want to do is to go to the Layers and create a new one. Make sure the layer is placed on top of the other ones in order to see the entire bush when creating it. Because in our landscape we have used the same colors for the trees and the ground, we will continue with the same beautiful green used previously to keep the color harmony created and the limited color palette. Now let's choose our inking almond brush from the brushes to create the contour of our little bush. The first pair of bushes will be placed near the two trees on the right and left side. Let's get closer to the base of our middle ground tree and start drawing the contour. Don't be afraid to make this bush big and with gorgeous volumes. Remember that its size should be half the size of the tree. The shape of this bush is very cute, it starts with a white oval base that continues on its top side with a couple of curves of different sizes. I like to make this bush shape because it reminds me of how much fun I was having drawing clouds when I was little. As you can see now, the bush is almost invisible so we have to bring its volume to life. Of course we will do this with shadow and light. Let's go to the color palette and grab the darkest new ones of green and from the brushes, the textured Kiwi brush. Now let's not forget to go to the layers and pressing on the layer of the newly created bush press the Alpha Lock button from the panel. Make sure the size of the brush fits nicely with the size of the surface that you want to shadow. As you can see, you can take a couple of tries to get the right one. A 30 percent size seems right for the size of the bush so let's make the bottom of the bush nicely shadowed. Don't forget to leave the South side of the bush clean of the shadow so we can create a nice gradient with the top side. Now it's time for sunlight. Let's change the dark color with the bright yellow from the top right side and apply the light only on the top edge of the bush, building it up more on the right side as the light is coming from the middle of the composition. As you can see, when the yellow combines with the gold green from underneath the color that results is a cute light green. To intensify the light that is projected on the top of the bush we will use an even warmer nuance of yellow and apply it focusing on the little bush curves from the top. Let's get more inside the shape, pressing very lightly on the pen to combine just a bit those two kinds of texture colors but not too much to avoid making the bush look like a flat shape once again. Now we will want to create some details for our lovely bush. In this case we will sculpt some beautiful twigs into the shape using the eraser. As for the three textures from the previous step. Let's get closer to the bush and decrease the size of the brush so we can have some delicate and then twigs. Let's start from the left side of the bush. Now, you can make these twigs look as you want, creating interesting angles. But if you feel like you are not sure how you want the overall shape of the twigs to look, stick with the basics. Just like for the tree, draw a beautiful vertical line and then add on the two sides of it small branches that go upward parallel with the first. Let's add one more vertical line with a couple of more twigs on the sides. I find this method of drawing very useful and interactive as well because sometimes it really helps your layers interact with each other exchanging colors effortlessly. Now, if you want you can add more details to the bush. Maybe some little berries shaped like some little circles. These details are up to you if you want to add them or not. But our bush looks very happy just with the little twigs. Now the bush is ready to go. Let's find its place somewhere in the middle ground. Let's go to the layers and drag the layer of the bush, underneath the layer of the foreground and above the middle ground. After the bush is placed in the back it's time to adjust this position. For this you will use the move tool, so let's grab it from the top and now the bush is ready to move. Make sure the uniform option from the bottom panel is selected and then you can drag the bush from underneath the hill so it can be more visible. Of course you can make it smaller or bigger if it don't fit underneath your tree or make it bigger so it can be around half of the size of the tree. Look at the beautiful contrast created between the dark color of the tree trunk and the beautiful bright light from the right side of the bush. After you are satisfied with the position of your bush it is time to create the second one. Let's get into the next step. 6. Middle Ground Elements: Second Bush: This step will be very easy as it is very similar to the one from before. Make sure you choose the oman brush for creating the contour of the bush and the green color from the middle is selected. Don't forget that you need to create a new layer in order to add this new element to the composition. Place a new layer on top of the others so you can see it clearly and now it's time to shape this bush. As you may know, sometimes it's harder to find interesting shapes for your elements. What's most important is to keep practicing and repeat the movement. Never be afraid to try it once more until you find something beautiful in what you have created. Maybe it's something about the rhythm of the curves or the direction of the shapes. That's the wonderful thing about digital illustration. As you can see now the bush has some interesting curves on the top, slightly more different from the previous one. It has a different personality after you have created it's outside contour and fill the shape with the same color, the bush is ready for some custom features. Let's go to the layers and alpha lock the layer. Now that the shape of the bush is separated from the rest, you can grab from the colors, the dark green from the top and from the brushes, the brush from textures. Remember to adjust the size of the brush to make your process more fluent and relaxing. As you can see this time, the shadow is placed on the right side because the light is coming from the middle. The shadow will be concentrated on the opposite side of the light. Now let's signal the direction from where the light is spreading, grabbing the yellow from the top right corner, let's add it on the top left side of the bush, creating a beautiful and strong contrast with a hill from behind. Look at that beautiful sub-green created with the yellow. It's much more interesting to obtain color from overlapping because it still keeps the color variety of the textures and it's not a flat color. Let's change the intensity of the color into a warmer one and apply it only on the top left edge. Such beautiful colors to play with. Now the contrast is even stronger. The only thing that this bush is missing now are some cute twigs. Let's color some twigs inside its shape. Grabbing the eraser and getting closer to the bush you will once more trace a thin vertical line on the bush and now let's add those side branches on the sides of it. Moving to the rest and diversifying the shape of the little tweaks to fit the special shape of this bush and then to the left as well. Nothing too complicated for our little bushes. Keep in mind that in the big picture the presence of these details is more important than the innovative side. After the twigs are placed the bush can be moved. First of all, let's make sure it's placed properly behind the foreground layer and behind the foreground tree as well. Now, if the tree is covering too much of this beautiful shy bush you can use the move tool on uniform to drag it more to the left and keep its yellow top underneath the level of the middle ground in order to make more visible its gorgeous golden leaves. Now both of the bushes have found the forever home and it's time to bring them together on one layer. Let's go to the layers and press the Merge them button from the panel. This landscape composition starts looking more and more interesting and captivating. Let's get into the next step to discover what hides behind those green hills. 7. Background Elements: Golden Tree Forest: In this amazing step, you will create the focal point of this illustration. Three golden trees will mark the beginning of the background and of a magical side of this landscape. The source of the warm light of our composition. The process of this step is not much different than the others and that is the beauty that you can innovate through interesting color contrast keeping the main form. Let's look at these gorgeous trees from the top of the hill. First of all, their position on that hill is stunning. Their branches create a wonderful contour around them, making them look big and magnificent. As you can see, even though there are two trees, they blend their branches together and create a one single complex tree. Looking at the shape, you can observe that this contour is quite irregular and complicated but it is possible to break down the shape of the tree in order to understand why it looks like that. As you can see, there is a big shape in the middle that signals the main size and look of the tree. Then it's surrounded by smaller circles like shapes that overlap and intertwine. Now let's get back to our composition to give life to these fabulous trees. Let's start this relaxing step by going to the layers and adding one more layer. This layer has to be placed underneath all the others, but above the textures of the sky. Now for the drawing, of course, you will need almond brush, so let's pick it from inking and we will need a dark contrasting color, so we will use the same dark green used for the shadows and the tree trunks. Now, it's time for the trees from the background that will look significantly smaller than the other two. This time you will create three trees, starting with three vertical lines from the top of the little hill from the back. Don't make them too big. Let's start with some thin tree trunks. The one from the middle, pink, a little bit bigger and taller than the other ones, and the third one on the right, as small as the first. For the moment, this doesn't look so promising, but as soon as you add the little details, everything changes. Let's start adding the branches, making the bush smaller. As for the trees and bushes, try to make these branches long and vertical and a bit thicker at the base. Let's move to the right side of the middle tree and create some more thin branches. Now let's climb higher with a longer line to fill the space from between the trees, from the foreground and the middle ground. We don't want to let too much empty sky. If you follow these branches, they are very simple and they form almost like a pattern. Now, let's add a couple of tweaks to the three from the right. Now, at this stage, they almost don't look like trees. They are much smaller and far away, but following the same process used for the other trees, they will come to life in no time. The first thing is to create those beautiful wood patterns from the tree trunks and branches. For these trees, it feels like they need a little bit more thickness for the textures. If you feel like as well, you can go along the tree trunks with some lines making them wider. Now they look ready for the pattern. Let's grab the eraser and pressing very lightly on the pen, create some thin curves on the trunk, just like before, surrounding a branch and then making wider and wider curves. These lines don't necessarily follow a rule, but it's interesting to create them like the tree is twisted. Even though usually trees look static, they have a very dynamic and organic way of growing. After your patterns have reached all the beautiful trunks, now the trees are ready to welcome their beautiful foliage. As before, let's make sure all of our tools are ready, starting with a brush and then preparing to create a new layer and dragging it underneath the branches. Make sure you do this. It's very important to see those elegant and thin branches. Now, as you may know already, these trees will look truly remarkable through their unique color. Let's pick from the color palette, the brightest yellow from the top right side. Now we will have some fun with some soft and cute light circles. You will want to create these circles around the branch ends. You don't have to circle each of the ends. If you find three ends in one single spot, create a beautiful big circle shape around them. Notice that none of the shapes are perfectly round, which is very good. We will want this tree to look organic and as well, make sure you overlap the circle-like shapes in order to not leave any blank spaces between the circle shapes. Another thing to keep in mind is that a great way to make something look much more visually pleasing is to add small details. Let's add on the edge of the beak shape from the left some smaller curves and fill them with color. Because these trees are the focal point of this landscape composition, the little details are very welcome. There is still more foliage to add to this little forest so let's move lower on the right side and add one more beautiful circle-like shape. Take your time to find the right shapes for your little forest. If you feel like paying a little more attention to these fluffy round shapes, take your time. Small details can make wonders. With a couple of more little circles around our little golden forest it's ready for the next level to transform the flat color of the golden foliage into a more complex one. Let's go to the layers and Alpha lock the layer of the foliage. Now, don't forget to take the textured kiwi brush and the darker nuance of orange that in this case will stand for the shadow of the tree. Keep in mind to check the size of the brush so it can fit the size of the shape you want the shadow. Now let's move to the bottom of the trees from the background and create just a little bit of shadow. You can play with the size and the floor of the brush in order to create some little details on the top side of the tree. This can give a little bit of complexity to the tree as its shape is the one from the focal point. Play with the textured orange color until you feel your trees have enough color and brightness. There you go. Your little golden forest has been created. Look at how beautiful contrast with the blue of the sky and the green of the trees. How delicately the green trees capture just a little bit of the magic color of the forest. Now we will go further and add some small details on the sky from around the trees to diffuse the striking color of them. For that, you'll want to go to the layers and undo the Alpha lock this layer. Now, you will spread the magic of this beautiful forest with some flying birds. Let's pick the almond brush and add small v shapes in different positions around the top of the golden trees. I remember drawing these v shapes as a child as well. When I was young, I was very impressed to see how storks migrate in flocks and I was drawing them everywhere in my illustrations. If there was a sun on the sky, there were the storks as well. Let's change the color into a bright yellow one and now we can add just one or two more of these gorgeous birds. This time, maybe making them smaller or bigger to add just a tiny bit of diversity. Now the sky looks much more lovely with a little bit of life in it. Just a tiny sparkle of light. Now let's move to the next step to create the gold lands from the background. 8. Background Land and Bushes: Now that our little golden forest is done, it's time to create the background land. This time, as for the trees, the background will have a unique color that will create a beautiful contrast with the elements from the front side. Now you surely know what's coming next. Let's firstly go to the layers and having selected the layer of the background, tree trunks, press on the layer and select the "Merge Down" option from the bottom. Now, the new layer of the background land should appear in the back of the gold trees. Let's press on the plus button to create the new layer. Then you will drag the new layer underneath the tree. This will place the layer in the back of it. Now to draw this land, let's make sure the almond brush from the textures is ready. Then starting from one side of the composition, you will trace a curved line to the other side of the Canvas. Now, of course, it takes a little bit of trial and error. There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind when tracing these lines. Try to avoid simple, hurried lines. Instead, looking at how the land from before behave, try to find a way to bend this horizon line in order to harmonize its shape with the ones from before. Nevertheless, you don't have to be so decisive and make this line from one stroke. But sometimes these exercises are very rewarding and teach you how important it is to trust the process and be consistent when you are illustrating. What's beautiful about art is that in order to create it, you have to go through multiple processes that transform you most of the time into a better version of yourself. The experience of learning gives value to each line you describe. That is what binds us to our art work. Let's try once more to give this here a beautiful shape. Now this looks like a reasonable horizon line. Now, if you want, you can take your time and adjust the shape of the background land. In this case, it felt like the hill was too thin and abrupt on the right side. Of course, this can be done with a move tool as well, set on work following the process from the first step. Now that the shape of the background land is established, as for the golden trees, we will want to create some textures on the right and the left side to diminish the contrast created with the edge of the composition. Let's go to the "Layers" and press on the layer of the background, and then press the "Alpha Lock" from the panel. Now that the layer is separated from the rest, let's pick from the color palette, the warm orange color from the bottom right and from the brushes, the textured QV brush. Because the shape of the background hill is rather big, we can use a higher flow and size of the brush to make your process easier. Apply this textured orange below the level that is visible, focusing on the white sides from the left and the right. If the middle gets too orange, make sure you bring that bright yellow from before, as it creates a wonderful contrast right in the middle of the composition. If you want to accentuate the texture of the layer, you can pick from the colors, the next darker nuance of orange and give just a little hint of this color on the sides of the composition. This color will be later reintroduced. This will help the composition bond even more. With that, the background land is done. As you can notice, the line between the middle ground and the background is very consistent and uninterrupted. It lacks those intermediate shapes that we use before, the bushes. Now we will want to play some bushes between the middle ground and the background. For that, you will have to go to the layers and select the layer of the two bushes. After the layer is selected, slide the layer to the left to reveal the duplicate button from the middle. Press on it to create a copy of the bushes layer that you can use for the background. Now the two layers overlap, so you will use the move tool to change their position. As you can see, the move tool is set on uniform, so you can drag the layer away from the first one and place it higher. Let's make the bushes smaller by dragging inside the rectangle, one of the blue buttons from the corners. Now we can drag them on the top of the middle ground hill underneath the golden trees. Now to avoid making them look repetitive, let's flip them horizontal. As you can see, the two bushes overlap the middle ground layer. Let's go to the layers and drag the new bushes underneath the middle ground layer. Now, let's once more use the move tool on uniform to adjust a little bit more their position. When placing them try to leave more space between the bush from the left and the trees, which is where you will place the character of this composition. Now the smaller size of the bushes create even more variety and bring together the back of the illustration with everything that it's in front. Now let's make these bushes look like they are closer to the source of the light. For that, let's go to the "Layers" to make sure the layer of the bushes is alpha locked. Now let's go to the color palette and grab the brightest nuance of yellow. Let's make sure the texture of the QV brush is selected. Now we are ready to shine some light on our pretty bushes. Let's start with one from the right. It seems that the size of the bush remained large from the textures of the background here. Let's decrease its size just a little bit. Now let's build up this light on our bush just below the trees. Very easy to do. Don't go too far into the shape. Let's move to the next little bush and drop some light on the top-left side of it. Look at those fresh nuances of green created by blending the bright yellow and the green from below. Now, let's move to the next step to create the link between all these beautiful layers. 9. Golden Path: This stuff will be very interesting and adventurous as we will go back to the previous layers to make a connection between our focal point and the place where the viewer is sitting. A beautiful golden road that will link the viewer to the story. As you can see in this example, the road has a utility purpose. It has a meaning, carrying the viewer beautifully behind the hills, driving him safely to his destination, avoiding the rocky cliffs, and the grassy slopes. In the previous step, you've noticed that a road can enrich a lot the sense of perspective for a composition. But unlike this beautiful road sheltered by these magnificent trees, the road that we will create will have an adventurous component flowing across the land, walking the viewer around the landscape. Just like the other road, this one gets significantly thinner as it gets closer to the background. So if you feel like it, you can accentuate this feature of your landscape. Now let's get back to the landscape and create for our composition as well a long and beautifully trailing path. You will start firstly from the foreground, so let's go to the layers and make sure the layer of the foreground is selected and the Alpha Lock option is on. This will allow you to trace the road without any problems. Of course to create the conjure of the road you will need the Almond brush, and from the colors, let's pick the orange from the bottom left side. Before starting, make sure the size and the opacity of your brush are at maximum. Now let's shape out the twisty road. Make sure your lines close on the top and the bottom of the land. For this road, you will use curvy and organic lines. You can look at the shape of the road as a ribbon that is laying on the curved surface of the hill. Of course, this can take a little while to get that shape right. What is important is to give that feeling of a long twisty road. That can be done by changing the direction of the curves at least one time and creating a diagonal angle with the top of the hill. Don't make it perpendicular to the top of it. Another thing is to make the road just a tiny bit wider on the lower side or on the front side of it to make it look like it's in perspective. As you can see, it can take awhile to get those nice blue with curves. Let's place a reverse C-shape near our foreground tree trunk followed by another curved line on the left side. At the end, it seems like the roads fits more nicely, a bit more decentered, displayed in a more diagonal manner, having the top more to the right and the bottom a bit more to the left corner. Now you can pick the color from the top corner and then fill the space from between the two curves. As you can see, the road kept the textured pattern from underneath which is very good and helpful for the next steps. For the moment let's continue with the second part of our twisty road. For that you will have to move to the layer of the middle ground and make sure this time as well that the Alpha Lock option is selected from the panel. Now as for the first road, you will want to begin from the top with a line curved to the right and then changes direction to the left side. This line should look like a reverse S-shape. After that, let's double it on the right side making the road just a tiny bit wider as it descends. Now even if the road seems closed at the bottom, actually its shape it's still open. To close the shape of the second road segment, you can go to the layers and keeping the layer selected, press the check box from the right in order to make the front layer invisible. Now you can easily use the same color of the road to draw a line on the base of it. Now you can safely fill the shape of the road by dragging the color from the corner inside the shape. Now let's go back to the layers and press once more on the checkbox of the top layer in order to reveal back the layer. The road finally created a link between all the layers binding them together through beautiful color, contrast, and harmony. Now that the shape of the road has been established as for the other shapes is time to pay a bit more attention to color in order to bring changes only to the road we will have to select it. Let's pick from the top panel the selection tool. Now as you can see, the panel from below presents many options. The one that is very useful in this case is the automatic option. Let's select it and click only on the road from the layer we are on. You can slide the pen to the right to increase the threshold if your road is not entirely selected. Now after the entire road has become blue from the selection, let's pick from the color palette the yellow from the top right side, and from the brushes the texture to give you brush. Now to create the sense of volume for our road, apply some of this beautiful yellow on the top of the road, making it look brighter right below the beautiful golden trees. Let's zoom out and continue applying the light until you reach the middle of the road. Now for the bottom of the road, let's change the color into a darker one, so let's use this dark orange. Let's place it right on the bottom where it goes behind the foreground level. A few passes will be enough to make the road seem like it's matching the shape of the landscape. Now it is time for the front segment of the road. Let's under the selection of this road by clicking once more on the selection tool from the top. After that you can go to the layers and select the layer of the foreground. Now once more, you will use the selection tool on automatic to select the bottom side of the road. Let's grab the brush once more, and now let's make the brush slightly bigger to fit the wide road and make your process easier. Picking the lightest yellow from the top. Once more, let's bring some light over the top of the road. Just a few passes will be enough to make the top of the hill more in the focus because of the strong contrast from between the green and the yellow. Now the bottom of the road looks a little bit messy, so let's give it back that smooth orange color. It's much better looking all uniform and clean. As for the bottom of the previous road, this one needs a slight tint of shadow on the bottom. Let's pick the darker shade of orange and lightly pass over the bottom of the road using a horizontal motion. After this, our fairy tale illustration is almost done. As you can see, all the composition has been brought together using beautiful contrast and just a tiny bit of magic. Now let's get into the last step to welcome our character. 10. The Character : Now, as you can see, everything looks very peaceful and well balanced, almost perfect, but it lacks that sharp of magic to make it look whole and purposeful. It's time to introduce a little bit of mystery as well. As you can see, these two images side by side are almost identical. But the one from the bottom misses something almost vital for a fairy tale landscape, and that is a hero, a character that is present in the world you have created and has a purpose. This character doesn't need to have impressive features or an imposing presence. The simple existence of it gives the composition almost a symbolic meaning. By adding a character in your landscape you will significantly enrich the experience the viewer has when it looks at your art work. Not only that, but you will develop your storytelling skills by creating meaningful compositions. Now, let's get into this fun step to create your mysterious character. As for the other layers you will begin by adding one more layer on top of the other ones. Our main character will be placed just on the top of the hill at the end of the road facing the viewer. At the end it will look like a silhouette. You will use simple shapes to describe the most important features. For this character you will use a totally different color. This will work as a pinpoint for the viewer guiding their attention from the middle of the composition gradient to the edges. Choosing a bright and warm color for our character will make it pop out so beautifully on the top of the hill and it will contrast very nicely with the color of the sky. Let's pick this beautiful peachy red from the right side of the palette. Now, let's make sure that our brush is selected from the brushes and get a little bit closer to the spot. Remember that you don't want to create a very complicated and detailed silhouette for our character. A simple human figure will be enough to suggest the presence. Let's start with the clothes from the main body represented by a simple trapeze with the small side on the top just like you would create a skirt for a doodle girl. Even though the shape is very small in comparison with the rest of the composition, let's try to make it super cute and just a little bit asymmetrical on the lower side adding one more shape, this one like a triangle. This will make a little bit of space for the bottom of the clothes and will break the flat look of the shape. Now, on the top of this rectangle you will create an elongated shape that represents a hood with a thinner base and a whether middle. Now let's signal the bottom entrance of the cape from where the little legs will descend using a darker, warm color. Let's say this intense burgundy color from the middle of the color palette. Before creating the bottom entrance of the cape you will have to make sure the pink shape is separated from the rest of the illustration so you can use the selection tool on automatic to select the shape. Don't forget to grab the brush from the top. Now going to the bottom of the rectangle shape, let's place a long dark brush stroke right on the bottom like a little shadow. Of course, we will need an entrance for the face. Going to the top of the shape we will create a small entrance for the hood. Don't overcomplicate the shapes, just stick to the simple, geometrical ones. They are very suggestive and powerful. Now, if your character looks too blocky and massive you can use the eraser to sculpt our character a little bit more, maybe making the hood smaller on the right side and making the shoulders look more relaxed by pinching a little bit of their shape. Look at how interesting and mysterious our character looks standing in that colorful horizon. Now, all that is left to do are some suggestive legs for our character. Let's firstly under the selection made of the big shape to be able to draw outside of it. Now you will create these legs leaving from the dark side of the clothes with two long cone-like shapes oriented with a tape down. Very simple to do and very suggestive. They really don't need more than that. With this the character is whole and ready to take its place into the illustration. Let's make it look more immersed. As for the rest of the elements from this composition, our character needs just a little bit of light casted onto its shape. Let's go to the colors and grab the bright yellow. Of course, let's make sure the layer of the character is Alpha lock and picked from the brushes the texture to give your brush. Now, using a low brush flow let's add a gentle light on the top right side of our character. Don't make it as strong as the rest of the elements, just a little touch to make it look present into the illustration. Look at how gentle that light looks on its cape, how magically can a stand alone color transform an illustration into a deep and meaningful story. All that's left to do now is to go to the layers. Having selected the layer of the character let's place its layer underneath the one of the middle ground. Of course, you can use the move tool set on uniform to relocate this position or make it smaller or bigger in case it don't fit into the space from between the bushes and the tree. With this our landscape fairy tale composition is complete. Thank you so much for taking this class and joining me into these magical moments. If you enjoyed it make sure you leave a review and of course, share with the rest of us your own beautiful landscape. Congratulations for coming so far into this venture and see you in the next one.