In this post we’re going to look at a step by step ink and watercolour tutorial, for how to sketch a landcape. In this instance, what is a rather complex landscape. The scene itself comes from one of my subscribers on Patreon. This is a very lovely, very challenging scene from Curt (thank you!).
In this post, we’re going to look at a step-by-step process, the same one I always use… and how it can be applied an adapted to create a layered landscape like this. I’ll break down those steps as well so you can see how the painting and sketching process evolved through every step of the way.
Want to watch the full video? You can find it here on Patreon.
A bit of feedback from my friend
Feedback makes all the difference. It’s quite amazing what having a few bits of wisdom, and a second perspective on your art can make. A little nugget of a suggestion can really be all you need to make a real breakthrough in your style. As an extra special extra here, I feel I’ve been heavily inspired by Colin Woodward’s sketching and painting processes, or in particular, the painting processes and the layering he uses so well. So I asked him for a little bit of a review of my piece, and I’ve included that at the bottom as well.
Feedback is so valuable to me, that it is something I provide in all of my main courses. If you enjoy the style of my landscape today then I highly recommend my landscape sketching course – where I’ll personally log in and provide you feedback on all your sketches from the course.
If you like loose landscapes, check out my landscape sketching course — feedback included.
The reference for today
As ever, of course, we’re going to approach this in a step-by-step fashion.
Sketchbook
- Luchetti 8×8 inch cold press, lay-flat [review and links here]
Pens & Drawing Tools
- Specialist fountain pen fitted with an Ultra Flex nib [more info here]
- Platinum carbon black ink [find it here]
Brushes
Paints & Pigments
- Cobalt Turquoise (Schmincke)
- Perylene Maroon (Jackman’s)
- Mars Yellow (Schmincke)
- Perylene Red (Schmincke)
- Perylene Violet (Schmincke)
- Payne’s Grey Bluish / Payne’s Grey (Schmincke)
- Perylene Green (Schmincke)
The sketching process
STEP ONE – light lines
I’m using my very lovely Ultra Flex nib here. It’s something I’m using more and more. And one of the things that’s got me using it more and more is remembering that idea of using the nib upside down to get those really light and delicate lines. You can see the effect of that here. And when we come to add the bold lines, you can see the dramatic change that that makes. Now, this pen is a little bit of a specialist pen, but there are actually cheaper ways to achieve this effect. So I’m just going to drop here a link to the review I’ve made of this particular pen and nib, which will give you ideas of if you like this approach, the way that you can find it. And I will say, I do not have an affiliate code or relationship with the maker of this pen or nib. [blog is here]
The key in this step is to just map out the basic shapes and start to create a focus. Even now, you can see a lot more time and effort spent in the centre of the scene as we then build out gently and just get an idea of what’s around it. One of the big changes I made is the position of the top of the cliff to bring it down below these main rocky outcrops.
If you like loose landscapes, check out my landscape sketching course — feedback included.
STEP TWO – BOLD LINES AND TEXTURES
In reality, a lot of the textures were done in that initial light line shape, continuous line phase, but there’s still room to add a few bits of extra texture and, of course, some needed bold lines to bring together the structure. I must say, I was very happy at the time how this was going, but looking at it now, it looks a little bit crude without the colours. But that is a lesson to oneself about how important it is to just trust the process. At that point in time, I was trusting the process, so I was happy with how things were going and I avoided overworking it here.
STEP THREE – Loose colours
Now it’s time for those loose colours. I start off with a sky mix of cobalt turquoise, but also just lots of little bits of slightly murky things in my palette, and plenty of water to create something very soft and distant. That kind of burnt light blue sky, which you get in these hot, arid places.
underneath, I used a range of different colours, but the star of the show was Perilin Maroon from Jackman’s. Now, I’ve almost run out because mine didn’t dry properly in the pan, and this is the nature of handmade colours. They’re a little bit unpredictable. I actually shared an email conversation with Mr Jackman, the maker of these colours, and he said this is a mistake. It shouldn’t be happening like this. So, I’m going to buy another tube and I’m going to hope that the next one dries. If you’d like to check out the colour, there’s a affiliate link here that you can find to it.
I’ll hold off a full recommendation of the colour until I find it dries properly in the pan though!
The other colours I used include Mars Yellow, Perillin Red, a tiny bit of Perillin Violet, and Payne’s Grey Bluish, all by Schmincke.
Quite amazing to notice the difference when these colours dry, and how it feels at that point.
STEP FOUR – BOLD COLOURS
Now it is time to layer. This time using a flat brush. And I’m not going to try too hard to describe what I did because I really think you have to watch the video. But just twiddling, moving the brush around, using the corners, the flats, the edges can create all sorts of rather wonderful textures, sense of movement, fluidity in the colours. Just try it out. Make sure you’re using plenty of water though. Here, the colours I added were more of my cobalt turquoise, Perillin green, and again a bit of Payne’s grey within there.
STEP FIVE – FINISHING TOUCHES
Last but not least, just a few little touches to add to our page. This time I started with a bit of ink. I was trying hard not to make it too bold, but I think the ink I’ve added, and you can see it in this photo below, does just bring us the structure it needed. I then used tiny little bits of slightly darker pigment to deepen the shadows before chucking a little bit more of that Perilin Maroon on, which brings a richness and a warmth to a few areas.
And finally! Here is Colin’s rather kind feedback…
I strongly suspect he was simply overwhelmed that I was using some of his techniques and has decided not to apply any criticisms to this. But very pleased, obviously, that Colin was so happy with it.
It is amazing how we work together so much, how we have the same materials a lot of the time, but our styles are so different. Yet, every time we work together, we learn something new. If you’d like to find out more about our collaborations, check out…. urbansketch.co.uk (for in person courses in UK and EU) … and sketchloose.co.uk for Sketch Advent, and more exciting things coming soon!
Courses with Colin!
As a cheeky note on that, Colin and I are starting to find ways to explore courses and teaching and different things that we can do together. So, a little shout out to firstly our podcast, which you can find here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wdwdtl
But also, we have launched Sketch Advent, which we are super excited about! Find it here: https://sketchloose.co.uk/sketch-advent-2026-christmas-sketching-course/
