Stop overthinking it. Seriously. Most people sit down with a fresh sheet of paper, look at a photo of the Swiss Alps, and immediately panic because they can't figure out how to render fourteen thousand individual pine needles. It’s a trap. When you’re hunting for landscapes to draw easy, you aren't looking for "simple" art—you’re looking for visual shorthand.
I’ve spent years watching students struggle with this. They think "easy" means "childish." Not true. Easy means reducing the world into manageable shapes. If you can draw a wobbly triangle and a messy horizontal line, you’ve already got the DNA of a mountain range.
Drawing is mostly just seeing. Most of us don't actually see what's in front of us; we see what we think should be there. We think trees are green lollipops. We think clouds are fluffy cotton balls. They aren't. In reality, a landscape is just a collection of values—light and dark—crashing into each other.
The Desert Horizon Trick
One of the most effective landscapes to draw easy is the desert at dusk. Why? Because it’s almost entirely silhouette. You don’t have to worry about the texture of grass or the complexity of moving water. You just need a few layers of sand dunes.
Think about it like this: Each dune is just a curved line that overlaps the one behind it. To create depth, you just make the lines in the back slightly lighter or thinner. This is atmospheric perspective, a concept popularized by masters like Leonardo da Vinci, but you don't need a Renaissance apprenticeship to pull it off. You just need to press lighter with your pencil as you move "further" into the paper.
Throw in a giant circle for a sun—maybe hide half of it behind a dune—and you’re done. It looks intentional. It looks like "Art" with a capital A, even though it took you four minutes.
Why Beginners Fail at Forests
Forests are a nightmare if you try to draw every tree. Don't do that.
If you want a forest landscape that doesn't make you want to throw your sketchbook across the room, focus on the "wall of trees" concept. Instead of drawing individual trunks, draw a jagged, dark shape that represents the treeline against a pale sky. This is where most people get tripped up. They try to be too specific too fast.
Renowned artist and educator Andrew Loomis often talked about the "block-in" phase. This is where you ignore detail and focus on the big masses. For a forest, the "mass" is just a dark, textured blob. You can add a few vertical lines later to imply trunks, but the blob does 90% of the work.
The Polar Minimalist Approach
Snowscapes are arguably the king of landscapes to draw easy. You’re basically leaving most of the paper white.
- Draw a horizon line. Make it slightly uneven because the earth isn't a ruler.
- Sketch a tiny, distant cabin. Just a square with a triangle on top.
- Add a single, spindly tree.
- Use a bit of cross-hatching or light shading for shadows on the snow.
That’s it. The "white space" becomes the snow. It’s a psychological trick; the viewer’s brain fills in the cold, the wind, and the silence because you gave them just enough information to start the story.
Water is Easier Than You Think
People fear drawing water. They think they need to draw every ripple. Honestly? Just draw horizontal dashes.
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If you’re drawing a lake, the water is essentially a mirror. If there’s a mountain above the water, you draw a messy, upside-down version of that mountain below the waterline. Then, you take an eraser or a white gel pen and put a few horizontal zags through it.
Boom. Reflections.
The secret to water isn't the water itself—it’s the contrast. You need sharp edges where the land meets the lake, and then soft, blurred lines within the reflection. It’s a game of edges.
Tools Matter, But Not How You Think
You don't need a $100 set of graphite pencils. You really don't. A standard HB pencil (the kind you used in school) and maybe one soft 4B or 6B pencil for dark shadows is plenty.
The real "pro" tip? Get a blending stump or even just a Q-tip. Smudging is your friend when you’re looking for landscapes to draw easy. If your mountain looks too "sketchy" and amateur, smudge the base of it into the ground. It creates a sense of mist or distance that hides a lack of detail. It's basically the "filter" of the physical art world.
The Rule of Thirds is Still Law
If your drawing feels "off" but you can't figure out why, it’s probably the composition. Don't put your horizon line right in the middle of the page. It’s boring. It splits the viewer’s attention exactly in half, and they don't know where to look.
Put the horizon in the bottom third if the sky is the star (like a sunset). Put it in the top third if the ground is the star (like a winding path or a flower field). This is a foundational rule in photography and classical painting for a reason—it works.
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Actionable Steps for Your Next Sketch
Ready to actually do this? Forget the masterpieces for a second.
- Start with a 4x4 inch box. Small squares are less intimidating than a giant A4 sheet of paper.
- Pick one "hero" element. Is it a single tree? A lone rock? A moon? Draw that first.
- Work from back to front. Sketch the sky and the furthest mountains before you touch the foreground. This prevents you from smearing your work as you move across the page.
- Limit your time. Give yourself 10 minutes. When you have a deadline, you stop obsessing over whether a specific pebble looks "realistic" and you start focusing on the vibe of the scene.
- Embrace the "mistake." If a line goes wonky, make it a bush. If you drop a blob of ink or graphite, make it a bird in the distance.
The goal here isn't to be the next Hudson River School painter by Tuesday. It’s to get comfortable with the fact that a few well-placed lines can represent an entire world. Start with the desert, move to the snow, and eventually, the forest won't seem so scary anymore. Grab a pencil and find a small box to fill. That's the only way the "easy" part actually happens.