Sketching the Countryside How to Draw the Vanishing Rural Landscape

Both experienced and aspiring artists can benefit from this practical guide, which shows how to portray rustic settings from rural England to the American Southwest. Recalling the style of Eric Sloane, more than 400 detailed illustrations trace the steps from composition drawings to final sketches. Includes fundamentals for drawing trees, rocks, buildings, mountains, lakes, and other scenic elements.

A Detroit-based industrial electronics engineer, Frank Lohan turned his lifelong interest in sketching and painting into a career in teaching adult classes in art.

Introduction1. Tools and Materials   Basic Tools and Materials   Pens and Inks   Pencils   Erasers   Papers   Working area2. Techniques   Basic Guidelines   Pencil Techniques   Pen Techniques   Copying, Enlarging, or Reducing Using a Grid Overlay   Transferring Your Drawing3. Perspective Shortcuts   About Perspective   The Horizon   One-point Perspective   Two-point Perspective   Adjusting the Vanishing Points4. Backgrounds, Composition, and Drawing techniques   Background and Middle Grounds   Pairing Subjects with Backgrounds   Creating a Center of Interest   When to Stop Drawing   Different Techniques: Practice Exercises5. Drawing Rocks and Stone Walls   Basic Structures   The Shapes of Rocks   On-the-Spot Sketches   A Stone Quarry   Foreground and Background Rocks   Drawing Stone and Brick Walls   Underground Stone Chamber6. Drawing Wood and Wooden Things   Basic Structure   Drawing Rough-barked Trees   Drawing Smooth-barked Trees   Drawing a Pine Close Up   Drawing Light Barns and Dark Barns   Drawing Board and Batten Siding   Drawing a Wooden Door from Different Distances   A Stylized Approach to Drawing a Wooden Barn7. Drawing Lakes, Streams, and Waterfalls   Basic Structure   Drawing a Rocky River   Ocean Waves   Reflections in Water   Waterfall   Tying it All Together in One Study8. Sketching in the Southwestern U.S.   Basic Structures   Sketching an Adobe Building   Sketching Large Rock Formations   A Pima Indian Dwelling   An Old Mission   Texas Aqueduct   Using Photographs   The Alamo   Abandoned Mine Railway   An Old Arizona Farm Wagon   Pencil Vignettes9. Sketching Mountain Countrysides   Basic Structures   A Four-Tone Snowy Mountain Scene   The Rocky Mountains Near Aspen   Vignettes   A Mountain Rain Forest Scene   A Mountain Barn   Three Studies of an Idaho Cabin   Echo Rock, Mount Rainier10. Sketching Rural North America   Basic Structures   Homestead at Cades Cove   The Bales Place Near Gatlinburg   The Mill at Glades Creek   A Covered Crib at Cades Cove   A Pennsylvania Barn   Old Wooden Barn   An Old Manure Spreader   A Farmland Stream   A Covered Bridge   A Unique Barn   A Wooden Mill Wheel11. Sketching the English Countryside   Basic Structures   Sketching English Gardens   Sketching English Country Churches   Sketching Castles   Sketching Stone Circles   Sketching at Lee Bay   Sketching Thatched Roofs12. A Parting WordBibliographyIndex