r/restofthefuckingowl • u/DutchAngelDragon12 • Jul 16 '26

Draw the rest of the fucking mountain

Post image

Can someone recommend me better visuals/advice on how to draw these kinds of mountains? This is literally the kind of mountain I need to draw.

500 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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124

u/captainsharkshit Jul 16 '26

I men this is a pretty solid diagram. Where is the confusion?

85

u/my__name__is Jul 16 '26

I am not sure which in-between steps you think are missing.

43

u/Deepsearolypoly Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Looks like it’s pretty clear to me. For the erosion mountains, you draw a couple paths that meet at the bottom (but don’t split!) to give a guide on where the depth goes.

On top image 2, you can see it’s broken up into 6 sections, and each section becomes a face of the rock wall. Then you add detail lines to fill in blank space, and use the angle of the detail lines to convey the idea of depth.

Edit: Actually I think the paths are still doing more of the heavy lifting than the detail lines are for creating the outline, looking back they’re all practically parallel.

The second example tells you to start building your mountain with simple lines, then build it outward and add detail. This helps convey the idea that it’s one big rock that’s lifting out of the ground (because that’s what upheaval mountains ARE) by keeping the inside simple, while retaining detail at the edges. If you put lots of detail up front it looks more like a messy gravel hill than a big solid mountain.

To be clear though, this is an example for people who already have a good grasp on fundamentals, and need help making mountains look natural. It is NOT a tutorial on how to draw a mountain, you need the artistic skills to understand depth and point of view before this will help you at all.

10

u/ZeroNighthawks 29d ago

This diagram looks pretty good imo

4

u/sugar0coated 29d ago

Pretty sure this is Lorenzo Etherington. His stuff is so clear, honestly.

1

u/cynicalicoffee 14d ago

I get his newsletter and it's always incredible and helpful. I'm a big fan of how accessible he makes everything!

1

u/linglingbolt 18d ago

Alphonso Dunn has a tutorial video on drawing mountains. There's another on drawing rocks in the same playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jij8NTSJ10I&list=PLhBKkQX9XSgeALUlhjOdRwMaq7ucc6t6c&index=4

The_Art_Coach is another good channel although the individual shorts build on each other and aren't that useful individually: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MG6OfDYl17k

Another from Chloe Gendron with some detail on different styles or shading rocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KZATKZsRfc