Pastel Landscape Mastery: Trees and Foliage
Lesson Description
In this essential lesson from the Pastel Landscape Mastery course, Matt guides students through the process of drawing trees and foliage with soft pastels, with a strong emphasis on capturing the effects of light. Trees and plant life are often some of the most challenging elements in a landscape, but through a clear and structured approach, this lesson simplifies the process into manageable steps. Students learn how to move beyond symbolic representations and instead create natural, believable forms that feel integrated within the environment.
Simplifying Trees into Basic Shapes
The lesson begins by breaking down complex forms into simple, recognizable shapes. Instead of attempting to draw every leaf or branch, students are encouraged to see trees and bushes as masses of value and color. This approach makes it easier to establish the overall structure of the foliage before refining the details.
By focusing on these larger shapes first, students gain greater control over proportion and placement, ensuring that the trees feel grounded within the landscape. This foundational step also prevents the drawing from becoming overly detailed too early in the process.
Layering Color to Build Natural Foliage
Once the basic forms are established, attention shifts to layering color. Matt demonstrates how to use a variety of greens, along with subtle variations of yellows, blues, and earth tones, to create richness and depth within the foliage. Rather than relying on a single green, students learn how layering multiple hues results in a more natural and visually interesting surface.
The process of layering also allows for adjustments as the drawing develops. Colors can be softened, intensified, or modified to better reflect the surrounding environment, leading to a more cohesive final image.
Using Light to Define Form
A key focus of this lesson is the role of light in shaping trees and foliage. Matt explains how light affects the appearance of leaves and branches, creating areas of highlight, midtone, and shadow. By carefully observing where the light source is coming from, students learn how to place highlights strategically and deepen shadows to create volume.
This contrast between light and dark is what gives the trees their three-dimensional quality. Stronger highlights are reserved for areas facing the light, while darker values are used to suggest depth within the foliage and beneath overlapping forms.
Creating Depth Within the Landscape
In addition to developing individual trees, the lesson also addresses how foliage contributes to the overall sense of space within a landscape. Trees in the foreground are rendered with more contrast and detail, while those in the distance are simplified with softer edges and lighter values.
This variation helps create a believable sense of depth, allowing the viewer’s eye to move naturally through the composition. By adjusting clarity and contrast, students can effectively separate foreground, middle ground, and background elements.
Balancing Detail and Suggestion
One of the most important takeaways from this lesson is knowing how much detail to include. Matt emphasizes that successful foliage is often suggested rather than fully rendered. Strategic marks and value changes can imply clusters of leaves without drawing each one individually.
This balance between detail and simplification not only saves time but also results in a more natural and visually appealing drawing. Overworking the foliage can lead to stiffness, while thoughtful suggestion keeps the image fresh and dynamic.
Strengthening Your Landscape Skills
This lesson plays a vital role in the overall course by addressing one of the most common challenges artists face in landscape drawing. By learning how to construct trees, layer color effectively, and use light to define form, students build confidence in their ability to create convincing natural scenes.
By the end of the lesson, students will have a deeper understanding of how to approach trees and foliage with intention, using light and color to bring their landscapes to life. These skills can be applied to a wide range of subjects, making this lesson a valuable step toward mastering pastel landscapes.
Lesson Materials
Toned pastel paper, soft pastels, pastel pencils, NuPastels.
Lesson Resources
Download eBook
Reference Image
Course Curriculum
Founder of The Virtual Instructor, artist and teacher. Matt makes learning art easy to understand and enjoyable.
Wow~!~ When I see the trees being drawn out, the grasses, bushes, all of it makes sense! The light bulb has come on over my head! (Finally!)
Wonderful! Thanks!
Truly inspiring video and the great demonstration. I learnt many secrets.
When drawing the tree do you blend after applying each color or just layer the next color over top of the last one?
Hi Chris,
It depends. Once a strong base of color is in place, some of the applications are allowed to “sit” without any blending. If colors should have a transition or gradation, then blending is required. You can choose to blend as you apply each color or wait until you have colors in place before blending. It’s up to you. The results will be similar either way.
awesome !!! your very talented Matt, I really enjoyed this video very much and got some great ideas about how to layer color. many thanks.
Really wonderful tutorial. The technique applications were straightforward, particularly about the water reflections & the gnarly tree in the foreground. It was amazing to see the distant trees take shape with the applications of dark blue & yellow. I am slowly getting the hang of pastels. Thank you!
Hello Matt, how should I sharpen my stick pastels and pastel pencils? thanks so much
Wow you really gave me some hints of drawing trees and foliage and even the water I really enjoyed this segment
Hello,
How can we preserve the pastel sketches, I tried fixative but it completely dulled my previous sketch(The sky). I have to re do it again.
All your demos are inspiring but this one is very special – the line of trees in the distance and reflections on the water almost made me cry, they are so beautiful. I notice you are using quite hard pastels – I think I may have wasted a lot of money on some very expensive, creamy soft pastels, they have amazing colour but are so very difficult to use so I have gone back to the square sticks of very affordable Inscribe with Conte sticks and Derwent Pastel Pencils for finer details. I will keep trying the expensive ones as I gain experience – maybe one day I will master them! Meanwhile my priority is to produce acceptable pictures, otherwise I will get discouraged and give up.
Thank you again, Matt, you are a blessing to so many of us!
The lights, mediums and dark that my previous instructor stressed is now making more sense after watching this video and eBook. Thanks
This is a great lesson.
Great instruction. Question – how do you remove the dust from the paper? In the video it just disappears!
Is the photo reference posted on the site?
Dear Matt,
Hello! I wanted to ask what brand of pastels you were using in this video. I bought the Reeves set, but I am suffering from major fallout and crummy blending, when you seem to be just fine.
Thank you!
-R
Hi Mat….
What a wonderful course! I am learning so much!
I do have a question. I am having a very hard time keeping my artwork clean. I am constantly cleaning my hands, my work area, my pastels (am using Rembrant soft pastels because they seem to be the least dusty). Still, my artwork gets muddy with pastel dust. Trying to use a soft brush to brush off the dust is just not helping. I am already using tracing paper to place under my hand while I am working, so I am not smudging the pastels.
So, my question is, what is the best way to keep the artwork clean of unwanted dust? Is there a “best practices” way to clean the artwork while working on my picture?
Thank you…. Gigi Kratzke
I loved this. Thank you.
I noticed in the final completed drawing, the one you flashed on the screen just before the end of the video, is much brighter than the one you completed while showing you drawing in action. It looks like yellow highlights were added to brighten it up. I really like it better. Did you add yellow highlights to accomplish this look?
Hi Patsy,
The video picks up slightly different colors than the final artwork which is photographed and edited to match the drawing in Photoshop.
How do you keep all the pastel dust off of your picture without smudging it? Your lessons are great by the way 🙂
Thank you Matt for such a great video. I love this landscape. I will buy some soft pastels next week and try it! I have a question, is it possible to sketch the landscape with H pencil before I start? For me I need to plan where to put the trees and lake etc otherwise the lake will be too big, not enouth space for the big trees … If I use H pencil, will the pencil be still visible after I finish drawing with pastel? Sometimes I have this problem with colored pencil drawings.
how can we see the image you are painting?
Can you tell me what you use to preserve this painting?
Hi Joyce,
Some artists like to use fixative on their finished pastel drawings. Fixative will help keep the pastel dust from moving on the surface. I don’t use fixative since it darkens values a bit. Instead, I keep my pastel drawings safe in a drawer with a cover sheet until I’m ready to frame the art.
Hi Matt,
I have asked this question before,my pastels clog and I have difficulty in layering some colours, like putting light colours over dark, is this down to the paper, it’s 250 gsm.
Great lesson! But I wish you would mention when you switch to nupastels. I have softer pastels, and nupatels, which I understand are harder. I’ve done 3 pastel lessons of landscapes, and I’ve yet to switch to nupastels which I like very much. And I really like the nupastels.
Hello Matt,
When looking at a reference how do you decide what is the best color of paper to use?
Thank you, Teri