Introduction

I will show you the process for a landscape diorama painting. I will explain how to texture mountains and grasses. I'll also show you lots of tips that are helpful when painting landscapes.

With a diorama you can focus on the objects in a scene. You can more easily incorporate concepts you have prepared into a painting. A diorama can also serve as a good training for your perspective skills.

Start with words and emotions and choose suitable references

To gather initial ideas, I write down some words that capture a particular emotion or themes. For this diorama image, they were simple words like: Mountains, landscapes, peaceful, dramatic and evening sun.

I then choose appropriate references for my landscape. Don't be afraid to use as many references as possible. I even have a separate inspiration folder for each project. I get inspired by everything possible at the beginning. I have a handful of references for colors, shapes, light, mood and individual objects. Over time, however, I refer to them less and less until I barely look at them. Then I concentrate only on my painting.

 

Perspektive

Before starting the actual process. I quickly lay down a few perspective lines. If you have problems with this, let Clipt Studio Paint help you. Go to Layer > Ruler/Frame -> Create Perspective Ruler... and then select the 2 points perspective. Click now on Snap to Special Ruler to paint only on the perspective you created.

 

Sketch

My sketches for the landscapes are usually very rough. I'm always looking for beautiful or exciting shapes. If I can't think of any, I try to make up for it with interesting light. Shapes aren't everything, but they help you create a generally appealing image.

If you have trouble sketching freely, I have a good exercise for you. Draw from your shoulder. When you start sketching, don't raise your hand. Keep the pen on your graphics tablet and just keep sketching shapes, but with a continuous line. Over time, you'll get faster and more confident at this.

It's best to sketch with a pen like the G Pen or the Tumip pen with low opacity or in gray color.

Pick your best sketch or just the one you like the most. Create a new layer and set the sketch layer to 50% opacity. Alternatively take an eraser and erase the old lines with low opacity.

Drawing the mess away

Once I have finished my messy sketch, I put down a clean drawing on a new Layer. I try not to include too much detail in the picture. I just need a rough structure so that I do not depart from the original shapes too much when painting. The colors will change a lot anyway and whole shapes and parts of the composition will disappear and be replaced by others.

Light

After the drawing I paint different light scenarios in black and white. I put down a new Layer under the drawing and set the drawing layer to Mutliply. With a gray tone I paint the whole shape and click on Look transparent pixels.

With a dark gray I paint the shadows and with a light gray the light. I'm trying to capture an evening light. I'm trying to capture an evening light in this case. Therefore, the light shines from the side and quite low.

It is better to experiment with multiple light settings. Accordingly, I have painted a second light scene.

To avoid starting from scratch create a new layer and click on Clip to Layer Below. This allows you to paint over the bottom layer without painting over the old shape.

I chose the first one because it reflected the emotions I wanted to capture more.

Color

The colors you choose depend on your lighting. At sunset, reddish tones dominate. Since the sky also becomes more reddish in the evening and even purple in some cases, the shadows will also receive a portion of this more purple cast from the sky. Try to study your references carefully to observe the phenomena of light.

If you have problems finding the right colors, mix them directly on your canvas or on a new layer. If you have two colors that don't really want work together, take a brush with low opacity and try to mix the colors. This way you'll bring them closer and closer and you can get more pleasant nuances that harmonize well on the canvas.

if you have trouble painting textures and shapes, try using a brush with a rough texture. Then paint with one color over the other. Always try to think three-dimensionally and with light and shadow. If you want a sharp edge use the Lasso tool

and for soft edge use a brush with low opacity. Here i show you a quick process how i texture the rocks.

Organic Shapes

Try to avoid the same shapes. Break them up and try to paint dynamic and organic structures into your landscape. If something looks boring, paint a curve into the shape. Maybe interrupt the whole shape with a change of material. Place objects in front of or behind others and create more interesting shadows. You can easily add elevation changes to your landscapes. I made the grassy area more interesting with rock steps. The mountains were easily transformed with the Lasso tool and simple shapes were broken up. I did the same with the waterfall. I turned the boring shape of the waterfall into a dynamic one and I erased whole areas of grass with a reddish earth color and painted over this area with small grass lines.

The waterfall was boring to look at despite the change in shape. I constantly had the feeling the waterfall is important, but it was pushed back by the shadow and the colors into the background. With a beam of light, I was able to direct the spectator’s focus back to the waterfall. For this I had to completely rework a part of the image, but such changes are worthwhile.

Reflections

To show reflections, you can hand paint them in, though I can understand if you want a shortcut. I mark everything that i need with the lasso tool and copy them. I pull down the individual objects. Depending on how you have your layer set up, it may be easier to create one Layer from all the previous ones. Once you've done that, press Ctrl + T and transform each object. You can do this with the Ctrl key. Just click on one of the rectangles and drag it back and forth. Now delete out everything you don't need. Make sure that the reflection does not show the side facing the sky. Click on Filter > Blur > Motion Blur… and you will get a reflection of your mountains.

Präsentation

A diorama would simply float in a room and look somewhat alone without further effort. Similar to how a frame presents a painting, you should also stage the diorama. I have painted a cloud background in the left part of the picture.

By pressing the W key you can use Clip Studio Paint's Auto Select function to select a specific color area. This tool can be helpful for cloud formations. After the selection i paint the clouds with a lighter color with low opacity Brush. If you don't get the desired result decrease or increase the Color Margin and Close gab settings. You can also use the tool for other purposes like painting textures of grass or mountains.

The cloud background still looked slightly out of place, so I painted a frame around it and changed the background color to make the light in the images stand out better.

I created a soft light layer, chose a warm light color and painted a beam of light in between the mountains using a soft airbrush. This creates a nice volumetric light and completes the image.

After that, the picture was ready. In the Youtube video you can watch the painting process in more detail. There I explain even more things. Have fun painting.