Drawing A Waterfall

[rahul_jain]

I write weekly posts such as the following to inspire anybody to learn to do simple drawing with pen and ink.

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Drawing a Waterfall:

Drawing a waterfall may sound intimating, but as we will below, it is quite easy to do with few simple strokes that any beginner can do. I even did the following drawing with an ordinary writing gel pen. So, grab a pen and follow along. Such fun drawings gives us a creative break in our lives and are always enjoyable. Try one now.

Step 1: Draw Top of Waterfall

Start with a slight wavy line like below, indicating the top of waterfall, may be a river or a stream.

 

Step 2: Draw Falling Water:

Use slightly curved lines like shown below to indicate falling water. Turn the paper if need be to draw it. Don't make the lines flat. Give them a slight curve or bulge as shown below.

Step 3: Add Volume to Water

Use tapered dark like shown below to indicate volume in falling water.

Step 4: Indicate Water Flowing Out

After the fall, water continues its journey towards the viewer. Use lines like below to draw ripples that indicate that. Notice how they open up and grow bigger as they go out.

 

Add such ripples to the waterfall.

 

Step 5: Indicating Rocks and Mist

Add some darks at the bottom of fall to indicate some stones/rocks and dots going up to indicate mist. Keep it irregular. The notion of suggestion is very important in pen and ink. With just some dark irregular shape, a feel of 'something there' can be conveyed.

Step 6: Indicating Foliage on the Side

To give a finished feel, something on the sides of the fall should be indicated. Wooded area works very well and is very easy to do as shown below.

Use open loops to indicate foliage. make the base darker and add tapered darks to indicate trunks etc.

Use the above technique to indicate wooded area as banks of waterfall.

Step 7: Adding Reflection in Water

 

Use more of water stroke to darken it to indicate reflection as shown below.

Use the above technique to indicate reflection of wooded areas.

Step 8: Add Sky

Add Sky using horizontal parallel lines to finish this quick drawing.

 

This finishes this tutorial. Hopefully it motivated you to pick up a pen and try drawing it and see how easy and enjoyable it is to do pleasing landscapes with pen and ink.

 

 

 

Do let me know if you liked this post and any suggestions for future posts.

 

Happy Drawing,

 

Rahul

Edited November 23, 2018 by RMN
REMOVED ADVERTISING

[RMN]

I removed the advertising (not allowed in the forums) and moved the post to a more appropriate forum.

 

 

Good luck with your work.

 

 

D.ick

[Bo Bo Olson]

Do keep up the good work, be good to add a small waterfall to my 'woods cabin' doodle.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

My first three attempts at the waterfall.

 

 

 

[Corona688]

Very interesting.

[rahul_jain]

well done fuzzy_bear...not sure what size you drew at but looks like you image is considerably bigger than your drawing size...if you scale down your drawing before posting, then it will display better. Just a thought. Nice work and keep drawing.

 

Rahul

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Was drawn on Pelikan hub 2018 paper. 1/3 ish height,near full width.

[bass1193]

My first three attempts at the waterfall.

 

 

 

I think yours are far nicer than OP's. Maybe it's worth paying for his other stuff? I can respect a schill pushing his own products

[Fuzzy_Bear]

I will be ordering soon. This is the simplest drawn explanations I've seen. I used to draw as a kid, but then life.

 

I still think his are better. I have a lot more practice to go.