Quick Mountain Tutorial!

how to draw isometric mountains

Today, a quick one on isometric pen and ink mountain ranges.

how to draw isometric mountains
1. Draw in the ridgeline

Draw in the ridgeline of the mountains. Add bumps and wiggles and allow the path to wander.

how to draw isometric mountains
2. Add Slopes

With the ridgeline in place, take lines off from the angles in the ridgeline. Basically anywhere your ridgeline changes direction you can draw a ridge ciming off. These should be steeper near the crest and smooth out towards the edge to show sharp peaks.

how to draw isometric mountains
3. Add Shading

Here I’ve laid in shadows with some basic hatching. Use lines far apart for a lighter shadow and closer hatching for deeper shadows. Keep your deeper shadows to the top of the ridgeline (where it’s steepest) and in valleys and crevasses. You can also skip the hatching and import the lineart into a digital editing program and shade your mountains there.

For more tutorials, check out the Tutorials section.

8 thoughts on “Quick Mountain Tutorial!”

  1. I’m always thrilled when I see your work. You make things look very simple too 🙂

    When it comes to this Quick Tutorial I am very fond of the concept. I wonder if it could be a good idea to have a “don’t” example beside it (in light gray pen). The ridge looks great, but what makes it great may be more clear if you see a nonworking version too. Just a thought.

    1. That’s a good thought. I’ll see if I can add in some examples of how not to do it, to help with illustrating the technique. Thanks!

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