Mountains are a wonderful source of inspiration for those learning to paint and draw landscape.  From a design standpoint they offer big shapes to contrast to your smaller shapes. They work as a foundation on which to add trees and lakes. They can also be filled with local color or designed as colorful backdrops to your paintings. And finally, as you as you learn to handle mountains, you can bring those same painting and drawing skills to any rocky or massive surface like beach cliffs.

If you want to see how painters approach mountain subject matter checkout:

The Language of Landscape in Watercolor with Dale Laitinen:

Acrylics the Watercolor Ways: Stephen Quiller Paints a Landscape

Landscape Painting Techniques in Oil: Quick Studies with Craig Nelson

Splash Color Technique with Cheng-Khee Chee

Here are the images from the video:

Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 5

15-Minute Sketch is an ongoing series to create easy ways for you to practice your daily drawing and sketching. Just 15-minutes a day will make a huge difference in your drawing and painting abilities.

Please note: The video below does not include audio. Five reference photos will be on screen each for 3 minutes each. Ready, set, sketch!