How to Draw a Canyon

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Drawing canyons on your maps is a great way to make the terrain a little more interesting and add depth to the landscape. There is just something awe inspiring about canyons which is why in the real world they often become a travel destination. So it makes sense why people also love when you can add them as a feature to your fantasy maps.

At first glance a canyon can seem intimidating to draw, so I have broken the process down into some simple steps for you to follow. Take things one step at a time and you may be surprised how easy the process really is.

All of the brushes I will be using for this tutorial are available in Map Maker Essential Brushes pack for Procreate & Photoshop.

1: Drawing in the River

The first thing you want to do is to draw a river, which will determine where you place the canyon. Since this canyon will be in an isometric perspective rather than an overhead, try to use more horizontal movements back and forth to draw your river.

Once you get more comfortable with the process you can also start with the canyon first and then add the river. But I tend to prefer starting with the river because it feels a little easier to build from rather than something added later.

2: Adding the Ridges

You can now begin drawing the top ridges of the cliff along the river. They do not have to follow the river exactly, but can be a little more jagged and interesting. Again, you want to be sure you are using a lot of left to right movements with your pen to make it appear that it is in the right perspective.

You can also have the canyon ridge cross over the river itself like I did at the very top. In the next step you will see that doing this and obscuring part of the river is a great way to add depth and make it more realistic.

3: Giving the Cliffs Height

Begin adding some vertical strokes at each of the points along the ridge, and have them slope down to the river. Now it is really starting to look more like a canyon that is being carved into the landscape.

You can see that at the top the edge of the cliff now obscures part of the river so that it looks like it going behind it. Experiment with this as it really gives a pretty interesting effect.

4: Drawing in Details

Now that you know where your main cliffs are, you can go back with a smaller brush and start adding in some more detail. Begin at the top of the ridge and draw some finer strokes that slope down to the river. Try to make these ones a little more subtle and broken looking than the ones you drew in the previous step.

You will also want to add more strokes near the tops of the cliff as that is where the deepest shadows are being cast. This way you are actually doing a bit of shading just with your line work so that the canyon really could stand on its own without any other color or shading added later.

5: Blending into the Landscape

Now that you have finished detailing the inside of the canyon, you can now begin adding some detail at the top. Doing this will really go a long way to blending your canyon into the rest of the landscape so that it feels like it's a part of it and not something just added on top.

At each of the corner in particular on top of the cliffs draw some light horizontal strokes that blend into the terrain. The effect is subtle but it really adds a nice realistic texture.

6: Creating Shadows for Depth

If you are working digitally use the eye dropper tool and select the paper texture in the background. Darken the color slightly and begin filling in the canyon with the darker color.

At this point you will want to determine which direction the light is coming from. In this case the light will be coming from the left. So now after filling the entire canyon with the darker color, you can go back through with your eraser tool and lightly remove some of the color around the river itself, and some near the base of the cliff on the right. This will give the impression that the light is hitting this area more directly.

7: Deepening the Shadows

I find it is best to add the shading in stages in order to keep a more consistent look across the piece. So now that you have added in your basic shadows, you can now go back and begin deepening them in certain places.

Darken the color that you used in the previous step and begin adding some darker shadows where the light would be most hidden. Generally this is particularly the areas directly below the cliff edge, as well as along the vertical detail lines you added earlier.

In my own experience, whenever I draw a canyon on one of my maps it is always something people comment on. There is just something about them that resonates with people. Part of it may be that hand drawn maps are generally fairly flat in nature with some geographic features draw on top. But since a canyon really cuts into the landscape and adds dimension it is seen as unusual and a point of interest.

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Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you map your story!

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