bought at gumroad.

com/mitchleeuwe

How to draw
environments YOU'LL LEARN:
how to use composition,
by mitch leeuwe perspective, effects
and other skills to
create environments
bought at gumroad.com/mitchleeuwe

Copyright © 2021 by Mitch Leeuwe

how to draw
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reselled, reproduced or used in any manner
whatsoever without the express written permission of
environments
the publisherexcept for the use of brief quotations in a
book review. For personal use only

mitchleeuwe.nl
by mitch leeuwe

Printed in the Netherlands

First Printing, 2021

Graphic design: Harmke Leeuwe

harmke.com

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 Hi there!
Let me introduce myself. I’m Mitch Leeuwe and am an illustrator from the Netherlands. I always drew a lot as a kid. I
even had the childhood dream to become an animator at Disney. During my teenage years, I lost that dream. Luckily, I
slowly started drawing more and more. When I was 19, I began to do some freelance work as a graphic designer, which
made me consider picking up drawing again. I attended several drawing programs at schools but I learned most from
online resources. Now, I’m a freelance artist working on visual development. This means I design characters, props
and backgrounds for games, animation and toys. However, you probably know me from my Instagram where I release
tutorials and more. My goal is to create a place where people can learn the things I wanted to learn when I started out.

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 For the production of things like movies, cartoons, this ebook and focus on understanding why I draw it
commercials or games, backgrounds need to be made. that way. Also, compare your version with my original
Most of the time that is done by an environment artist. drawing to see what you did well and what could use
some extra attention. When you see something that
It seems that nowadays, being a character artist is is off, try to figure out what you can improve and give
quite popular. With that in mind, it could be a smart it another go. Learning to draw takes a lot of time, so
move to try to get into the industry as an environment don’t let that discourage you, simply take your time.
Introduction artist. Naturally, it is important that you choose to do
something you like, but what I’m trying to say here is When something is too difficult, take a step back and
that by learning how to become an environment artist break it down in simpler steps. The upside about any
In this book I’ll explain several aspects of how to draw Perspective drawing is also a convenient skill for drawing (there is a large demand for good ones), it could give frustration is that it simply points you to something you
backgrounds, such as composition, using reference, backgrounds, and I’ll explain some of the basics in this you many extra opportunities. can work on. When you see it this way, it’s actually
telling a story, adding details and way more. I’ll also show book. If you’d like to know more about drawing with something that can help you grow as an artist. So, don’t
you how to create backgrounds for different subjects and perspective, I have created a special ebook for this I would recommend studying the drawings covered give up and don’t be too hard for yourself, we all started
environments, for example cities, forests, all kinds of subject in particular. In the ebook, among other specifics, I here by grabbing your pencil or pen and draw the somewhere!
different nature and interiors. go in depth on how to draw perspective for environments. drawings from this book. Follow the steps I take in

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 the basics of
drawing environments

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 drawing perspective
When you’d like to learn how to draw backgrounds, I see how I use these lines to draw the big shapes (like
would recommend learning about drawing in perspective. boxes) on top of them. I start by drawing boxes because
Even when you don’t want to invest too much time they are easier to draw in perspective. When I’m happy
in it, start with some basics, like one- and two-point with the overall design and big shapes, I start adding
perspective. Already with understanding one- and smaller shapes and after that I add the details.
two-point perspective you are able draw many things.
Perspective can be very technical, but when I’m drawing, I Starting with big shapes allows you then to focus on the
don’t use the complex perspective techniques all the time. overall shape and the proportions of the design. Details
are important, but they are the icing on the cake. If you
In this drawing of a house, you can see how I draw have a weak design (the big shapes/overall design), you
freehand perspective. On image 1 you can see the green won’t be able to save it by adding details.
and purple lines. If you make these lines longer, you’ll
notice they disappear in one point (the vanishing point on
the horizon). Sometimes I just roughly sketch these lines
as a guide for my drawing. On the second image you can

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 Here I’ve drawn some variations. The main differences between these houses are in the big shapes. As mentioned
before, focus first on those big shapes, then add smaller shapes, and details after that.

exercise
Try to make a couple
design process of your own variations,
you can use some of
these elements for your
You don’t always have to start in perspective design. But try to make
though. Especially when you’re focusing on an alternative using
the design of an object, it can be useful to first different big shapes, as
draw it from a front view. That way you can I did here.
pay all your attention to the design and save
the perspective for later. Oftentimes, I scribble
a bunch of these front views first before I start
drawing the final design in perspective. With this
approach you have your own reference when
making the final drawing.

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 In this image I want to show you step by step how
I approach drawing such as this. My sketches
usually do look rougher than this, but I wanted to
demonstrate clearly how I make these steps.

I start with the big shapes, add smaller shapes and

details step by step. When I have finished the final
line art, I add colors and save the shading for the
last step. With colors it’s important not to choose too
many of them, but rather think about a color scheme
you’d like to use. For the shading, choose a light
source (like a lamp, the sun, the moon, etc.) and its
position. Keep it simple.

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 Here you see some drawings of houses
I did before I created the final drawing
at the bottom. I would recommend you
to do the same. First draw a couple
use reference of thumbnail sketches and pick the
design you like the most. Use that one
in your final drawing. It’s good to try out
For this building I used reference different designs and not settle for the
of buildings from the city center of first thing you can come up with.
Amsterdam. I would recommend to
always look up reference if you can.
When you use reference, you can
apply elements of different buildings
and combine them together to create
your own design.

Sometimes I use 3D to design my

buildings, as I have done here to
create this one. I’ll talk more about
using 3D later.

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 props
To be precise, this boat isn’t a background or
environment, it’s actually called a prop. Think
of a prop as an object, like boat, plane or
car. But it can also be something smaller, like
table, chair, television, and so forth.

Before I began the final drawing for this boat, I

drew some quick thumbnails. When doing this
I focus on the big shapes of the design. When
I have something I like, I tweak it (maybe
taking some parts of different interesting
thumbnails) and apply that to the final design.

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In the first image you can see the doodles I made before of my doodles and let them choose their favorite. I never
I started with the final design. You can actually find me send all though, as that could end up being too much to
doing this almost every time, personally I think it’s good to pick from. It does however show your confidence as an
never be satisfied just with your first drawing/design. When artist if you select approximately four of the strongest
I’m working for a client, sometimes I send over a couple designs and present that to the client.

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 Here you can see how I start doodling (1 to 4). I prefer to start with a cube, because that is a shape that is easy to draw
in perspective and you can build on top of that to create something more complex.

Once the doodle feels right, I start drawing it from scratch with better perspective and take more time for it to make it as
nice as possible. As I have explained earlier, I first want to get the big shapes right and then I’ll add all the details. I use
the doodle as reference for my final design.

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When I draw a background, I Consider the style you’re drawing in.
sometimes draw some of the Most of the time I’m drawing in this
props on a separate page for cartoon style where everything is a
extra information about these bit wonky. To achieve this, I make up
objects. This comes in handy if some rules to follow, like making all
a 3D artist needs to model the the shapes a little bit playful and not
environment. Having drawings of too straight.
these props separately from the
environment makes it easier to When you practice how to draw props
model these props in 3D. specifically, it also gets easier for you
to draw a full environment filled with
So besides learning how to draw props. It becomes less overwhelming
environments, it’s also useful and gives you more confidence when
to learn how to draw props for drawing the background.
production.

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 composition

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 the rule of thirds
Knowing the principles of composition is very important for drawing backgrounds. With composition you can guide the
viewers’ eyes to what’s important in the scene.
create depth
One common rule is to use the rule In this image I want to show you
of thirds. What it means is that you tips on how you can add some extra
put objects on 1/3 or 2/3, and you depth in your drawings. Think about
avoid the middle or the sides. It’s using the foreground, midground and
not mandatory to do this, there are background. You can try to create
movies where the middle is used some rough sketches like this to get
to create the visual style. But if you to some interesting compositions by
are just starting with composition, using these guides. Keep the drawings
I would recommend learning the very basic and see how far you can
rules first and break them only once come with just a simple rough drawing.
you truly understand them.

Here are some examples of how I use the rule of thirds in my drawings. An exercise you can do is to study some movies
and try to see if you can find these compositions in the shots. Often times you can clearly recognize these basic rules.

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 What I want to point out here is for you to
avoid drawing from the front view or side view
as much as possible and try to go for depth
and use that Z axis instead.

When I’m drawing environments, my aim is to create as much depth as I can. This makes the environment livelier
and more interesting to look at.

A great way of creating depth in your drawings is by using the Z axis (see the example image). The X stands for the
width, the Y for the height and the Z for the depth. If you are drawing objects like a fence, road or branch, you can
create the illusion of depth by drawing them on the Z axis.

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 setting up a composition
When I start sketching, it almost looks like a modern art painting (image 1). I do have an idea in my mind, and I try to
find flowing shapes that go well with it. This is something that is difficult to explain and teach, but you can learn it by
doing it for yourself. Try to follow the steps I’m showing here. First think about the energy and from step 3, you can start
to add construction. Here it’s transforming into a real world but try to keep the energy from the flowing lines you started
the drawing with.

Pick a background you like and try to catch the flow of that drawing in a few simple lines,
exercise like image 1 of the example. You are basically reversing the process I described above. By
doing so you can learn how to set up something such as this for your own environment.
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 Here I start with the simple idea of a house on a hill. I added the tree in the foreground for depth and to achieve an
interesting balance with the house and the tree. I always try to have these contrasts in my drawings and want to avoid
symmetry as much as possible.

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 When I draw landscapes, I This is another example in
like to start by drawing the which I started by drawing
horizon line. It’s an easy the horizon line and then
first step to put something added the mountains.
on the canvas. Once you When I draw buildings, I
have drawn this line, you like to set it up with basic
can add mountains on top shapes. Cubes, cylinders
of it. After that I start adding and spheres. The trees are
smaller shapes like three’s more organic, but you can
and other fauna. still recognize those same
basic shapes. Once you
have drawn these shapes
you can add more details
on top of it.

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In background drawing, focus
is an important element. Using
shapes that point or flow towards
the direction you want to draw
the viewers’ attention to, is one
way of guiding that focus.
Here I started dividing the frame
Before you make a background, into nine parts with the rule of thirds.
decide where the focus point Once I have done that, I picked one
should be. The focus point can of the 4 interactions and used that to
be something like a character, put a point of interest on, which would
building or another point of be the bear in this case. Trees, rivers
interest. In this example I have and other organic shapes are also
used the arrows to determine good for guiding the eye to the point
the focus points. In the final of interest. You can first draw these
drawing you can see that the arrows and next, build shapes on top
other elements flow or point of that, those follow the direction and
towards it. flow of that arrow.

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 aerial perspective
When you look far in the distance,
Before you begin with your final you will see the effect of atmospheric
drawing, it’s good to draw a perspective, also called aerial
thumbnail first. Keep it very rough perspective. Objects that are in the
and just use it to put your idea on distance have less contrast and
paper. will also appear more blueish. With
greater distance, there will be more
Once you have that, you can air particles between you and the
decide what kind of perspective object you’re observing. If you’re
would fit and keep working on it. sketching, one way to use this is
The nice thing about making a by drawing thinner lines. Or when
thumbnail or rough sketch is that you’re drawing in values, you could
you don’t have to worry too much use lighter colors. In this example
about all the drawing rules and the objects in the foreground are
can focus on getting your idea the darkest and the objects in the
right. distance are lighter.

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 exercise
Have a go and see if you can break
down these drawings like I did with
the previous backgrounds. Start
with the biggest shapes and save
the details for last. By analyzing
someone’s work in these steps, you
develop skills to learn how to draw
backgrounds such as this yourself.

Maybe you can draw your own

version of a beach with palm trees
using the elements I’m showing
here. Play around and place
everything little bit differently,
and/or draw it slightly different in
general. The combinations of these
elements become endless when
you change them.

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 prop design

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 Construction If you look closely at these trees,
you might be able to break them
back down in simple shapes, as a
reversed training of the explanation
on the previous page. Once you’ve
done that and you are confident
about it, you can experiment with
making your own trees following the
steps I’m showing in this book.

Tip: Use the internet or go outside

for real life reference. Try to see
if you can find those big shapes
in real life trees and draw them in
your sketchbook. Sometimes I first
Every complex drawing can be broken down to basic shapes. By focusing on those basic shapes, you can concentrate draw a realistic version of the tree
on a good construction for the object you’re drawing. Once you get these shapes right, you can begin to add smaller I see, trying to stay as close to the
shapes and eventually all the details. It’s important that you maintain the big shapes and the flow when you are drawing reference as possible. Once I have
the details on top of it. that, I draw a new version of that
tree, but I go more cartoony with it.

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 flow
The simplest way of drawing a tree is by
There is endless variety of trees, so starting with a trunk and adding a big shape for
it makes sense that there are also the leaves. Once you establish the big shape,
multiple ways to draw them. And you can fill it with branches, first bigger ones,
that is what I will show you next. and smaller ones next.

I like to start with the flow and the

overall shape. Once I’ve made the
big shape and the energy, I add the
construction on top of that and save
the details for last. The flow and
construction are two different things, One way to make the branch more interesting is to add
but they do need to be in balance. A a twist in it. Try to think of a towel, or better yet, take a
drawing without flow would feel stiff towel as a reference. Hold it straight and then twist it.
and a drawing without construction You can apply wrinkles to the design of your tree. This
would look sloppy and weak. To get will make it more dynamic and interesting to look at.
a good result, make sure that once
you’ve added the construction, there
is still flow in your drawing and it
doesn’t look stiff.

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 Try this for yourself! Study some trees or come up with your own designs by applying this
exercise rule of contrast in the designs. See how many you can come up with!

contrast
When I’m designing something, I try to divide the shapes in different sizes and have contrast between them, in
order to create an interesting balance and make it look organic. Getting inspiration from nature, you will notice that
no shapes are the same, and they have different proportions, you rarely see something identical or perfect. I also
try to apply this in my designs.

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 What I like about drawing rocks is
that they can be both organic and
a bit geometric shaped at the same
time. The variations are endless!

Start with drawing big shapes first.

A lot of times I’m working with three
shapes. Earlier I mentioned the
power of three, and here also I often
play around with a big, medium and
a small shape.

Applying different scales or proportions is another point to you can use small, medium and big. Uneven numbers
pay attention to when drawing environments. This rock is like 3,5,7 etcetera works best, because you’ll get more
an example of how I vary different sizes for the individual asymmetrical designs.
pieces. I prefer to work with the number three, because

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 organic shapes
When drawing something organic, Once you have drawn those random
like a rock, it can help you to draw shapes you can fill them with details.
some random shapes first. Why? Even with drawing the details I try to
What ends up happening is when play around with the different sizes
we try to draw something organic, in it. If you analyze these drawings,
we tend to make it too symmetrical, you will figure out how I arranged the
and use too much parallel lines. I shapes and details. (Spoiler alert:
try to avoid that by drawing random often in groups of three and avoiding
shapes. You can also look up some parallel lines as much as I can)
pictures of rocks and use that as a
reference.

Try to draw as many different rocks on one page as you can. Always push yourself to go for
exercise the biggest diversity. Think in big shapes first and later divide them in three smaller shapes.
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 flowers
When I’m looking at an environment,
for me it is pleasant when there are
flowing lines in the image. Flowers
are great to create this. Have a go
and copy this drawing. Once you did
that, try drawing these flowers again
but change the flowing lines I drew in
step 1. After this you can experiment
with drawing your own flowers by
using the same steps.

toadstools
Drawing toadstools is fun! It’s also a good way to practice variety in shapes and sizes. I would encourage you to take
these designs and maybe copy them first. Focus on understanding how I build them. Once you’ve done that, take that
as a base and draw them slightly different. Change the angles, shapes and so on.

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 Here I’m having fun with drawing planets! I would recommend you make your own planet as
planets well. Maybe you want to draw a planet full of volcano’s, or one filled with toxic swamps, or
maybe full of high-tech cities.

alien plants
You can let your imagination go with
drawing weird alien plants. This
one is quite complex, but great for
practicing construction and to see
if you understand how to draw 3D
shapes. Try to create depth in the
props/fauna you draw so it doesn’t
look flat.

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 create
natural elements

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 static vs dynamic
You can interpret this imagine as
showing ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, but
don’t take it literally, there is no right
or wrong. It simply indicates my
preference for dynamic designs in
my drawings instead of static.

Some productions use the static

version deliberately though. Shows
like Family Guy are using a lot of
parallels and straight lines, but they
do that for a purpose. It’s therefore
wise to decide what your goal is. I
myself want to make lively, dynamic,
cartoony worlds, that’s why I prefer to Here I wanted to show how you can improve some details by applying small and simple changes. Try things like
try to add contrast. variation in sizes, play around with the spacing between or overlap the details and elements. Contrast and diversity are
important for creating an interesting drawing.

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 clouds
Drawing clouds can be harder than it
looks. Because they look so simple, it’s
even more important to get the principles
right. In the example here I’m showing
that I start with a small shape, a medium
and a large one. I do that to keep the
overall shape interesting and appealing.
For that reason, I also apply straight vs.
curved lines at the top and at bottom of
the cloud. It’s all about contrast.

When drawing an environment with clouds, it can be good to use those clouds to get a sense of direction. Use it to
guide the viewer’s eye towards your focal point. In this drawing I demonstrate how you can use curves to create an
environment that feels big and peaceful

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 It’s much easier to draw a box in
any perspective than any other
shape, especially complex organic exercise
shapes like clouds. Setting up Fill a page with completely different
your drawing by using cubes first clouds and go crazy with all the
can really help when drawing shapes and proportions. See how
clouds that feel like they have a far you can push it.
volume. Experiment with drawing
some cubes and use the boxes
as guidelines by drawing the fluffy
clouds inside in them.

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 water
In the example you can see a
splash of water that is hitting an
object. Just like an explosion, the
splashing water is driven by a force
from the center. I indicated this force
with the arrows in the left drawing.
When I determined where the water
is pushed towards by the force, I
added the secondary shapes and
lightning the details (right image) to create the
water splash.

When you are drawing lightning it's important to make it with different lightning strikes, then choose the ones that
irregular. Try to make it as random as possible and use are the most natural looking. Lightning is chaos and every
short, mid-sized and long lines. Give it a go and fill a page strike is completely different.

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 When you are drawing an explosion,
it is tempting to make it look
symmetrical. For some reason,
people like symmetry, but symmetry
is not something to be found in
nature that often. Pay attention to

explosion this when drawing an explosion and

try to avoid an artificial shape.

An explosion is caused by released energy/force from the center. This energy pushes outwards, like you can see at
image 1. When I draw an explosion I always start with the overall big shape of the explosion and add the arrows to
indicate how the energy is pushed outwards and hence creating this shape. At image 2 you can see how I divided this
big shape into smaller ones that follow the same flow of energy. After this I added some more details and colors to it.

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 smoke
Smoke has a source from where it is
emitted. From this point, the air moves
around and causes a smoke trail.
Because this is an organic process,
also here I recommend avoiding
symmetry. You can do this by playing
around with shapes and sizes of the
elements, even a simple swinging trail
of smoke can be asymmetrical. Try
to push both ends to have as much
contrast as possible, at the same time
it depends on the style you want to
achieve in terms of how far you should
push that.

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 Here you can see smoke rising up. Notice that the smoke rotates when it moves upwards.
air flow That is because of the phenomenon of hot air pushing cold air downwards. This rotating
movement also makes it look dynamic.
Smoke and fire are moving on
air. Think about in what way they
move. Hot air goes up and pushes
cold air downwards, this way wind
is created and this is visible in the
rotating flow of smoke and fire.

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 draw an environment

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 first steps
If there is one thing I want you to
take away from this book, it would be
the importance of using thumbnails
and making rough sketches to plan
something out. When you think about a
story, some people like to write it down
first and then make doodles from that. I
prefer to doodle it directly down on paper,
probably because I like to think very
visual. Take a moment to find out how
you like to work. What fuels your creative
process?

The sketches you see here are my rough

doodles and most of the time I don’t
share these with other people or clients.
It’s just for myself to figure out what I I always start with a floor plan or an isometric drawing. While sketching roughly, I think about design of the interior. I try
want to draw before I spend a lot of time to come up with as much elements as I can, this is a useful pre-work that pays off in a later stage. So, this would be your
on a single drawing. planning stage. Try to be rough and don’t worry about clean lines.

78 79
 harbor town
These are the first thumbnails
that I make to set up the overall
environment idea. The next step is to
turn these into a sketch. I start really Once I’ve created the first sketch,
simple - almost abstract - and add I put the perspective on top of it.
more details along the way. At this I change some things to optimize
stage, I eyeball the perspective. the perspective and at the same
time, I fix any mistakes I made while
eyeballing it. Be careful at this stage,
if you focus too much on getting the
perspective right, it can start looking
too technical and stiff. Make sure it
still looks appealing.

80 81
 Once I’ve completed the inked version of the drawing, I start to
Here you can see what the sketch add shadows. In this case, I choose cell shaded shading. This
looks like after I’ve made the means that I add a hard shadow layer on top of the colors. In
perspective corrections. I did my best Adobe® Photoshop®, I set this layer to multiply mode.
to add perspective that is right and
solid but still has the energy of the
sketch.

Once I’m happy with the result, I start Then it’s time to start adding colors. I use a basic
inking. Inking can be challenging color scheme for this. Once I’m satisfied, I put the
because it can totally ruin a good shadow layer on top of it. And that combination
sketch, but it can also save a bad results in this finished drawing.
sketch. It is important to take your
time at this stage. You can choose to soften the shadow and add
lighting. It all depends on what kind of style you
want to achieve.

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 The next step for me is to add
perspective and draw all the big
shapes. At this stage, I really want
to focus on creating 3D shapes with
volume and space. In this example
I pushed them inwards to convey
a feeling of depth and dimension.
Once those big shapes are put into
perspective, I start to draw roughly
on top of it.

windmill
As a start I draw the horizon line on the canvas. Most of the time, I put the horizon line on 1/3 or 2/3 of the drawing
because that will result in the most appealing composition. Once I’ve done that, I decide where to put the focus points
on the crossings of the 1/3 grid.

84 85
 When I’m at the point that I’m
satisfied with the rough sketch,
I’ll clean up the drawing and start
inking. Once that is done, I add
colors to it. This step depends a bit
on my decision to either render the
image or to use cell shading on it.

86 87
 puffin boat
lighthouse When you are setting up a scene,
it can be useful to make a rough
In this example I will demonstrate model of some of your elements in
the basic steps for setting up 3D. In this example, I only created
an environment. First set your the boat in 3D and put it in the right
composition, then add linework, perspective. Then, I screenshotted
followed by the values and lastly, it and placed it inside the 2D
add the colors. environment.

When you follow these steps, it When I create a new scene with the
will help you to focus on each same boat, I simply rotate the boat in
area separately. That’s why I like the 3D software, screenshot it again
to do the values before I add and place it in the new environment.
colors, so I can focus on getting That saves a lot of time at the end of
the values right first. the day!

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town square

Drawing a town square can feel demanding and When I have planned everything out, I draw basic
overwhelming. To make it easier, I advise you to start shapes on top of that and I work my way down to
as simple as possible. I would first draw the horizon line smaller shapes to details as last. It can also very much
and draw a perspective grid on top of that. Once I have help to make some rough thumbnails first, so you
the grid on the ground, I sort of draw a map on it. As you already know what you want to draw.
can see on image number 2.

90 91
 street

I begin with the horizon and grid, and then add two big When you get that fundament (the big shapes) right, it will
blocks to that. I basically group the buildings together. Once really pay off later. Adding details on top of not very solid
I have these big shapes, I break the blocks down in smaller fundament, the result will look cluttered. Details should be
shapes that represents the individual houses. At the point the icing on the cake. Great details can certainly improve
For this town, you follow more or less the same steps as with the town square. The main difference is that you draw it when I like the overall design and flow of these big shapes, a drawing, but they can’t safe a weak construction.
from a different angle. I’ll start adding details and defining them more and more.

92 93
 kitchen

When drawing an interior, I like to begin by drawing the walls first. One of the most important tips I can give you for this
is to avoid symmetry. Make one wall shorter than the other. I also like to put something in the foreground, like the table
on the right. This gives more sense of spaciousness in the drawing. Another tip for more depth in your interior drawing is
to draw elements not completely in-frame. Here I did that with the lamp, painting and the fan on the ceiling. It creates the
feeling there is also an environment outside of the frame.

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living room

In this example of how to draw an interior, I also setup the drawing by first defining where the walls are. For this piece
I used a lot of reference. Because of the copyrights on the pictures, I can’t show them here, but I use the internet often
to find pictures as reference to enrich the drawing. Don’t feel like you have to draw everything from memory or your
imagination, explore using references as much as you can.

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teenager room

A drawing with a perspective like this

is great for when you have to design
a room for the purpose of a game
or animation show. It’s almost an
isometrical drawing and it gives an
overview of the whole room. Once
you work in or for a studio, it could
be the case that you need to make
a lot of drawings like this. If that is
your professional goal, adding similar
drawings to your portfolio would be a
great idea.

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 kids room
Most of the time I start with an
asymmetrical two-point perspective
when I’m drawing a room. What
happens then is that the objects in
this perspective, like a square box,
look a bit distorted. Drawing such
a room is also something that is
great to add to your portfolio. Before
you start though, ask yourself what
kind of person lives here. Is it a kid,
teenager, etcetera? This makes a
difference in how the room looks and
what kind of props are there.

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 toadstool village
In this example you see some
toadstools and flowers. Try to use
variety in the sizes of shapes and the
flowing lines when you make similar
drawings. Also notice the path, it
isn’t straight but has some flow in it.
I tried to avoid straight lines as much
as possible, even in the fence I’ve
added some imperfections.

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 space forest space desert
If you find it difficult to come up
with something of your own,
go ahead and use some of the
elements of this drawing, or the
previous one, and play around
with it in your own environment.
Change the purpose of objects,
the proportions or some parts of
the shape. It’s quite nice to see
how much variations you can
create by doing this. And when
you keep changing stuff, you can
even get to an original drawing of
your own.

I love to draw alien landscapes, you can go completely crazy with them, creating weird landscapes, strange plants and
other props. Try it as well and push yourself to see with what kind of crazy ideas you can come up with.

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 game map
When you’re working in the game industry, there is a big
chance you need to draw a world map at a certain point.
It can be overwhelming because oftentimes there are
many details on it. Let me break it down for you, so it
becomes easier!

The most important part of this kind of maps is the path,

that is the first thing I draw. Once the path is there, I
think of the theme I want create and then draw some of
the points of interest. In this case the dragon, castle and
snow cabin.

Around those points of interest, I draw other items that fit

the theme and object. I start with very basic shapes and
use my imagination before I start adding details. Once
I’m convinced that the basics will work, I start drawing on
top of it. At that point, most of the time my sketches look
a bit like sketch B. When I have that, I do a final pass
such as on the sketch C.

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 create a
portfolio piece

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 This is an example of how I create
a portfolio piece. If you want to
apply for a job at an animation
studio as an environment artist
or set designer, I advise you to
create something like this.

Once I made a floor plan, it’s time to clean

up the isometric view. This will give me a
good overview of how all the elements look
together. An isometric view also helps later
on as a map of where to put everything in
different shots.

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 After I make the floor plan, I start sketching thumbnails for the final drawings. It can be rough and quick, at this point it’s
just putting ideas on paper. In this stage I think a lot about composition, rhythm and storytelling. Sometimes I go back
to the isometric stage and change some things. It’s still OK to change stuff during this part of the process, because
everything is still relatively rough.

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 Some animation studios expect that
the environment artist also makes
3D mock-ups. The 3D model is
used at the planning stage and for
the animatics. Once they approve
it, a specialized 3D artist will pick it
up and model it for real. So, if you
are thinking to work for animation
studios, it can be smart to learn at
least some basics of 3D. When you
have made a model like this, you
can also figure out more easily what
shots you should use.

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Here you see the final line draw-over of the 3D models. I also made these drawings in high resolution and with
The great thing about using 3D is that the software clear lines, so people can zoom in on a particular object.
creates the perspective for you. When drawing over it, This is very convenient for 3D modelers if they want
you’ll have perfect perspective! Be aware of stiffness to model an object. wI export the renders from the 3D
when you use this technique though. You can avoid it by software with lighting, so I won’t have to think about that
adding some wonky pieces. For example with the candy when adding light and shadows. Lastly, underneath the
Create your own portfolio piece now! Start with a basic idea, I simply choose a candy store
store, everything is handmade and therefore not perfectly line layer, I paint with brushes and gradient tools.
because they’re cheerful, have a lot of jars and objects to fill the room. Great thing about
straight and even.
exercise the jars is that you can easily duplicate them! Also attach the sketches to your portfolio
project. This shows that you can come up with multiple ideas.
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 conclusion
& thank you

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 that's it!
Thank you for reading this book. I hope you have learned something from it and had fun using it. Like I mentioned at the
beginning of this book, there is currently a big need for environment artists. So, if you like to draw environments it can
be a perfect career path for you. It maybe takes a long time to get to the level you can get hired, but once you get there,
you can start finding work. And it’s mostly about hard work.

Some people would say it’s all talent. But contrary to popular belief, talent can only get you so far. The most important
thing is hard work. If you are talented but lazy, you’ll have a hard time to get to the next level and learn new things. But
if you’re a hardworking person and motivated to get there, then this is your chance to grow and become an environment
designer rock star.
People tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a short amount of time, but they underestimate what they can Contact me
achieve in a big amount of time. Instagram Mitch Leeuwe
Patreon patreon.com/mitchleeuwe
Best, Gumroad gumroad.com/mitchleeuwe
Mitch Leeuwe Website mitchleeuwe.nl

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