The Innovative Artist: Drawing Dramatic Landscapes

Explore exciting new ways of using graphite, charcoal and mixed media to create dramatic landscape drawings, under the expert tutelage of Robert Dutton.

The Innovative Artist series provides a unique insight into the methods and materials used by leading contemporary artists who are pushing the boundaries of their art. Through numerous examples of the author’s work alongside practical demonstrations, each book provides a fascinating exploration of the artist’s creative process that will inspire the reader to move forward on their own artistic journey.

This book is aimed at artists who wish to explore new ways of using a variety of drawing media to create striking, dramatic landscapes. Author-artist Robert Dutton uses his expressive, loose style of drawing and painting to capture, with great emotion, the power and drama of the landscape. Robert combines media such as liquid graphite, inks, metallic inks, charcoal and water-soluble painting and drawing pastels, and also experiments with collage work. 

Predominantly focusing on working in black and white, Drawing Dramatic Landscapes explores basic drawing techniques using a limited range of media, then introduces new techniques and products as the reader progresses. This is a highly-instructive guide to the techniques Robert himself uses, with numerous exercises and larger step-by-step projects throughout the book showing how he works. Alongside these are numerous examples of the author’s finished artworks accompanied by informative captions explaining the methods used to create them, thereby providing both instruction and inspiration.

Robert works outdoors from life much of the time, later finishing his artworks in the studio. His work is both achievable and aspirational, making this a highly-attractive book for established artists who wish to gain insight into the work of their contemporaries who are experimenting with new and innovative techniques.

Book Contents

Introduction 6
Materials and tools 8
Expressive drawing 24
‘The exhilaration of the summits’ 26
Working en plein air
Drawing with graphite 30
Landscapes in graphite 42
Drawing with charcoal 52
Landscapes in charcoal 60
Developing your personal language 66
Inspiration 68
Order from chaos 70
Expressive drawing with liquid graphite and pastels
Fast foundations 80
Expressive drawing with liquid graphite and ink
Breathing space 82
Developing confidence and vision
Set in Stone 84
Step-by-step project
Resolving your drawings 94
Proper preparation 96
Developing work in the studio
Instant atmospherics 98
Expressive drawing media in harmony
Heading Out to Sea 100
Step-by-step project
Strength in Flexibility 106
Using liquid charcoal, graphite and pastel
Trust the process 108
Working in charcoal, pastel and inks
The freedom of ink 114
Autumn Sun and Shadows 116
Step-by-step project
calculated risks 122
Charcoal, pastel, inks and paints
A celebration of nature 126
Mixed media and pastel paper
On the edge 132
Creating sharpness
Showers, Sun and Shadow 138
Step-by-step project
Towards abstraction 146
Changing direction 148
Revisiting a composition
Surface and light 150
Textured drawing
Next steps 168

Index 160
Acknowledgements