Nature will also give us very pleasing shapes. But these do not appear very commonly. Just like with a crowd of people—you see the occasional impressive good looking human. In the same manner a modeling agency keeps files on beautiful people, an artist should be a shape collector and keep reference photos in a file from which to derive various landscape symbols. With time and practice, these will be stored in your mind. But first, let’s identify the criteria a shape needs to meet to be part of your pictorial language.
You probably voted for the oval because it has a different height than width. If a tree shape fits inside a circle, no matter how realistically you render it, the shape will not be attractive. Tree shapes look better if their foliage is oval in shape rather than circular.
The same applies to a square format vs. a rectangular format. If a waterfall or a rock fits inside a square, the abstract design is compromised. You would want to change the anatomy of a waterfall and stretch it to fit in a rectangle rather than in a square.
It’s not what you do inside the shape that makes the symbol look good. It is the shape itself. The key is to make the overall shape appealing. Details within the boundaries of the shape are less important.
A handy method for determining whether a shape is abstract or not is to draw an imaginary line through the middle of it and compare both sides. If the two sides are similar, chances are you have a visually implied symmetrical shape. Redesign the shape to show different sides. Also make sure your symbol does not resemble a geometrical shape.
This foliage is equally balanced on both sides, meaning it is a symmetrical shape and not ideal for painting in landscapes.
Much better! Both sides of the tree are very different. This is an example of a nice shape seen in nature. Store these oddities in your landscape pictionary. You can use this shape in several paintings.
The first rock is a non-abstract shape. It looks like a loaf of bread. Try not to paint rocks such as these. The second rock is an abstract shape—all four contour lines are different.
Avoid concave semi-circles when depicting rocks. This weakens their character. A good way to practice rock shapes is to get some stones that have interesting shapes from a gardening center. Place them in alternate positions, even some grouped together and draw their shapes with a Sharpie marker.
The black pictorial silhouettes resemble portions of the photos but they are not identical. They have been designed to be more appealing symbols. The drawings were done with a Sharpie Magnum marker, which is a great tool because it has a large blunt edge just like a brush. It is a crossover between a pen and a brush, so you will feel comfortable drawing with it. As a discipline and for practice, draw all kinds of abstract silhouettes.