“While I’m quite good at drawing people and plants, what I love most is landscapes,” says illustrator QU Lan. “As a child, shan shui hua—mountain water painting in Chinese—was my favorite subject.”
QU studied Chinese ink painting in art school before a stint in graphic design, and describes her style as a mashup of the two sources, both traditional and contemporary.
We asked her to create a landscape using Kyle Webster’s Winter 2022 brushes, a pack of 34 brushes tailormade for creating wintry scenes, including tree, bush, and snow brushes. Qu created a winter wonderland inspired by holidays in the French Pyrenees. “I wanted to create a scene of a frozen but delightful winter morning, like the ones we are happy to see from our chalet,” says QU. “The air is fresh, the stream flows cheerfully, pink sunlight shines on the treetops and hillsides, snowflakes hang on the fir leaves. Nature is full of joy and energy.”
Download QU’s Photoshop file above to explore how she made this artwork — each layer is labeled by the brush used to make the element on that layer. Head over to this link to get the Winter 2022 brushes (as well as other brush packs and instructions on how to install them) and read on below for QU’s tips on how to get the most out of this versatile brush pack.
STEP 1/3
Background and snow brushes.
QU used the Winter BG brush to paint a lively, rich background. If you want a background with a bit less texture, she suggests unchecking “Shape Dynamics” in the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings) to create a more lightly-textured brush. “The Tilty pencils are perfect for drawing lines and details,” she adds. She used Flakey brushes 1-5 to paint close-up snowflakes, and Flakey Mix for covering the sky in snowflakes of different sizes. For a lighter snowfall, QU suggest increasing the Scatter percentage in the Brush Settings panel when using Flakey Mix. “You can also check Transfer in the Brush Settings panel and increase the Opacity Jitter and/or the Flow Jitter values to create a sense of depth,” she says.
STEP 2/3
Tree brushes.
“You can easily draw stylish trees with the “tree stack” brushes,” says QU. “Resize the brushes to create trees and bushes near or far. I wanted my foreground tree to be more realistic and really stand out, so I combined brushes Tree Stack 04 and 07 to create the canopy, and the brushes Tree Stack 08 and 11 to build the branches.” QU stacked strokes to form a rough shape, then rubbed off some branches and leaves with the Erase tool to make the look more natural and rough. “I checked the Lock Transparent Pixels option in the Layers panel to superimpose color on the locked layer to make an otherwise flat shape more rich and dynamic,” she adds.
STEP 3/3
Keep experimenting.
QU applied the same method to the Branch Brushes, and added a few more leaves to fill out the foliage. “I added a layer of snow between the branches and the canopy, so that the snow would sit nicely on top of the branches and create an eye-catching detail with bright color spots, while still preserving a sense of unity.” She added a few flashy colors as well as sloping trees in the background behind the impressif dark tree, to liven up the mood. Want even more tips? Check out Kyle Webster’s Adobe Live video where he creates a winter landscape in real time.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
QU Lan was born and raised in China. After graduating in oil-painting from the China Academy of Art, she moved to France and worked as a graphic designer for agencies. She then discovered a passion for illustration and launched her career as freelance illustrator. Now she collaborates with numerous major publishers and companies such as Hachette, Usborne, ABC, Airbnb, Bayard, and Oxford University Press. Her artwork is exhibited regularly and has received awards around the world.
