About Rocks

How to render rocks? Lets consider a rectangular block, on the lower left, with natural light coming coming from the top. Then the other 2 visible sides will be in the shade or shadow.  These will be depicted with texture strokes.  Progressing towards the right , we just make the block more and more irregular.  Think in terms of edges and shades.  The top edge is obtained with a bold line.  The lower parts are mostly texture and shadows.  The bottom edge of the rock is best done together with the texturing.   Do the top edge/line with a sense of flow and rhythm --  movement, pauses, and turns, like a dance. Then together with its baselines, do texturing for the shades and shadows to create the volume.  The character of the top line and the texture strokes govern whether the rock is hard or soft, angular or rounded, flat or sheer.

The upper part of the figure shows on the lower left a pile of 5 rocks rendered as above, with the outline stroke providing a series of different shapes -- round, square , angular etc. Note also that the five are lined up in a lively manner, i.e., irregularly.  As we move to the right, we dissolves some of the top edges of each rock.  In so doing, the rocks merge into one big complex shape (the middle figure).  This shows how a series of incomplete edges and textures can form a complex shape.

A more lively rendition will be doing the shades and texture first, and then outlining the edges, as shown in the rocks on the right.   A free-style brushwork renders the shades in an irregular way, the edges are placed to include the white space into the rock.

Whether the pile of shapes are rocks or mountains will depend on the context,  i. e., the surroundings.   In the top, I added trees, a building,  and some boats.   Then the same shapes turn into a mountain overlooking a lake!