Almost Autumn: Drawing the Danish Landscape in Late Summer
Updated: Oct 22
By early September, the Danish landscape is changing, though autumn has not quite arrived. The fields have turned yellow and ochre; the grass is duller, and the light disappears a little earlier each evening. It’s one of my favorite times of year to draw.
I tend to notice color first. Late summer brings combinations I see less often in midsummer: dusty greens beside harvested fields, dark berries, faded flowers, and the occasional patch of blue that has lasted into September.
I keep visual references around my studio: old photographs and books, sketches, scraps of paper, and things I’ve picked up outside. Recently, I opened a drawer and found several dried flowers I’d pressed between the pages of a book months earlier. I’m interested in the shape of a stem, the spacing of leaves, or an unexpected combination of colors—not in documenting a plant exactly.
Drawing the End of Summer
I work mainly in colored pencil, sometimes with gouache and Procreate. The gradual process suits landscapes. I can layer greens into a field, add warmer tones beneath them, or change the weight of a tree line as the composition develops.
Many of my drawings begin with places in Denmark, though I rarely reproduce one landscape exactly. I might keep the shape of a path from one location, borrow a group of trees from another, and change the season or architecture. I want a place to feel recognizable without making it identifiable.
In this drawing, the path leads into the scene, while the fence and trees give it structure. The field has begun to turn, but the landscape is still mostly green. I wanted to hold on to that brief overlap: summer still visible, with autumn beginning to show.
A few weeks later, the balance will have shifted.
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