Learn How to Create a Desert Background!

From a place full of life to a place full of death, painting a desert background is one way to shift the mood to something that is more empty and bleak! Follow along in this desert painting tutorial and see for yourself!

Most of the tools that you will be using is just the simple digital brushes that you are already accustomed to. Some key brush types here are the chalk brush, a soft round brush, and a splatter type brush.

The objects to be painted in this lesson are up to you. I recommend creating large dramatic clouds coupled with soft rises of mountainous earth since we are dealing with a rocky desert landscape!

Let's get started!

1. Background layers

Our background layers will consist of warm colors. Shades of brown or red would be lovely here! Of course, you can use cooler colors and make a nighttime environment instead. It's your preference as long as you know how to pick up the ranges of colors needed.

Fill in the entire digital canvas first with a dark rouge color. From there, use your chalk brush and sketch out simple elements of your rocky desert.

desert background

Use lighter colors to define the ground and darker colors to define the sky. Paint as much of the sky as you need to get the mood just right.

Keep a close eye at where your light source is and have it highlight the edges of the clouds. Switch between different sizes of brushes for the smaller details.

2. Adding rocky hills

Start a new layer. This part of your desert background painting just adds a more darken mood to the environment as the large areas of mountainous rocks are used to create shadows on the ground.

Use your chalk brush and create angular brush strokes. Initially, we want to just paint the edges of the rocks. Go from the edges inwards towards the horizon while decreasing the brush pressure.

desert background

That way, you have many multiple colors to to reference from!

Sample from the sky colors and paint it near the mountain edges to show color reflections from the heavens. Preserve the transparency of the layer so you don't paint out of the confines of the mountainous shapes.

3. Painting the rocks

So far, we have used the chalk brush and the round brush. The desert background in this part of the lesson requires you to switch to the splatter brush settings. The purpose is to paint many rocks on the desert floor.

Assign size and color to your pressure sensitivity options. You want to splatter a random area with a light color for the many small rocks laying around! Reduce the pressure as you go close towards the horizon.

Take off the splatter option and begin painting the individual rocks that are closer to the viewer.

desert background

I chose more angular brush strokes because I wanted to have rocks that have only been there recently. You can decide to paint more rounder shapes, to show rocks that have been there for a longer time, as a result of the weathering that has occurred.

Add another layer for the sand dust if you wish! Switch to the round brush once more and just paint random streaks of light for painting sand. I have done so because I wanted to have something more dramatic.

4. Final touches

As with all our lessons, it's time to refine the desert background painting with whatever digital tools you have! Use the sharpen tool to show more sandy areas or highlight rocky edges.

The dodge and burn tools are always useful to separate different shapes through contrast. If you have any extra layers, consider merging or grouping a few of it so you don't get too confused.

desert background

Remember to keep an eye out for your light source and be careful not to over shadow anything! The reason is because the thick blowing sands will cover up the shadows on the ground.

Now that you have an idea, it's always a good idea to practice on different ways of creating barren landscapes. As always, build upon your strong art foundation and digital painting will become easier with each lesson.

I hope you enjoyed this digital art lesson on how to create your own desert background. Show off your desert painting by submitting it to the gallery section!