Posted by Adrienne on January 21, 2013

I’ve been spending the last few weeks designing a winter landscape for a neighborhood park in Minneapolis. Now I’m working on transforming that design into an eye-catching rendering. The vast majority of landscape renderings depict the landscape in the warmer months – most often summer, but sometimes spring and fall as well. While some designers will create perspectives of the landscape in winter, I was hard-pressed to find a plan (aerial) view. To get a feel for how to depict a winter landscape from above, I’ve been spending some time looking at aerial photographs. I’m especially interested in figuring out how to illustrate the shadows of objects on the snowy ground – which are not only extremely elongated but also seem to glow electric blue at certain times of the day. I found that some of the best images came from photographers doing Kite Aerial Photography (or KAP, as it’s known), of which there are entire groups on Flickr. Came across these beauties in the process…

Deer Park by Christian Credner, Dr.

Flower plantation covered by snow in Berck by Pierre Lesage

Cemetery by tocs

KAPing in Sleet by Kevin Lajoie

By MNKiteman

Footprints and Shadows by Wind Watcher