Abstract: There are five fundamental concerns in the synthesis of realistic imagery of fractal landscapes: (1) convincing geometric models of terrain; (2) efficient algorithms for rendering those potentially-large terrain models; (3) atmospheric effects, or aerial perspective, to provide a sense of scale; (4) surface textures as models of natural phenomena such as clouds, water, rock strata, and so forth, to enhance visual detail in the image beyond what can be modelled geometrically; and (5) a global context in which to situate the scenes. Results in these five areas are presented, and some aspects of the development of computer graphics as a new process and medium for the fine arts are discussed. Heterogeneous terrain models are introduced, and preliminary experiments in simulating fluvial erosion are presented to provide fractal drainage network features. For imaging detailed terrain models we describe grid tracing, a time- and memory-efficient algorithm for ray tracing height fields. To obtain aerial perspective we develop geometric models of aerosol density distributions with efficient integration schemes for determining scattering and extinction, and an efficient Rayleigh scattering approximation. We also describe physically-based models of the rainbow and mirage. Proceduralism is an underlying theme of this work; this is the practice of abstracting models of complex form and behaviors into relatively terse algorithms, which are evaluated in a lazy fashion. Procedural textures are developed as models of natural phenomena such as mountains and clouds, culminating a procedural model of an Earth-like planet which in the future may be explored interactively in a virtual reality setting.