Drawing trees

Exercise Sketching an individual tree

This tree sits in our garden and I see it everyday from the terrace.  I started with a sketch of the outline of the trunk and branches.  I then spent a lot of time on a detailed sketch with shading in an effort to portray depth and texture.  Using a mixture of soft and harder pencils I used hatching and cross hatching and varied mark making to create texture.  I am happy with the shape and proportions of this drawing.

I then focused on details of the bark and leaves .

It must be the first time I have focused so closely on a tree that I see everyday.

Exercise Larger study of an individual tree

The sketches below were done using a fine liner pen just to give a different effect.  There are various different studies of several trees.  I especially like the detailed sketch of the roots of a larger tree.  Using pen requires detailed line marking and hatching as you cannot rely on tone for shading.

 

Exercise Study of several trees

Changing medium again, this drawing is in colour pencil.  By using darker colours and more detail in the fore ground there is a feeling of depth in this drawing.  As the trees fade into the background the colours are more muted and less detailed.

This is a view in the woods of Versoix.  I am happy with this drawing.  To improve it, I maybe would have grounded the trees in the background a little more with foliage around the base.

Check and Log

How many different tree types have you drawn?

I am not sure, maybe 3 or 4.  An acorn tree, firs and unknown woodland trees.

What techniques did you use to distinguish each type?

I tended to change mediums which forced a different type of mark making.  Hatching and cross hatching was important for the pencil and pen drawings.  Shading and blending was useful for the colour pencil drawings.

What did you do to convey the mass of foliage?

On the pen drawings I created an outline and just a little hatching on the underside of the leaves to create a feeling of volume.  On the pencil sketches I used hatching and tones of light and dark to create the volume and depth.

How did you handle light on the trees?  Was it successful?

I think you can appreciate the light on the coloured trees in the woods.  There is a definite light to dark from left to right and this works well.

Did you manage to select and simplify?  Look at your drawing and make notes on how you did this, and what you could do better?

I think this was more successful on the pen drawings.