In this next outtake from my new class Drawing Ideas for Summer I’ll show you how you can approach sketching tree shapes. Sketching different trees has been a challenge over a long time for me, until I tried out this technique of grouping parts of the tree together in groups of leaves. The trick is not to render every single leaf, but to group leaves together and treat foliage as a texture.
Here’s an outtake video from the course:
How to draw tree shapes
How to draw tree shapes (video)
Here’s how it works:
- Draw the overall shape of the tree lightly
- Add elliptical shapes inside the main shape for leaf groups based on what you can see on the tree – add clumps of leaves instead of single leaves
- Add shadows to the underside of each leaf group, and on branches and trunks
- Add a bit of leaf texture around the outlines with squiggly, irregular lines
- Optional: Add color, with the leaf structure and texture in mind. The value structure is already established in your pencil drawing.
- The key to drawing trees is to keep looking at the tree, and draw what you see instead of what you think should be there.
The class will include the complete demo (all elements on the page), as well as many other sketching topics – insects, summer flowers, landscapes and animal maps – over two hours of video in total.
The class is available from my website.
