Trees – Cavendish Square, London. Ink, Watercolour & Inktense Pencils on a Watercolour Moleskine.
I was surprised to see so many leaves still on the trees but I suppose we were a good few hundred miles south of Scotland. The further south we travelled the more magnificent the trees became. Hope this wee drawing has done them justice.
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Rudat 5:39 pm on December 20, 2008 | #
I love your trees. These colors are very nice, including the green lawn! I hope you were able to thaw out a bit!
renefijten 2:07 am on December 21, 2008 | #
Yes, I like your winter trees as well. You manage to make them lively even if it’s wintertime. Mine always look flat in comparison. Try and figure our how you do it.
trebor61 9:25 am on December 21, 2008 | #
Susan. Thanks again! You may have noticed that I like trees. I once turned down a job on one of our islands because there were no trees there – too strong winds! The vivid green lawn was created by using my new Inktense pencils – Santa came early. We shared a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine so we are now both thawed out.
Rene Drawing trees – this is how I attempted the ones above. This method seems to work for “middle-distance” trees. For far off hedgerows I usually drop some colour into a wet area which leaves a flat shaped line, detail and form is not required for these. Close up trees can be a nightmare, the temptation being to try to draw ever branch and leaf. Astute observers may notice I tend to avoid this type of tree.
1 Put in the background be it sky, buildings whatever. If you are using watercolour you may have to mask out the shape of the trees but, if using ink, or any other permanent media this doesn’t matter as you can add lighter colours on top of darks, later.
2.Lightly outline the overall shape of the tree’s outer foliage in pencil. This gives a boundary which you must not cross later. (see explanation in following stage). The overall shape of the tree is very important and I’ve made many sketches of trees to learn this. This is the best time of year to see how trees are “built” i.e. without their leaves. I love looking at bare trees standing starkly against a clear sky, especially on the crest of a hill where they are well defined.
3. Lightly add the heavier and lower branches with a thin value of their final colour. These must stop well short of the boundary you have positioned above. If you put in ALL of the branches you might find that your tree gets so much bigger when you add the foliage later, near the boundary.
4. Use a light value of the foliage colour to add some shape. This will cover some of your lightly outlined branches but should stop well within the boundary. If using watercolour you can use a thin mix of the sort of colour that you get when using lots of paint – you know – the stuff that collects in your mixing tray. If using ink this colour should be reasonably close to the main colour of your tree’s foliage (because it would be hard to alter later, being permanent). Aim to add a series of “splodges” outlining general areas of foliage. These may overlap each other. Pull your brush in the direction the leaves and very thin outer branches grow. Don’t worry if they look crazy, you are just defining the general shape here.
5.Now add the “individual” leaves. I use many methods for this but, in the case above, I “stippled” the leaves by using the end of a small stencil brush. This came from IKEA, is about 100mm long and has short, straight bristles – cost about £1.00 for a pack of four. (I think they were in the children’s’ section). Alternatively art shops sell small, natural sponges – synthetic sponges don’t work for this. Natural sponges have a fine texture – these cost a fortune but give a really great textured effect. I start by adding a slightly darker value of colour than in stage 4 then gradually adding darker mixes, allowing everything to completely dry first between colour changes. The mixture must be very stiff/ almost dry. Don’t press too hard or you will merely paint one “splodge” on top of another. You should begin to see a myriad of fine dots on top of the colour from stage 4.
6.Alter the colour used with your brush/sponge so that the stippling effect becomes darker in the centre of the tree and on the underside of the branches. Alternatively, use lighter values towards the light side or very top. If you find difficulty completing this stage then wash a thin film of colour over the selected areas. My trees, in the drawing, had leaves which had a red/brown colour. I washed some yellow into the uppermost areas while I used a dark ink underneath others. The overall idea is to use dark and light colours to add “form” to the shape of you sketch. If the colour looks too intense then use its “complementary colour”(in this case a cold green would tone down the warm, reddy brown), washed over selected areas.
7. You should now notice that your foliage has covered some of the original, lower branches but left others untouched. Fill in the original branches, in the gaps created by your foliage, with the preferred colour. In the case, above, I used dark ink. Add some extra, thinner branches near the outside boundary to complete the thing. I drew some of these on top of the uppermost branches.
I sincerely hope this has not totally confused you. Like all things it need a bit of practise to get the desired effect which takes time and will almost certainly make you as crazy as I am.
Regards Bob
Sophie Brown 9:47 am on December 21, 2008 | #
What I like here is the yellow building. It pulls you into the picture and I think the contrast makes everything more alive. I notice you like more subtle colors but I think in this case the yellow worked out well (daring experiments with pastels, ha ha). I don’t know if you’ve had much in the way of training or developed on your own. Sometimes the simplicity does it for me. It reminds me sometimes of “folk paintings” from colonial days. Of course these people didn’t know they were “folk painters”–but I’ve seen tiles painted in the 1700s with a similar quality (though of course these were boats painted in Europe, red and white, maybe eveyone has seen them). Just that your work has a simplicity and also–reminds me of a simpler time (that I never knew firsthand) and of course I like that it can be so “pastoral”.
Sophie Brown 10:50 pm on December 21, 2008 | #
Colonial houses are kind of boxy and easy on the eyes like this, that’s what I meant. And drawings from that period of houses or boats or whatever. And when you do add color, it always highlights things in a good way (ie. the Christmas tree)–carefully chosen.