Draw a Tree From Life With This Simple Formula | SHORTS

1. Intro, Tools & Project: Hi, my name is Jen. Hello, I'm a watercolor landscape nature artists and sketcher. In this class, I'm going to show you how to draw a tree from life using a simple formula. The tools we are using, our address, any sketchbook paper and one pencil. I've decided to use the four B because it is a pencil in the middle. If you draw a super light line, you can get those light shades. And if you push down a little bit harder, you can get some of that darker contrast. Now I just want to point out that there are many ways to draw a tree, but this is the way that I have chosen to teach it in this class. This is a very short class. I will also tell you about the class project. For the class project, go out and find a tree to draw. The way you can use this class is to watch it once or twice so that it can really understand the concepts. Then go out and find a tree. If you're a beginner and you're not quite ready yet, then go to the Projects tab. I have put a few reference photos that you can use to get a bit more practice under your belt before you go out and draw from life. Alright, I think we're ready. Let's get into the class. 2. Rough outline: I've chosen this really wonderful tree because it's very clear what's going on. So first you want to start off with drawing the trunk. And then you're going to measure the height of the trunk to the height of the leaves. And it seems like the height of the leaves is the exact same size. So now that we have the height of the tree, you're going to use that to measure the width across. And it seems like it is almost the same height as it is length across. So you want to put down two markers, then take a look at your tree, and C is one side a little bit heavier than the other. I can see that the right side is a little bit longer than the left side. So that means that there's more weight on the right side. You just want to move the markers over a tiny bit. Now that the rough size of the tree is done, then you can start to draw out some of the larger branches that you see. You do not need to be very careful with this. Just count how many of the larger branches do you see and draw them out roughly to where they are pointing? You can draw a circle outline around the entire tree to your markers. And that's going to be our rough outline. 3. Break into sections: Now that we have the outline done, we're going to break the tree into sections. And you can do this by looking for where the darks and lights are. It will be a lot easier to do this when it is a very sunny day. So just look at the tree and tried to break that tree up into several sections. So you can see here, I break it up into about five to six sections. And I'm also giving the outline a little bit more detail. 4. Shading & Leaves: Once these sections are done, you can do the first pass at darkening the trunk itself. This is just giving it a base shade. There's no detail to it. Next, let's go in and start to fill out the tree giving the impression of leaves. If you need to practice this before we get started. Here's how it's gonna look. What we are doing is creating a spiral line. Then you can try to practice putting the spiral closer and neatly together. Now try to make the spiral in a circle. Then after that, you can mix and match, start by little spirals and then outwards to bigger spirals. What we're gonna do is we're going to shade the tree by giving the illusion of leaves. So when the leaves are really close together, they look like little spirals. And as it gets further out to where the light is, you can start using bigger spirals that makes it look like there's less light in-between the leaves. You're gonna do this for the base shade. I just go through each section starting from the bottom to the top, using one shade to create these little spirals that look like leaves still leaving a lot of white out. Okay. When that is done, you want to go back in and he gave the trunk and the branches the darkest shade. And you're going to use it as a reference for the rest of the tree. I'm still using the four B pencil. All I'm doing is pushing down a little bit harder. So in the beginning you don't want to push down too hard because you're using the same pencil to do all the shades. And now you can see I start to add in a little bit of detail to the trunk, not filling out every single part, giving it a little bit of form. Once that's done, you're gonna go in again and push down a little bit harder to create the second shade of the leaves. As you can see, it's a lot darker. About the same darkness as the trunk and branches. Excuse me. 5. Final details: So starting to come together a little bit more, but something is still missing. Now for some of the last minute details, I would like it to look a bit more cohesive. So I go in and make some parts a little bit darker than adding those hanging branches or roots. I'm not really sure what they are actually going in with a very light hand to fill in any of those whitespaces that look just a little bit too white. This is the last stage to make it look a bit more cohesive. You don't need to use spiral lines anymore. Just go for a super light shade over some of the parts that could be a bit darker. There you go, you're finished. Thank you so much for watching and following along. If you do not have time to go out, then go to the Projects tab. I have added some photo references of easy trees that you can use. Please upload your projects to the project files. It's really exciting to see how students interpret the class. Thank you so much. Follow my profile for more watercolor and sketching classes. Have a great day. I'll see you next time.