Learn to Draw & Paint ANY Tree - Full Masterclass with Exercises

1. Welcome!: If you want to learn how to draw and paint trees once and for all, you've come to the right place. Welcome to the master class for drawing and painting any tree with any medium. Yes, you heard that right. In this course, you will learn how to create different trees from the ground up from sketch to artwork with exercises for both drawing and painting, digital or traditional. So you can ultimately create your own ones without even using a reference. As artists, we always encounter trees at some point, which is why they're both a blessing and a curse. Trees can be a gorgeous addition to a painting, or they can drive you insane because you just can't make one that fits your picture, even after erasing that certain branch 20 times. We've all been there being totally confused by a dam tree. Luckily, there are solutions. Hi, I'm Duple. I'm an experienced artist and designer from Germany. I've always enjoyed drawing and painting all sorts of trees, even though I was pretty bad at it for a long time because I didn't understand anything about how they work or what I should practice. I think it's fascinating that trees have an impossible amount of detail, and they walk the fine line between complete randomness and beautiful patterns, which makes them a super unique subject and very satisfying to depict if it goes right. Over the years, I've gotten behind it, and now I understand trees very well, which makes creating them way more fun and efficient for me, even if I need a tree to perfectly fit in a composition. I see many options now, and I know how to make them work. So because I haven't found anything like it, I've created a structured learning path for trees for this course. This will guide you to a place where you never have to worry about trees anymore. We're going to build up your skills in very simple steps from understanding the structure and the creation process to exercises for the basic shapes, tree trunks, foliage, basic trees, and conifers, all the way to detailed artworks for both drawing and then painting. But if you're only interested in one of them, you can just watch the according lessons and you will not miss anything. No problem. You can follow this with pen and paper, acrylics, oil paint, watercolors or a software like Creta, photoshop or Procreate. This is not about how to create leaves with one specific kind of brush, but the universal concepts of creating trees and making sure they don't suck. The principles and exercises of this course apply to any medium. Whether you're a comic artist, impressionist painter, someone who just draws for fun, the ability to create any tree you like will pay off. And in this course, we got it covered. If you're interested but not quite convinced, watch the next lesson where I explain how this course works and how you can participate. See you there. 2. About this course: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the trees master class. I know the concept of this course sounds really ambitious, how to draw and paint any tree with any medium. I mean, come on. Is that really possible? Well, I think it is, and here is why. An online course is not something that you can watch on, and then you have all the skills and the knowledge in your brain. This just doesn't work, unfortunately, until we have, like, brain chips or something. What this course does is, first, it contains lots of knowledge and theory for how to create trees that you can remember, write down or download as a PDF and look at it whenever you want. Then it contains many visual examples like images that you can look at that support the theory, and it contains many videos of me drawing and painting trees while I'm explaining what I'm doing. And you can follow these videos and pause them at any time to complete the same step of the exercise as me. This is basically how it works. It's a structured learning path with theory and practice that you can go through at your own pace in order to build up your tree creation skills. Wait, did someone say theory? Don't worry. What you have to know about trees is significantly less than if you want to draw a perfect human, for example. You know, the anatomy of trees is not that complicated. But nevertheless, there are still rules that you have to follow if you want to draw and paint trees. And because they are so subtle, people really like to forget about them. That's why you often see trees that look unnatural and weird for no obvious reason. So I will explain how you can break down a reference and create the illusion of detail what trees usually look like and how you can construct your own ones and even how to make them look natural in groups and where to place them in compositions. So we will first talk about some basic theory, then create the basic shapes of trees, learn how to draw tree trunks and branches, then foliage, then basic trees, followed by basic conifers, and then we will create three detailed tree drawings together. And then we will do the same thing again, but for painting, starting with simple tree trunks and then working our way toward five detailed artworks. In the end, there is some extra theory about creating trees in perspective and putting them in groups and in compositions. That's all I could think of, and I think all you need. Of course, we will cover a big variety of different trees, ranging from oak trees and birches to palm trees and conifers. We will also vary the style of the trees a little bit and create some more realistic ones and some less realistic ones. So in the end, you will have a big toolkit and experience with all kinds of trees. Alright. Now a few words about the medium. As I've said, you can use any medium you like, digital or traditional. You can follow these exercises with Photoshop, procreate, a pencil, watercolors or acrylic paint, for example. There are drawing lessons where, of course, you use a pencil, pen and ink or a drawing software and painting lessons where you should use a medium with which you can put paint on the canvas. I personally will demonstrate the exercises with Creta, which is a completely free software because for me, that's the easiest and most flexible way to show you what to do. But I will not use stuff like layers or selections or anything that you can't do traditionally, because this is a general course about how to represent trees with lines and shapes. My explanations will be focused on that, like, which colors should you use? How should you move your brush or pencil? In which order do you draw what? In which direction should your lines go, et cetera. It doesn't really matter which brush or which method you're using exactly. Drawings and especially paintings that were created with different mediums just look a bit different, but you can still make them work if you follow my instructions. They are not specific to one method of creation, but very specific in terms of the process, the direction of your brushstrokes and lines, the color selection, and all that. And, of course, how to make a tree look like a tree. I cannot generally explain which brush you should use exactly to paint highlights on a bundle of foliage, but I can explain when you should add them, which color they should be, which shape they should have, how many highlights you should add, and where you should add them, because this is the stuff that's really important, and it's the same for every medium. And that's why this course works. However, in case you want to do it exactly the way that I'm doing it, that's, of course, also possible. You can just download Creta here in the description. As I've said, it's completely free. I'm not going to explain how it works because I have a separate course on that, but generally, it's very simple. You can select your tools here, your brushes here, and your colors here. When I'm drawing and painting, just look at the way I'm using lines and shapes to create trees. All the stuff around here is pretty much completely unimportant, except, of course, you want to use Creta yourself and do it like me. In that case, you can see which brush I'm using here, how big the lines are there, and which colors I'm using here. Also, here are my brush bundles. Not every brush that I'm using is increta by default, so you'll have to download them if you want the same brushes, which you can, of course, do in the description. For every lesson, I will create an image of these dimensions, which is pretty big, so I can fit many examples on one page. But if you work traditionally, you obviously don't have to fit your whole practice of tree trunks, for example, on one page. Just recreate what I'm doing at an appropriate size so you can fit in some detail and use a new piece of paper whenever you need it. When we create basic trees, it makes sense to make them smaller. And when we make the artworks, it makes sense to make them bigger and use a whole piece of paper or canvas for them. Alright. This course doesn't just contain uncut videos of me painting something. I am constantly explaining, giving you tips, or showing techniques. I'll be skipping over or speeding up repetitive tasks after I've explained them in order to not waste your time. I recommend you always watch a bit ahead and listen to my explanation and look at what I'm doing and then pause the video and complete the same step. You can hustle through this whole course in one day, but honestly, I recommend you take your time. Follow what I'm doing in the lessons and only move on when you're comfortable with that particular step. That's how you get the best results. Complete the practice at your own pace and return to the next lesson when you have the time because trees are not something that you want to rush. I know they sometimes look a bit random, but you can still tell whether or not someone took their time when painting branches. It makes a huge difference how much effort you invest. And only once you've mastered the basics and you've done quite a bit of practice, you can also try getting faster. But one thing at a time. That's our motto here. So that's all I had to say. I know it was quite a lot, but I just wanted to clear a few things up before we get going. Now I hope you're as excited for this course as I am. So when you're ready, see you on the first lesson. 3. Theory - Trees with Reference: Alright, before we start, we have to cover a little bit of theory. I know I know you just want to draw or paint, but hear me out. We're going to practice a lot in this course. Don't worry. But first, we have to make sure that we are all on the same page with knowledge. There are a few fundamentals that you have to understand about drawing and painting trees. Otherwise, you might end up making some of these completely unnecessary beginner mistakes that I see way too often, and we don't want that. So that's why we got these two theory lessons. First, we're going to talk about how to draw and paint trees with reference and how that generally works. And then we'll talk about how to draw and paint trees without reference and what you have to look out for if you do that. And yeah, these two lessons will save you a lot of time and energy. That I can tell you already. So put all your materials, your pencil, your drawing tablet, whatever aside, and invest your full attention into the next two lessons. And just listen to me talking. Let's go. If you draw or paint a tree from reference, you first need, well, a reference. Let's take this image of a super standard tree, and let's say we want to draw this. How would we go about it? Well, we could start to draw everything exactly how we see it. Just replicate every needle, every scrap, every point of light and shadow, and every little branch here. Nice. It's just going to take a year and a half, and we'll be done. Obviously, this is not how it works. Now, there might be a few hyperrealism artists who actually work like this, but I'm going to be honest, it's not very fun, and for most of us, this just doesn't make sense. So if we want to draw or paint a tree, we need to break it down, and we need to decide in which style we want to depict it and how much detail we want. It is very important that you make these decisions about style before you start. One of these styles could be like comic style. So you only draw the outlines of this tree, how you see them, and the foliage or the needles as one big shape, just like this. And maybe some scribbly lines that are supposed to indicate detail. I know it's very simple, but this is a style. This is how you can do it. We broke down the tree. We decided that we want to depict it in a comic style, and we decided that we want pretty much no detail at all. Then we could also do the same thing, but with paint, just the tree trunk and a few branches as one shape, and then the foliage as another shape. And this is fine if you just want to do that. But let's say we want to create more detail and make it a bit more pleasing to look at. Obviously, we cannot replicate all the detail of the tree. Like we can't draw every single leaf and needle without going completely insane or dying of old age or something. So what do we do? We have to create the illusion of detail. This is the move. Instead of drawing every single leaf or needle, we'll make an abstract texture that looks like it's made up of many leaves or needles. This abstract texture can be more dense if you want more detail or less dense if you want less detail. Simple as that. And there are many different ways to make an abstract texture that we will cover in this course intensely. You can create the illusion of detail by using a big texture brush in a drawing software or literally by scribbling purposefully with a pencil. Look at this right here, for example. I didn't draw a single actual leaf here, but it kind of looks like a bunch of leaves because the lines somewhat represent the shapes and the chaos that leaves produce. This is how you draw or paint from reference. Because we cannot replicate reality exactly, we have to capture what we see with an abstract constellation of lines and shapes, sometimes more abstract, sometimes less. Even the most realistic looking artworks are just an abstract collection of lines and shapes, if you look closely. This is how art works, and this is especially true for trees because they naturally have lots of detail with all these small leaves and the barks and everything. So we have to be smart with that and always create a fitting abstract texture. Alright, but if we just create a flat abstract texture and put it on a tree, then it doesn't look very realistic. I mean, sure, this can be defined as another style, but we can do a lot better. So we need to break down the reference into simple three dimensional shapes and apply our abstract texture along with highlights and shadows to those shapes. This is probably one of the most important core concepts of this course. So here is a very rough example for doing this. Let's start with a tree trunk and create simple three dimensional shapes and apply texture, highlights and shadow to those shapes. It's very simple right here. But for the foliage, this is a bit more tricky because there are many different ways to break it down into individual shapes. First of all, we could say that this is all one big shape that sits on top of the tree trunk. So we can replicate the shape, how we see it, and apply a shadow down here, a little bit of a texture and highlights on top. Here we go. Then we could divide the tree into, like, five shapes, for example. So each of these shapes has its own highlights and shadows and an abstract texture, and it does look a bit more three dimensional and realistic that way. Then if we want a bit more detail, we could divide it into ten or 20 shapes that each have their own texture, highlights and shadows or 100. There are no rules here, and you always have the freedom to choose into how many shapes you want to break down your reference. It simply depends on how much detail you want your finished drawing or painting to have. Smaller and more shapes usually means more detail, and bigger and less shapes means less detail. Simple as that, also, if you have more shapes, your tree will generally look bigger than if you have less shapes. This is due to the fact that bigger trees usually have way more individual leaf bundles than smaller trees. So this is something to keep in mind here. So look at your reference and break it down into shapes in your head, depending on how much detail you want. Draw these shapes very lightly, and then fill them with texture, highlights and shadows and look at each individual shape on the tree to find out where these highlights and shadows are. This is the basic process of drawing or painting a tree from reference, and it applies to any style in which you want to depict it. And you know what? This process is also useful if you draw or paint trees without reference. Create a tree trunk and then add shapes that you fill with textures, highlights and shadows. That's it. In this course, we will create many, many trees, some more detailed and some less detailed ones. So if this was a little bit confusing or a bit too much for you, then you could just follow me in the practical lessons, and you will understand what I mean here. I just want you to know that you have the freedom of choice if you draw or paint trees from reference. There is a near infinite amount of possibilities for different levels of detail and different styles. By the way, for practice, I think it's very useful if you just look at many different trees and try to break them down into these shapes in your head. Look at the natural highlights and shadows that trees have and notice the individual shapes that make up the foliage. Try to first recognize bigger shapes and then smaller shapes, and you can develop an intuition for how you could depict a tree in different styles and with different levels of detail. This is an awesome artistic exercise that will not only help you draw or paint trees, but it will also improve your understanding of highlights and shadows, which is crucial if you want to create art. So here we go. That's the theory for how to draw and paint trees from reference. Remember that there is a PDF file that you can download with this summarized. So yeah, let's move on to the next lesson and explore how to draw and paint trees without reference. Let's go. 4. Theory - Trees without Reference: Okay, here we are. The second part of our theory section. Now we will discuss rules that you have to follow if you want to draw or paint trees without reference, which is the ultimate goal of this course. And in order to draw or paint trees without reference, just from your memory, you need two things. Number one, you need practice. Obvious, right? You must have drawn and painted a bunch of different trees and be quite comfortable with creating them. There is just no way around this, and therefore, this is what the majority of this course is about. Efficient practice of the most important aspects of drawing and painting trees. But you also need number two, an understanding of how trees generally work and how they grow, so you can make them look realistic. And this is what we're going to talk about now. Let's go. If you look up trees on the Internet and click on images, you will find lots and lots of different things. Trees that look big, small with thick branches, thin branches, straight branches, curved branches, dense leaves, sparse leaves, coniferous trees, tropical trees. Like there are so many different types of trees. It's actually insane. In fact, the estimated number of tree species on Earth is about 73,000 and we don't even know all of them yet. So there is probably a few thousand more with unique looks and structures that are waiting to be discovered. But nevertheless, there are a few things that pretty much all of them have in common, and if you know what they are, you can use that to your advantage. With a little bit of practice and artistic knowledge, you can then pretty much draw and paint any tree from imagination. I mean that. First of all, let's look at the skeleton of a tree, which is only the tree trunk and the branches without any leaves. Here's what you'll notice if you look at that. Basically, a tree grows from the ground and then spreads out into the air. It starts with a tree trunk that then splits up into first bigger and then smaller branches that spread out into all sorts of directions. The way that these branches grow is very different from tree to tree. Sometimes the branches split up from the tree trunk very early and sometimes only at the very top. Sometimes the branches split up more consistently and sometimes suddenly, so they look very dense. Sometimes the branches get thinner very quickly and sometimes they grow a bit further. Sometimes they grow more upward and sometimes more sideways or circular. Sometimes there are bigger gaps between the branches, and sometimes they are very, very close to each other. And I could go on and on here with these different structures of branches. There is a near infinite amount of possibilities here, which is why there are so many different looking trees, and I certainly can't explain how to precisely draw each and every single one of them. I can only teach you the underlying concepts so you can understand them and construct your own trees that still look realistic. So here is what's true about all trees. The branches always get thinner and thinner and split up. More often the further they are away from the tree trunk. There are pretty much no trees that get thicker at some point. It just does make sense. And there are also no trees that are more dense in the middle where the tree trunk is. This is simply because the point of branches is that they have leaves on their end and leaves need light. So the thin branches where the leaves grow will always be more on the outside of the tree, further away from the tree trunk. So tree trunks grow from the ground and then dissolve into branches that get thinner and thinner and split up more and more. This is how it works. By the way, it's exactly the same thing for bushes, but they just have thinner branches and split up earlier in the first place. I know it might seem very obvious to some of you, but you really need to ingrain this into your mind because I see people make this mistake over and over again when they draw or paint trees loosely. The branches get thicker at some point. Just don't do this. No matter which type of tree you make or in which style you depict it, always check that your branches don't get thicker at some point. This is a pretty much universal truth of trees. Yes, in some special cases, there are these like knots where the tree suddenly gets a bit thicker, but they are not the norm and more like a special feature that you can include once in a while and not a part of their general structure. If you always make branches grow thinner from other branches, you are safe, I promise. And we're going to practice this in the next lesson, which is about creating good basic shapes. But I just wanted to mention this here because it's such a fundamental aspect of trees that people somehow really like to forget about. All right. What else is true about pretty much any tree? Well, they are all consistent in the style of their structure. I know it sounds a bit complicated and weird, but this is just because this is not a known concept and I'm not a native English speaker, so I had to make up a word for it. But yeah, here is what it means. The style of structure of a tree describes in which way it grows. So a bit like these examples that I gave you earlier. Does it generally have more thick or thin branches? How dense are the branches? At which point do the branches split up from the tree trunk? How many smaller branches are there? Are the branches more curved or more straight, et cetera? Just look at the difference in structure between a birch tree and a palm tree. They just have totally different styles in terms of how their branches grow, where they grow out of the tree trunk, how thick they are, and everything. Every type of tree has its own structure in its own style, but this style is consistent for the whole tree. This is the point. An old oak tree with thick, rounded branches does not suddenly have a straight, thin branch that grows out from the tree trunk. See how stupid this looks. And a pine tree that has branches that grows straight to the sides does not suddenly have a single branch that circles around. This just doesn't happen, you know? However, here comes the interesting part. There are also trees that don't have a completely homogenous style, but a small transition. Look at this, for example. The bigger branches grow very straight and upward, but the smaller branches grow sideways and even fall down a little bit. Or this tree which has very thick and rounded branches, and then the smaller branches on their ends grow very straight and upward. So these are also possibilities for trees to grow, and it might seem a little bit random and unpredictable what they can do now. But these trees are still consistent in their style of structure because the bigger branches are all rounded here, and the thin branches are all straight here. There are no structural outliers, no straight big branches here, and that's why it still looks like a real tree. I think it's very useful to think about it in levels. There are the level one branches, the few really big ones that grow directly from the tree trunk, and they should all be very similar in their style of structure. So they should have simular thickness, simular curvature, and stuff like that. And then there are the Level two branches that grow from the level one branches and are therefore a little bit smaller. And they can actually have a different style than the level one branches, but the level two branches should all be in that style without any structural outliers. Now, how many levels you add depends on how detailed you want your tree to be. More levels obviously means more detail. So you can technically make a tree with level one curve, level two straight, level three curved, level four straight or something like this. But generally, I'd say you shouldn't switch up the style too many times on one tree. Like mostly once or twice, because most trees are actually quite consistent in their style for the whole tree, like an oak tree, which usually has very curve, very rounded branches that grow chaotically to every side. And that style is consistent for pretty much the whole tree. The branches only get smaller and smaller on every level, and they don't grow in a particularly different way than the bigger branches. But you can do this if you want. You can vary the structure and get very creative by using different styles for different levels of the branches. All the branches on the same level should have the same style, though. That's very important. This also applies to the foliage that grows out of the small branches. Keep it in the same style for the whole tree. Yes, I know it might seem obvious to some of you, but you still see people make this mistake over and over again. If the branches suddenly get thicker, if they don't split up more often on the outside of the tree, and if there are structural inconsistencies in the tree, then it just looks like something is off. So if you draw or paint your own trees, you have lots of freedom and many options as long as you follow these rules. Branches always get thinner the further they grow, branches grow to the light and spread out around the tree and therefore split up more and more, and the style of the tree has to be consistent for all levels of branches. These are the very important basics that I wanted to share with you, and that's it for the theory of drawing and painting trees. It's not that much, but it's quite important that you remember all of these points. So I recommend you immediately download the PDF files where I have summarized this theory. So with this information about the structure, you can create pretty crazy trees that still look like they could exist somewhere. And because we're now finally done with a theory, we're going to do exactly that in the next lesson. 5. Drawing Basic Shapes: Okay, welcome to the practical part of this course. In this lesson or two lessons, we're going to build the basis for your ability to draw or paint any tree from imagination, which is creating good basic shapes. No matter which medium, whether you're drawing or painting or doing it digitally, no matter how detailed you want your tree to be, whether it's just supposed to be very small in the background or very detailed in the foreground, a tree must always have good shapes at its core, which means pleasing composition, a good flow, the right amount of branches, and the right thickness of these branches. Luckily, this is something that you can practice very well if you put in the work. In pretty much any drawing or painting, you start with a sketch, and there you already determine what it's going to look like in the end. And for trees, this is especially important because they basically only consist of basic lines and shapes with a little bit of detail on top of that. So we have to practice this right here first before we start with any drawing or painting techniques that allow you to create the illusion of detail. That comes later, I promise. But, yeah, now comes a very important first step of practice. So right now, take a big piece of paper or open up your favorite drawing software. As I've said, I'm doing the demonstrations in Creta, which is a completely free software. I'm going to click on New File and make a new image with high resolution so you can clearly see what's going on, and I can put many, many trees here. All right, we are first going to work with our pencil and then with our brush. So first, take out your pencil or select a pencil brush in your drawing software. For sketching and Creta, I pretty much always use this brush because it looks like a very traditional basic pencil that produces these thin gray lines, and that's exactly what we need here. And the first thing that we're going to do here is actually just warming up our brushwork. Just go to the top left corner of your page and make a few parallel lines very quickly, ideally in a few different directions. Then some curved lines. And then some circles. Just do this for literally one or 2 minutes here and try practicing flow and precision a little bit to just get a bit of a better feeling for your pencil or your brush. I often do a little warm up like this. Whenever I draw or paint something, that requires precision. But for trees, this is actually especially useful because they are organic structures, and if your lines are very smooth and flowy and confident, they just look way better. So yeah, maybe just fill a little corner of your page like this, and then it's finally time to draw the first set of trees in this course. Let's go. Start with a slightly curved dynamic line that you drag from the bottom to the top. And then we're just going to add simular lines with simular curvature that come out of the first one. For every new line that you add, start on another one, follow its shape for a very short moment, and then quickly go in a different direction with a curve and release the pressure of your pencil or brush. This is how you get these very smooth and flowy branches that look connected to each other. Let's just make a few of these trees here so you can practice this process and this type of brush work. Make your trees very smooth and very organic and don't worry about the thickness of the lines. Just remember what I told you in the last lesson. The style of the structure has to be consistent and the branches always split up more and more on the outside of the tree. These are the only things that you have to worry about now. Other than that, just enjoy the flow of it and maybe add a little bit of variation to the trees that you create. Make one that is more white, one that is more narrow, one that bends a bit to the side, and one that has more straight branches than the others, for example. Always make sure that your trees are consistent, so you don't want any part where there are significantly more branches than in others. So I just made six trees here that are all a little bit different and you can use them as orientation. But if you don't feel super confident with this part yet, you can just practice more on another piece of paper and draw more trees. I mean, this is the point of the course, just a series of exercises that you can complete at your own pace. So if you feel confident making these super basic flowy trees here, then let's move on to the next step, which is drawing more interesting trees with different levels of branches. First, let's make one with very curved level one branches that go to the sides and are very rounded. Draw just a few of them and leave a little bit of space between them. So something like this, that's our solid tree basis. And then let's add the level two branches in a slightly different style because we can do that, as you've learned in the last lesson. Let's make very short upward pointing lines that come out of the ends of the level one branches. Very fast, very dynamic, make them consistent on the whole tree, and consider letting them split up a few times because that's going to give us a little bit more detail. All right. Now we're going to do it the other way around, starting with upward growing level one branches that just split up a few times. Then at the very top, let's add downward or sideways growing level two branches to each side of each of these individual level one branches. And as you can see, this is certainly a very different tree structure than the one we've drawn before, but it still looks pretty nice, I think, and there are certainly trees out there that look like this. By the way, don't worry if your level two branches overlap at times. Trees are three dimensional structures, and this is actually supposed to happen. Later on, we will of course, do this more consciously and practice making the trees more three dimensional. But right now just don't worry and focus on good shapes and the principles of the theory lessons. Nice. For the next tree structure, we're going to start with long level one branches that spread out in a circular way, just like this. And then level two branches that spread out around the level one branches just a little bit shorter. Then when you're done, let's make something very unique once again. We start with two very long upward growing level one branches or we could also call them tree trunks here, and then very short level two branches on their sides. Once again, the point of this is not to create super realistic, super detailed trees, but simply to practice creating different tree structures while still following all the principles of the last lesson. It's very important that you internalize them by just making a few admittedly boring looking trees. It's going to do you very good later on. And right now, I would say the guided part of the practice is over because the only thing I can do now is repeat what I've already said. You should definitely draw a few more trees here and try to come up with unique looks and structures like this one right here, for example, that has level one branches that split up very early and grow upward and the level two branches split up only at the very top and grow sideways. So once again, we have a combination of two different styles on one tree, but it still looks right because we apply them to the different levels of branches. And now this looks like a savanna tree or something. So you should definitely experiment with a few different tree structures here to get a little bit of practice in. And you can do pretty much what you want here as long as you follow the principles, of course. But before I forget, one last thing is mandatory, and that is make a tree with three levels of branches. You can do it just like me with this tree right here, where I draw some very normal level one and level two branches in the same style and then on each of the level two branches, a few level three branches. Once again, very straight, nothing special here, no, different styles. Just make a tree that's a bit more detailed than the ones before, but still has a consistent density and these different levels of branches. That's going to be excellent practice for later on because whenever you make a sketch for a bigger tree where you apply more texture to the bark and the leaves and everything, you always start with a skeleton like this. So we are officially done now, and we can move on to the painting part. But feel free to draw a few more of these tree structures to really make sure you got this part of the process dialed in, and you feel very confident with this fundamental step of practice. Have fun. 6. Painting Basic Shapes: Now we're going to move on to the next step, which is doing pretty much the same thing, but with brushes. So if you're only interested in drawing, that's a pity, but you can move on to the next lesson. For the rest of you, pick up brush and some black paint. Again, we're going to create some very basic tree shapes, but this time, it's going to be more interesting because we have to mind the thickness of the tree trunk and the branches. And therefore, these trees will look a lot better already. In case you're painting digitally, select a brush that varies in size depending on how much pressure you apply. So one that looks approximately like this, as you can see, if I apply lots of pressure, the line is very thick, and if I apply low pressure, it's very thin. And this is very useful for painting the basic shapes of trees. So let's do that. I'm going to stay on the same page where I've drawn the trees, but you can also take a new piece of paper or open a new document. No problem. Because we're only painting the basic shapes here, let's use black. So we can clearly see what's going on with each branch. When you're ready and you have everything set up, let's paint our first simple tree. Start with a slightly curved dynamic line that you drag from the bottom to the top and release the pressure in the end. Then let's add a few more that come out of the first one, just like in our drawing part. And you can already see that I have to fix the bottom of my tree because it's too thin. We now have to mind this for every single branch that we add. Every line gets thinner and thinner the further it is away from the basis of the tree, which you can achieve by going dynamically with your brush and just releasing the pressure as you paint works digitally and traditionally the same way. Here's a little summary what we're doing so far. So let's just make a very simple tree with a few branches that follow all our principles. You don't have to make it look three dimensional or detailed or anything. Just make sure the branches get thinner and thinner. They split up more and more, and the style of the structure is consistent. Simply by following these rules, we are already creating a tree that actually looks pretty nice. If you find any error, try to fix it like this branch right here where I feel like it's a bit too thick. So I'm just adding a little bit of paint on the left side to make it more fitting. All right. Once the level of detail is relatively consistent for the whole tree, we can move on to the next one. This time, we're going to make the branches more rounded and more three D, which simply means that they overlap a little bit. Let's start with a thick tree trunk just like this. And then at the top of it, let's add a few rounded branches that grow to all sorts of directions, left, right, up, a little bit down, and let's add some nice curvature to each of them. So this is going to be a very classic tree. Paint these branches dynamically. Let them overlap, let them be chaotic, but make sure that each branch still follows our basic rules. It gets thinner and thinner, splits up more and more, and all the branches have roughly the same style. Nice. Now we have a healthy mixture of different directions in which these branches grow, which makes this tree look very chaotic. Now it's time to make something very different. Once again, we're going to make a big tree, so make sure you have some space. Let's start with big level one branches just like this. Make them split up early and curvy and smooth. Make sure that your tree is very thick at the bottom. And then some nice and smooth level two branches on top of each of these level one branches. Again, we're not trying to make anything too complicated here, just a demonstration of a unique tree structure. In this case, the tree looks special because we have very few level one branches, but on top of each of them, we have a very dense bundle of level two branches. Alright, once you're happy and it looks something like this, let's move on to the next tree where we once again, mix up a few different styles for the different levels of branches. Start with long thin lines that bend to the sides at the top and make them overlap a little bit. So it looks three dimensional. Then let's add level two branches that grow to the sides and get more and more frequent at the top of the tree. Make them grow both to the left and the right on each level one branch. So we have some nice, three dimensional looking, consistent tree structure. And then I think for the first time in this course, let's add level three branches that just point downward. So just like this, a few lines that just fall down from each of the level two branches. Paint them very, very lightly with the thinnest brush that you can find or make your digital brush very small. This is a very good example for how you can use very simple steps to make a tree look actually quite detailed. If you take your time here and just add simple downward pointing lines to each of these Level two branches, then the whole thing will look pretty nice because we've set a good basis with the Level one and Level two branches. Okay, once you've got that, well done. I think you've now gotten the point of the sole thing. So I'm going to move through the next few trees a bit more quickly and just show you which kinds of tree structures you can practice. So first, look at me how I'm painting these trees and then do it at your own pace. If you follow this exercise and do what I'm doing, you will have a large toolkit of different tree structures that you can put in your artwork. All right, let's paint a tree trunk that goes pretty much straight up. Then some slightly curved level one branches that also grow upward but a little bit at an angle. And then after that, we're going to paint level two branches that grow more sideways. So we have a transition in the direction that the branches of this tree grow. Always notice that the higher the level, the more frequent the branches. Nice. Now we're going to paint a different version of this tree, also with a straight tree trunk and Level one and Level two branches. Let's make the level one branches split up very early and add just a few of them. And then many, many level two branches. But this time, they all point upward. Okay, onto the next one, two very thick, very rounded level one branches or tree trunks, and then some level two branches at the top that have roughly the same shape. Make them round, curved and don't let them split up too often. Then let's add one more small branch down here. And yeah, this is a super classic old tree. It's very simple to make those if you have nice flow with your brush and add a few curves. All right. Next one, this time, a bit more three dimensional. Let's start with two thick, rounded and intertwined tree trunks just like this. And then some level one branches at the top that grow more to the sides. Additionally, level two branches that fall down from these level one branches. So we want quite a bit of detail here at the top, and don't forget to add a few of them in the middle because this is a three dimensional structure. But don't make them too dense because this is supposed to be an old tree. So just like this, we've created a really unique looking tree that's kind of three dimensional and could be growing in a swamp or something. Cool. Onto the next one. Now we're going to create something that somewhat resembles a birch tree. So we're going to start with a straight tree trunk and some level one branches that grow to the sides and upward like approximately at a 45 degree angle, some smaller branches that split up from them. And then on each of these branches, simply downward pointing lines just like that. Make sure that these smaller branches have the same density on the whole tree. So we have a consistent style of structure. Also, don't forget to add some branches in the middle. So it looks like they are growing in front of or behind the tree. So we have a three dimensional structure once again. Okay, solid work. Now, I encourage you to fill the rest of the page or make a new page with your own ideas for trees. So try to come up with different styles for the different levels of branches. Try to create very normal trees, very special trees, young trees, old trees, big trees, small trees. As long as you follow the basic principles, it should work. So branches get thinner and thinner. The style of the structure is consistent, and the branches split up more and more on the outside of the tree. In case you have absolutely no idea what to make, you can also just look at what I'm doing here and try to replicate it. No problem. I think I've covered pretty much all the most important basic shapes of trees like tall, thin, thick, curved, straight, and a few different combinations of styles. So we already have a big variety of trees here. In case your page is full or you just want to paint your trees bigger, just grab another piece of paper. This is practice, and you should get a lot of volume in early on on these basic tree structures. So take your time at this step of practice. Make sure that you eradicate any bad habits of drawing and painting trees here and make sure that yours look at least somewhat similar to mine. Later on, when we paint more detailed trees, you will realize that these basic tree structures are so useful because you always start with one of these. And the more of these basic trees you make, the more confident your brush strokes will get, which the viewers of your artworks will definitely notice in a positive way. So, look at this. That's a really nice basis that we have right here. I hope you filled an equally large page or multiple pages with trees, so we can move on to the next lesson. Let's go. 7. Drawing Trees Trunks & Branches: Welcome to the next lesson. This one is about drawing tree trunks and branches. We have now explored the general structure of trees and how you should build them up. So now let's get a bit more specific and talk about how to apply detail to your tree trunks and branches and how to make them look good. So this includes understanding and drawing highlights and shadows, creating different textures for the bark, and, of course, understanding how branches grow out of a tree trunk. So you can create whatever branches you like. Also, I should mention that the techniques and methods that I'll be showing here are applicable to both pencil and pen and ink drawings. So you can follow the exercises with your preferred medium for drawing. All right, so let's first talk about the basics of tree trunks. Tree trunks are pretty much always based on a shape that we know as a cylinder. So tree trunks and branches are basically just many, many wacky cylinders combined. So you should always assume the cylinder shape as the basis for how to apply highlights and shadows to your tree trunks and branches. When light hits a cylinder from the left, it has a shadow on the right, and the transition from darkness to brightness is relatively smooth because of the round shape. So the shadow somewhat looks like a gradient, which means it's a smooth colour transition. And if the light comes from the front, it's a bit darker on both sides. Makes sense, right? Okay, so when you draw a tree, you build it up with different cylinders and you make them look three dimensional by applying highlights and shadows like I've shown you. I'd say, Let's practice this for a moment. Take a piece of paper or open up a new document in your favorite drawing software, and then draw two light parallel lines just like this. So it somewhat resembles a tree trunk. Then let's say the light comes from the top left, so we will have a shadow on the bottom right. So how do we make this look three dimensional? Well, the simplest way is to just make a smooth transition from shadow to light. And we can easily do this by scribbling lines that get lighter and lighter on the left side. So release the pressure of your pencil as you move to the left side and add less and less lines the further you move to the light source. And boom, here we have it. This works with any medium. If you have a pencil, you just release the pressure and make the lines lighter and lighter. And if you work with pen and ink, you just add less lines the further you are on the light side. So very dense, many lines in the shadow, and then less and less lines as it gets lighter. And that's how you do it. Now, let's do this for two branches. Let's draw the outlines of two branches very lightly just like this. Again, let's say the light comes from the top left side. So let's start indicating the strong shadows on the right edges of both these branches. So now we know where the shadows are, and then we make a color transition by scribbling, starting on these shadows, and then just releasing the pressure as we move to the light. Also, the branch on the right side is a little bit further away from the light source than the one on the left side, logically. So it's a little bit darker on average, like this. Okay, once you got that, let's make one more very simple example where a branch comes out of the tree trunk like this. Let's add our scribbly transition from shadow to light without worrying about any detail. Light still comes from the top left, so this branch has a little shadow on the bottom, which we can indicate like this. Then let's say the light comes not only from the top left, but also a little bit from behind the tree. So we can add a shadow at an angle underneath our branch just like this. And, yeah, that's a very simple example for how it works with light and shadow on trees and how you can make that work using very simple color transitions. But something is still missing with these tree trunks and branches, they feel empty, right? What they are lacking is, of course, texture. The scribbling here is very useful to show you how light and shadow work. But if we want to create some actually good looking tree trunks, we need to give them a nice bark texture, and there are many different ways to do this. You can draw textures by creating lines, circles, small boxes or other shapes, or you can draw them very detailed. This, of course, depends on the style in which you draw and the level of detail that you want for your tree. So because there are so many different bark textures, you can draw pretty much anything for the bark. It just has to be consistent for the whole tree, just like the style of the branches. But if we just add these textures on our tree shapes, they still look too flat, even if we add highlights and shadows. That is, of course, because trees are made up of many cylinders and those are three dimensional. And when a texture is applied to a cylinder, it bends around on the sides. It gets distorted and more dense. Let's look at this picture, for example. The texture of this bark is pretty much defined by these scribbly vertical lines. And the more on the left side we are, which is where this tree ends, the more dense these lines become the closer they are to each other. And this is the case for any texture, whether it's circles, lines or hyperalism. You always have to mind this if you apply texture to a cylinder, which you essentially do if you draw a bark on a tree. Okay, that's what you have to know. Now, let's practice this. We're going to start by just drawing a few simple textures that would work well for a bark. So a small area with curved lines just like this. And then a texture that's made up of small circles like very minimalistic comic style textures. Okay, that's enough. Let's make a texture that's made up of more organic shapes like this. When you create textures, it's very important that they look random but still consistent. So add a little bit of variation to each individual shape, but don't make them too different. Like, they should still all be in the same size category and roughly follow the same style. And the density of the texture should be consistent. So be careful that your shapes do not suddenly get bigger as you move to the right. That's very easy to miss if it happens. Now let's actually add a little three dimensional element to this texture by drawing a little bit of a shadow on all the bottom right parts of these individual shapes. And you can even scribble around like I did it here to make the bark look more organic. I recommend you practice this with a few more textures. Just try to come up with different variations and make some very simple ones and some that are more detailed like this one. Okay, then let's move on to the next level and add these textures to simple cylinders. Now we're getting somewhere. Start with two parallel lines. Not two parallel. I mean, it's a tree, but just enough so we can fill it with a nice texture that's made up of lines like the first one that we've drawn. So let's first fill the whole thing with this consistent curvy texture and then we can simply add more of these lines on the sides to make the whole thing look three dimensional. So there is a small transition in density with the least dense part of this thing being in the middle and the most dense parts being the sides. And just by doing this for some time, you see that the sides of the tree become darker, and it actually starts looking three dimensional. Okay. Once you got that, let's do a simular thing, but with a curve tree trunk, draw two rounded lines like this. And then let's add this circle texture that we've drawn, but first only in the middle of the tree trunk. Just about like this. And now look at how I'm doing it on the sides. I'm drawing these circles more dense and more elliptical. So they are pretty much just dark lines on the very side, and they get bigger and more normal in the middle. So the circles get more and more flat and follow the shape of the tree trunk on the sides. This doesn't have to be a super precise transition, but if you just follow this principle on average, then you'll be surprised how easy it is to actually make a three dimensional looking tree trunk. And because this is a nice basis, I'm actually making the sides a bit more darker to indicate shadow, and I'm adding some random detail in the middle. That's one of the best things about drawing trees. If you got a rough texture that's visible, you can add so much random stuff, and it just looks like organic detail. So yeah, in the end, I'm just adding a bit more random detail to the sides by just scribbling. But you don't necessarily have to do that. I just wanted to try it out, and, yeah, it kind of worked. Now, let's draw the final simple tree trunk with a texture applied to it. And this time, let's make it split into about halfway up. Build up the bark texture with big irregular shapes. Again, start in the middle and then make the shapes thinner and thinner on the sides until you end up with pretty much just lines. Let's say the light comes from the left side, so we're going to intensify all the outlines of the shapes on the right side. And if you got time, you can even add a little individual shadow to these shapes. So every shape gets a little transition from light to dark, dark obviously being on the right and light on the left. And after that, we're going to darken all the right parts as well. We have a smooth transition from dark to light. Also, on average, of course, the shapes on the right side of the tree should be more densely filled than the ones on the left, so they look darker. Yeah, this is pretty much it. You can apply this exact process to an infinite amount of tree trunks and branches with different textures, different branches coming out of the tree and everything. This is how it works. Let's do one more exercise together. This time with a more simple texture, but a more complex tree structure. Draw the outlines of a tree trunk that has two overlapping branches, approximately like this. And then one small branch up here, and then let's add a simple texture of straight lines that somewhat follow the shape of the tree trunk. Of course, as you get more detail, these lines become more dense on the edges. And let's say the light comes from the top left, so we add even more lines on the right side. And for the branches, we do it exactly the same way, little scribbly texture. And then we have to mind the shadows that these branches cast on each other like this small one has a shadow approximately here. And these other branches also have a shadow on the bottom right, but no more on the tree trunk because there is no more tree trunk beneath them. So, yeah, we could go more into perspective and light and shadow here, but these are topics on their own. For now, it's just really important that you understand the process of how to apply a texture to a tree trunk. Always treat tree trunks and branches like irregular cylinders. You can use pretty much anything for the texture from detailed shapes with individual highlights and shadows to literally just lines or circles or other types of scribbling. As long as these textures are consistent, get more and more dense on the sides, and the highlights and shadows are somewhat logical. Other than that, there really isn't that much to drawing tree trunks and branches. But still, of course, I recommend that you practice this with different textures and different structures of tree trunks and branches, just like the last one that we've drawn here. Maybe you can come up with some more complex shapes if you want to practice that or with more detailed textures, if you want. This is what you have to know. If you practice that, you're one step closer to being able to draw any detailed tree you can imagine. But one big thing is still missing, which is, of course, the foliage. Let's see which techniques we got there. 8. Drawing Foliage: Okay. Welcome to our lesson on how to draw foliage. This is a thing that people really like to completely mess up. So yeah, this lesson should fix that for you once and for all. I personally believe that it's not too hard to draw foliage once you know what you're doing, but still it's probably the thing that people struggle the most with when they draw trees. So in this lesson, I'm going to give you very good techniques for how to consistently and confidently draw foliage on anything, be it complex trees or simple bushes. So let's talk about the basic process of drawing foliage. First of all, I want you to remember our first theory lesson. When drawing foliage, it doesn't make sense to draw individual leaves. This would take way too long. But instead, we want to create an abstract texture that we apply to simple three dimensional shapes. Yes, if you draw trees very close or like Bonsai trees or something, you can draw individual leaves. But in that case, you don't really need any technique. You can just draw these leaves with small ovals, and that's it. But if we want to draw big complex trees that look nice, we need to build them up with three dimensional shapes, depending on how much detail we want. And then we apply texture, highlights and shadows to those shapes. And this is true for both drawing with reference and drawing without reference. If you draw from reference, you try to break down the tree into shapes in your mind, like I've told you in the first theory lesson. But if you draw a tree without reference, it also makes sense to first build it up with very simple shapes and light outlines and then applying texture highlights and shadows to those shapes. So let's see how you can do that. Take out or open up your medium for practice. Let me present the best techniques for creating an abstract texture for foliage. Let's start by drawing a bunch of circles or os. Literally, just scribble with your pencil and make a texture that's made up of many small os. Make them overlap a bit and give them slightly different sizes. No, these circles are not supposed to represent individual leaves, but by just putting many of them together, we can create a really nice illusion of detail. So try to build up an organic abstract shape like this that looks like a bush, and then let's add a bit of randomness to the sites like a few circles that go slightly outside, so this thing doesn't look too geometrical and artificial. Alright. And now on the bottom right of this thing, let's draw even more circles to make it more dense and create the illusion of shadow. And this works with any medium, pen and ink, pencil, digital. Wherever you add more circles, this will look darker and therefore like a shadow. And let's also add a few random circles in the middle. So the whole thing looks more organic, but most of the extra circles should still be on the bottom right, so we know where the light comes from. And just like that, we've created our first simple leaf texture. Here we go. Next up, let's create a texture made up of small zigzag lines like the letter M, and let's make them spread out in a semi circular way like this. So add many, many s that all point to the outside. Obviously, not every line has to be a nicely written M, but you should use this letter as orientation for creating a consistent texture. Once you have a nice little ball like this, let's add a shadow by adding even more s on the bottom right and making them less and less frequent as we move to the top left. E Walla, this is another simple way to draw a leaf texture. Then let's create a texture by drawing the letter U, and at this point, it's exactly the same thing. We first want to span this letter, making it overlap many, many times and create an organic shape, and then we add more in the places where we want shadow. So mostly at the bottom and a few random ones in the middle, because those make our texture more organic and three dimensional. Okay, now we're going to draw a texture using the letter X. And I admit that drawing an X many times might not be as comfortable as drawing many O's or s or Us, but it still works if you follow that same procedure. And this texture looks a bit more spiky and needly if that's even a word. But yeah, you know what I mean. Alright, looks pretty good. So last but not least, let's draw a texture using the letter W. This time, let's make it a bit more wild and let's make these Ws go very far to the outside like this. Again, I really want you to not focus too much on detail here and don't take too much time. We literally just want to understand these basic textures and practice adding highlights and shadows efficiently. And that basically just means creating a consistent pattern of letters and making them more dense in the places where we want shadow. And of course, a few random ones everywhere, so the thing looks more organic. In this case, I've always added the shadow on the bottom right to have some consistency here. But this, of course, always depends on your light source. The shadow can also be on top or on the left side or whatever. And these are basically our very first leaf bundles or bushes. Now, a little intervention for understanding. Why is each of these leaf textures made up of letters? Isn't that weird? The reason why we do this instead of just drawing random lines or dots is because when we draw a leaf texture that's supposed to look somewhat realistic, it must be consistent. So the lines that make up your texture must all follow a certain pattern. And there are simply too many possible patterns that you can create with just lines and dots. So the texture will most likely just go wrong at some point and lose its consistency. But by building up a texture with letters and just drawing the same letter over and over and over again, you can make sure that the whole texture actually has the same style. Even if you just roughly follow the shape of a letter with each movement of your pencil, your texture will have a consistent, let's say, energy or direction. This does a lot for your foliage, and you don't even have to draw these letters exactly. As you can see, not every line that makes up this leaf bundle looks like a nicely written W. But when I draw a texture like this, all of the movements of my pencil roughly follow the shape of a W. So the whole texture has a little bit of variation and looks natural, but it still has the same style and consistency. And as you can see, if you follow these principles, you can create these leaf bundles very fast and very efficiently by just scribbling purposefully. And this is great. So you should always use letters as orientation to make up your leaf bundles. And that's not because we're in some fancy fantasy forest where there are letters instead of leaves, but simply because this is the most effective way to create leaf textures that are in the sweet spot between consistency and being organic and therefore natural and realistic. So remember these letters, O M, XW. These are, in my opinion, the most useful and the most versatile letters for creating these abstract textures. Of course, if you want, you can also use other letters to create these textures like G or Q or Y. But I'm going to be honest, most other letters of the alphabet are just dead annoying to repeatedly draw. So yeah, these five ones here are probably the most practical ones you can find. Alright, I think it's time for the next step, which is using these basic textures to create actual structures of foliage that consist of multiple leaf bundles. Start by drawing three overlapping circles like this, very, very lightly because these are just the indications for the basic shapes that we will fill with the abstract texture. So in the end, you don't want to be able to see these circles. So let's fill them with a basic texture made up of Os, as we've done before, many, many small circles. First, let's fill the shape on the top left. And because we are now drawing a three dimensional structure, we have to decide where these shapes actually are. The shape that I'm drawing right now, for example, is behind the shape on the bottom, but in front of the shape to the right. And let's say the light comes from the top left, so let's add more Os on the bottom right of this shape. And let's create a transition into the light by making the texture less and less dense the further we move to the top left, and don't forget to add a few small random shadows too. Okay, and then we can take care of the bottom shape where we literally just do the same thing. So first, fill it with a texture and then add more shadow on the bottom right. I'm just going to draw an arrow here to make sure where the light comes from. You'll also notice as I'm drawing these textures that I'm only using the sketch circles as a rough orientation for where to put the textures. So I'm always adding a few random Os on the outside because if you follow your sketch too precisely, then this will look way too geometrical and unrealistic. So make sure you always add a little bit of randomness when you draw foliage. Okay, and then we do the same thing again for the third shape. And this time, we're going to add even more shadow on the bottom right because this shape is the furthest away from the light source. In the end, I'm just adding a few more random shadows on the whole thing to make it look more natural. And then we got our first finished leaf bundle. Technically, you can even draw branches or a tree trunk below this thing to make it look like an actual tree. But you don't have to do that right now. It's just an example for what you can do with these leaf bundles. So let's draw the next one. This time, let's put a bit more space between our shapes and draw a few smaller ones and a few bigger ones. So different sizes here. Then let's fill them with a texture consisting of Ms, and let's say the light comes from the top right. So we will draw more s on the bottom left of each shape, and all the shapes that are more on the bottom left side on average are even darker. So scribble your s, lots and lots of them, especially on the bottom left side, and also don't be afraid to draw a few that go outside of these individual shapes because that will make the tree look more organic. And yeah, this is pretty good. You can now add branches between these leaf bundles and a small tree trunk below it by also just scribbling approximately like this, but you don't have to do this if you don't want to. Basically, this is already it for how to draw foliage on trees. You've now understood the basic process and the principles that you should follow. You just build up the foliage with basic shapes, you fill these shapes with textures that are made of letters, and you make these textures more dense in the places where you want shadow. That's the opposite side of the light source and a few random shadows on the whole thing because we deal with three dimensional structures. So now the only thing that's left is practice. So here's what you should do to get the hang of it. Draw structure that has flag shapes where the light comes straight from the top and the texture is made up of many axes. So this could be a spiky savannah tree. Draw a leaf structure that has a texture that's made up of many uses that get less and less dense on the right side. So it looks like it has high contrast between highlights and shadows. Something like this. Then make a structure that's a little bit bigger and consists of more shapes and has a texture that's made up of many, many chaotic ws very big, very flat, and of course, lots of shadow on the opposite side of the light source. After that, draw a few round shapes that you fill with an O texture that vary a lot in sizes. So you want a few ones that are very big and a few that are very small. This is excellent practice for applying different highlights and shadows. Also, don't forget to add many, many small organic shadows. After that, I want you to create a more complex structure that's made up of many, many individual shapes. Make it flat, fill every single shape with a dense W texture, then decide where the light comes from and fill each shape with highlights and shadows by making the texture more dense in the correct place. For this thing right here, I think I took more than 10 minutes. So you should really take your time here and don't rush it. It might be a bit boring, but if you get a good routine with adding these textures, highlights and shadows to the basic shapes of foliage, then you will benefit from that later on because we want to be very, very comfortable with creating foliage before we move on to actual trees. And we're almost there, actually. To finish off the practice, I want you to draw three more structures of your choice. Choose your texture, choose how many shapes you want, where the light comes from, and then just draw it. For example, I made one that's basically just two circles with a U texture and lots of contrast between high light and shadow. One that's formed like a star or something with an X texture. Looks a bit weird, but it's all right. And for the last one that's filled with an O texter, I decided that the light comes a bit from the front. So in the places where the highlights are, I don't even draw any texter because these places are so light and I basically just draw a little bit around them. So this is a bit more advanced, but it also works, as you can see. So you can try to replicate that if you want. There are many, many techniques and ways you can draw foliage, and you should have a very good overview now. And what can I say? This is also everything that you need to draw a bush. So at this point, you can technically already draw any bush you can imagine. You can vary the amount of detail by adding more or less shapes. You can create more or less contrast between highlight and shadow by just making the difference in density bigger or smaller. And you can vary the textures by adding different letters. And for drawing good looking trees, we actually just need to combine this with drawing tree trunks and branches. So if you practiced all of this, then I think it's time that we move on to the next lesson to draw some actual trees. Let's go. 9. Drawing Basic Trees: In this lesson, we're going to sketch our first set of actual trees. I mean, it's about time that we do that. By now, we've covered all the basics intensely from understanding the theory about the basic structure to the basic shapes, drawing tree trunks and branches and foliage. Now it's time to put all of this together. In this lesson, we're going to draw a variety of very different looking trees to practice the general process of creating them. So we're still not going to draw super detailed, super beautiful looking trees that still has to wait a little bit. But first, we need to get in some volume and make sure you are very comfortable with the process of creating trees. Each sketch in this lesson should take you less than 10 minutes, but you should still try to follow every rule that we've talked about. So the style of structure is consistent, the textures are consistent, the branches get thinner, the lighting is correct, all that stuff that we've talked about, you can just go back and rewash these lessons if you don't know it. Okay, then take out your medium for drawing. For the first tree, we're going to start with, of course, the basic shapes. So let's draw a classic skeleton of a tree with very curved and not too many branches like this. Okay. Then let's draw the basic shapes for the foliage on top of that. So draw some big overlapping circles on the ends of the branches. For now, we're just drawing circles, but you should already think about making this tree look three dimensional. So some of these circles should be in front of or behind branches that are in the middle. Once you've created a nice and balanced structure for the foliage, it's time to draw the outlines for the tree trunk and the branches. Indicate these with very light lines and make the branches grow, of course, thinner and thinner. Okay, let's say the light comes from the top left. So this tree will have shadows on all the bottom right parts of these individual shapes, individual branches, and the tree trunk. So let's start there and scribble on all the bottom right parts of the tree trunk and the branches. In this case, they are very thin, so we don't need to add any specific texture to tree trunk and branches. We can just scribble and make it look like it has light and shadow, and that's already enough for a tree like this. So just draw some lines and release the pressure as you move to the left side. Nice. Once you got that, it's time to draw foliage with an o texture inside of these individual shapes. Make the os quite big so this tree doesn't take you too much time. Just focus on making the texture consistent and adding shadows in the correct place, which means on the bottom right. Also, make sure that the shapes on the bottom right are generally darker than the ones on the top left because they are further away from the light source. Also because we are drawing in the third dimension now, you have to imagine which shapes are in front of or behind other shapes and therefore get more or less light. For example, right here, I'm drawing a shadow that one shape casts onto another shape. Also, the last shape that I'm drawing here is covered by pretty much everything, so almost no light reaches there, so I make the texture very dense here. Now it's time to make some adjustments. For example, fixing some shadows, making them more intense, or adding a few more branches for detail. And here we go. This is the basic process of drawing a tree. Let's make another one. This time, let's make the tree trunk very thick and let's make the branches grow more upward. But let's not make too many of them because we want to cover this tree with a very dense layer of foliage. So we won't even be able to see most of the branches at the top, and therefore, we can just leave them out. Just create a big treetop made up of many round shapes. And then we can draw the outlines of the tree trunk and the branches that are not completely covered by foliage. And this time, let's actually add some roots down here. Okay, let's fill these shapes with an texture, and let's say the light comes again from the top left. So we have a transition in value both within the individual shapes and the tree as a whole. And yes, it actually doesn't matter at all whether you first draw the texture for the foliage or the tree trunk. That's why I'm doing it differently here. As long as everything is technically correct and the textures look nice, it's okay, and you can choose what you prefer. Luckily, drawing trees is not a super rigid process, and there are many ways you can make it work as long as you follow our basic rules. Okay, then let's add a simple line texter to our tree trunk that gets more dense on the left and the right because of the cylindrical shape, but especially on the right because of our light source. Quickly take care of the branches and the roots as well, and then that's pretty much it. This is our second tree. After that, let's draw a tree that's a little bit different. Make it split into big curved level one branches, and then a few shorter level two branches that grow more upward. Make the shapes for the foliage quite flat and put them in little groups on top of these level two branches. Then draw the outlines for the tree trunks and the branches and fill the shapes with a simple W texture. Let's say the light comes straight from the top. In order to make the tree look more natural, make some of these ws go slightly outside the shapes that you've drawn. Again, your outlines are not boundaries for the texture, but indications for where it approximately goes. So don't forget about the randomness factor. This is a natural object, and you can add some ws that don't follow any plan, as long as they're not too far outside the sketch floating in the air or something. After scribbling another basic texture for tree trunks and branches, I think that the foliage should have a little bit more volume, actually. So I'm drawing a few very light Ws on top of the individual foliage shapes. So the foliage looks more thick and there is higher contrast. All right, onto the next one. Let's getch a vertical tree that splits in two and has diagonal level two branches. Let's add some simple round circles for the foliage. This time, a bit smaller, and let's say the light comes from the right side. Draw some outlines, of course, only to the parts of the tree trunk and the branches that are not completely covered in foliage and then add a simple u texter to the shapes. In this case, I'm actually switching back and forth between drawing the texture for the tree trunk and drawing the texture for the leaves because why not? Okay. And when you're ready, we're going to draw another version of this tree. This time with one tree trunk that just goes straight up. And let's say it has lots of foliage. So we don't even need to draw any branches here. We just fill everything up with these round shapes. This is also a possibility for a tree to grow. So then fill these shapes with a nice texture, and I'm going to go with an texture, but you can also choose something different if you like. So let's add individual shadows to these shapes, some small branches, a texture to the tree trunk. And in the end, I'm drawing lots of random spots on top of the whole thing, just to give it a bit more detail. This is one of the best parts about drawing and painting trees. If you have nice texture, correct highlights and shadows, you can additionally add so much random stuff, and it's just going to look like nice organic detail. So yeah, for the next tree, let's make the branches spread out in an almost circular way. And let's add many, many small shapes for the foliage on top of them. Draw some simple outlines for the tree trunk and the branches. You know how to do it by now, and then let's say the light comes from the top and we add our cording textures, highlights and shadows to all of these small shapes. And then let's actually for once, add a more interesting texture to our tree trunk made of these horizontal round lines that indicate the three dimensional shapes of this whole thing. In this case, I'm first focusing on the texture to make it consistent on the whole tree, and then I'm adding the highlights and shadows. Also, let's once again increase the volume of our foliage by drawing some very light os on top of it. Okay, when you're done, your tree looks something like this, we're going to move on to something that's a little bit different, but also counts as a tree, which is a palm tree. So we start with a long, slightly curved line here, and then we add very curved lines at the top, just like this. They should all bend a little bit down because of gravity, and they all come out of the same point at the top. That's basically how a palm tree works. And for the tree trunk, I always like to build it up with small shapes like this when I'm drawing a palm tree. That's a very safe and easy method to get it right because you can just follow your sketch line. And for the foliage, if you can call it that, I think you can call it that. I just build it up with many straight lines that all fall downward. Finally, the leaves of a palm tree actually act like level one and level two branches. You see, we got the level one branches that come out of the same point and are these downward curves, and then these straight level two branches that come from them. I know there are still leaves, but it's the same principle that I've taught you in the theory lesson. So that's cool. As for the texture of the tree trunk, I would just add a small transition from light to shadow depending on where your light comes from. And here we go. That's a solid and quick palm tree. Alright, for the next three, let's make something a bit more complex, starting with level one branches that grow upward and then transition into sideways growing level two branches, like this. And then we're going to add some flat shapes. Then some outlines and then some very dense texture. This tree should be quite three dimensional in your case because this also has to be practiced. So think about which branches are in front of or behind other branches and how that affects the shapes that grow out of their ends. So add a more dense texture, which means more shadow to the shapes that are blocked off from the light source, like the ones on the inside of the tree, like, right here. Then let's add lots of shadow to the tree trunk and some random dead branches just for detail. And yeah, this is also a solid tree. Now, I encourage you to try drawing trees in a few different styles. Like, right here, I'm trying to draw a comic tree with very defined outlines in this very illustrated texture. And after that, I'm drawing some simple trees without even any texter where I just practice placing these shapes correctly. I highly recommend that you also do a few quick sketches and different styles here that each takes you about 1 minute, and you only focus on coming up with unique structures. Or of course, you can also practice drawing more detailed trees like this one right here where I have some very scribbly angular branches and a bark texture that actually consists of small circles. Find your flow, create unique structures, add your textures, highlights and shadows and random details. And that's exactly how you should practice. Having created a variety of basic tree structures like here will help you a lot later on when we draw more detailed trees because the process is basically exactly the same, only that you just take more time when you draw something more detailed. Just draw the tree bigger than here, you add more individual shapes for the foliage, more individual branches, and more texture to the bark, and that's it. If you follow this lesson and you've drawn all these different trees and maybe more, then I would say you have a very good basis and you're ready to move on to the next lesson. See you there. 10. Drawing Basic Conifers: Alright. In the last lesson, we've sketched a big variety of different trees. But some of you may have noticed that there is actually a whole category of trees that somehow we haven't touched at all so far. And that is, of course, conifers or evergreens, however you want to call them, you know, the ones with needles. And that is simply because they just work a little bit different than the ones with leaves or normal trees. Now, before you freak out, new theory, new principles and everything, actually, it's a lot more simple to draw conifers, in my opinion. That's why I've structured the lessons about building up trees with regular foliage and regular tree trunks and branches. And I'm just going to use this one lesson to show you some simple techniques for how you can build up needle trees. Just like in the last lesson, focus on understanding the tree and understanding the process of creating it. And don't worry too much about detail. You should take about 5 minutes for each of these trees that we draw here. So yeah, take out your medium for drawing, and let's go. We're going to make the first one very simple. Just start with a straight thin line for the tree trunk and then go to the top and start scribbling downward angled lines that get longer and longer as you move to the bottom. Give the lines a little bit of variety in terms of thickness and make sure they have all roughly the same angle. Also very important, make sure that the tree is more dense and darker in the middle where the tree trunk is. Then at the bottom, draw a few lines that just fall down like this and add a very simple tree trunk with a shadow on one side. And yeah, this is pretty much it for this type of conifer. You basically just have to scribble correctly. And if you just create a few of these basic conifers next to each other, you'll have a nice forest in a relatively short amount of time, which may prove very useful if you need something to put in the background of one of your artworks. But of course, there are also other ways you can create these conifers. So let's make one that has a bit more light and shadow. Again, we're going to start with a simple line for the tree trunk. It can be slightly curved if you want. But then let's build up this tree with small downward angle shapes just like this. Make them up here in layers. The key to making this tree look natural is to make the layers slightly random in terms of how big they are, but they should still be getting bigger on average as you move downward. And this is pretty much a timeless principle for drawing evergreens. You have to find this balance between creating a clear structure and adding a little bit of variety as well. Right here, for example, I'm making all of the branches point downward, but they still have slightly different angles. Also, we obviously have these layers, but I'm also scribbling a little bit randomly on top of the tree to give it more detail. And it's actually not easy to find this balance if you've never drawn evergreens before. So this will take you a bit of practice, probably. Right here, let's actually add a bit of a tree trunk and light and shadow. Let's say the light comes from the top left, so let's scribble on all the right and bottom parts of these individual shapes that we can see here. Of course, make sure you release the pressure of your pencil as you move toward the light, which is the left side in this case, and on top of the shapes. In the end, I'm making the tree trunk a little bit bigger because it's way too thin. And here we go. This is another evergreen. Next, let's switch up the style once again. There are also conifers where the branches don't all fall down but grow upward. So let's start at the top with a few round upward pointing lines, make them more dense in the middle and longer as you move downward. So it should look something like this. But one thing that's interesting about this tree, we will also change the angle of the branches as we move downward. You can observe this in nature on most evergreens, actually. At the very top, the branches grow upward, then a bit more sideways, and then as the branches get longer, they start falling down at the bottom, because the branches get longer and softer and can't resist gravity, as well as the new branches that grow out from the top. So we not only have a transition in the average length of our branches, but also in the angle at which they grow with the branches at the very bottom pretty much just falling down like this. In the end, I'm adding a short tree trunk and a bit more shadow to the right side. And here we go. This is another way you can draw evergreens. For the next tree, we're going to start in a similar way, so a long line, and then we're going to draw a few upward pointing lines at the top. But then as we move down, let's make these lines more thick and then transition into round shapes like this. These round shapes should work just like the angular shapes that we've drawn earlier. So at the bottom, these shapes should be very big. And then we can basically treat this tree just the same way that we've treated the trees in the last lesson. So we fill these shapes with highlights and shadows depending on how they're affected by the light. And this also works with other types of shapes, as I'm going to show with this next tree. We are going to start the same way, but then we make these small lines transition into angular shapes. So it looks like this. Just like on the second tree, these shapes should all drop down at a singular angle and appear in small layers. Let's add a simple tree trunk, and then we can fill these shapes with highlights and shadows, just as we've done it countless times before now. Oh, and by the way, I'm just using the light source from our second tree on all of these trees, but you can also put your shadows on the left side or something. I really don't care here. Just make sure that on each tree, your lighting is consistent. That's the only important thing here. So the tree trunk should have shadow on the same side as the shapes. Right here, really just spend three to 5 minutes on each of these trees. Okay, nice. Now I'm going to demonstrate, once again, a very different way to do it. Let's start with a line that's a bit more curved. Then like in our third tree, we're going to draw these branches with small lines. But this time, let's make these branches up here in layers and let's put a bit more space between these layers. But still, of course, these layers get bigger and bigger as you move down. Other than that, you have so many options to draw a tree like this. You can put more or less space between the layers. You can make the trees cone shape, a bit more white or narrow. You can make the layers more dense or more light like here, and many more things. So I recommend that you practice drawing a few more of these basic conifers. Just practice the different methods of creation that I've shown you and try to come up with different structures. Like this tree that I'm drawing right here is a very quick sketch with almost no detail, but I'm simply practicing creating this transition from upward pointing shapes to downward pointing shapes. You can actually observe this transition so often in nature, so I highly recommend that you practice it. All right, so these are basically our techniques for creating conifers, drawing shapes or lines, upward pointing, downward pointing, drawing them more thick, more thin, putting space between them. Sometimes you can see the tree trunk through the branches, sometimes not at all. Always depends on which kind of tree you want. But these are the basic options and the principles that you should follow. I think the only thing that all of these trees have in common is a cone shape. So yeah, you have many options here. Last but not least, I shouldn't forget to mention that this is, of course, not the only way that conifers can grow. There are also these pine trees that grow like regular trees, so they have a tree trunk, different levels of branches and shapes, but they just have needles instead of leaves. So we can just draw a regular tree here, but I would definitely recommend adding a spiky W M or X texter for the foliage. So you should practice at least one pine tree like this with a long tree trunk and a few dead branches. So these are the techniques that I'm using for drawing conifers. Obviously, you can make each of them more detailed by just adding more shapes with their individual highlights and shadows, and that's how you make better looking trees. These are just sketches. Remember that. But I would say in the next lesson, let's finally switch that up and draw our first detailed tree. Let's go. 11. Drawing a Tree with Reference: Ladies and gentlemen, it is time that we draw our first detailed tree and invest a little bit more effort into a single drawing. We're going to do this together and with the help of a reference. Now, drawing from reference might not be what you're ultimately after, but if you want to actually understand trees and be able to draw them, there is no way around this crucial step of practice. We have covered the theory of drawing trees from reference a few lessons ago, so you should have a rough idea of what the process looks like. And you also have all the skills that you need to draw trees, and you've hopefully practice them. So yeah, for this lesson, I have selected two very nice images of trees that I found on the Internet that we're going to use as reference for two beautiful tree drawings. They both depict very different trees and they each highlight different aspects of drawing them. I've added links to these images in the descriptions, so you can look at them or download them if you like. Let's start with this tree that I have selected for not only one, but multiple reasons. First of all, it's a very clear picture. There is pretty much nothing in the background, so you know exactly what you're supposed to draw and what not. Just this tree right here. But this tree also lets us practice a few different things. We can see the tree trunk, which has a little bit of a texture and many branches. And also, we got this little hole right here, which is a nice detail. Also, we have parts where the foliage is very dense, like up here. So we can add a lot of texture, but we also have parts where the foliage is less dense, like down here, where we pretty much only have branches. So we are pretty much practicing multiple different styles with this one tree, which is absolutely perfect for this course. So shout out to the person who made this photo. To start off, I'm going to adjust and move the reference right next to where I want to draw the tree, but you can do it however you like. You can print the reference out, you can open it up in your browser, open it up on your phone or you can also just look at mine right here. As long as you're able to see this tree, while you're drawing, it's okay. Let's go. We are of course starting by drawing the basic shapes and the outlines. To get going, I'm just drawing some very rough lines to indicate where the tree trunk and the branches will go. Do this with very light lines. After that, it's time to indicate the general shape of the tree, the outlines with very light and very sketchy lines to try to get the shape of the tree right. Also, you can see that I'm indicating the edge between the dense part and the not so dense part with this line right here. So we have a good overview of what the proportions are. And yeah, proportions is pretty much everything that this initial sketching process is about, very light lines to establish the main shapes and their correct relationships to each other. So we later on know where we're supposed to put all that detail in the textures. I would say this is actually the hardest and most important part about drawing from reference. Creating the leaf and the bark texture will be quite routine for you if you participated in the earlier lessons. But establishing where that detail is supposed to go is actually a quite precise task if you do it with a reference. So feel free to take your time here to get the basic shapes right. And the reason why you should be doing this with very light lines is so you can erase them in case they're not completely right. Like, right here, I'm redrawing some parts of the branches at the bottom because they just didn't work. I'm obviously at an advantage here because I'm drawing digitally and I can erase whatever I like. But if you draw in real life, then I would really make these lines very, very light, so you can erase them. All right. Before we start with the foliage, of course, we also have to draw these smaller branches that are predominantly on the bottom left side. Okay, so at this point, I'm going to start to indicate the shapes of the foliage that we've talked about so often. The lines that I'm drawing to indicate the shapes might look a little bit random to you. But actually, I'm trying to recreate the shapes from the reference by looking at the differences of light and shadow. Also, I'm indicating some of the smaller shapes on the sides to know where the tree ends, and your so called shapes can literally just consist of lines or dots. As long as you know in the end where everything is supposed to go and where to put your textures, highlights and shadows, it's fine. Okay, at this point, I quite like it, but I'm going to make a few more adjustments to these branches down here. And then this is a solid and usable sketch. Now we know where everything goes and what the proportions of the tree are like, so we can add a texture to the tree trunk and the branches. If we look at the reference, then we can see it's pretty dark and there is almost no texture. So if we just filled it with very dense brush strokes, it would probably look quite realistic. But come on, we've practiced creating textures. So we got to use our skills here. First, I'm indicating where this branch hole is because that's an outstanding element. And it's a very nice feature of this tree that we definitely don't want to leave out. I'm just drawing the hole and the shadow beneath it. And then let's draw the texture for which I'm going with very simple diagonal lines just like this. But before we move on to adding highlights and shadows, we have to look at where the light comes from. So I'm drawing a little arrow here. I mean, actually, this is not necessary when drawing from reference, but I'd say it's not bad if you just develop the habit of thinking about this during your process of creating a tree. So now we can add our according shadows working from the bottom to the top. So let's slowly and carefully add shadows that somewhat follow the texture in terms of direction. Just look at the reference. Why is it dark, where is it light, and then slightly exaggerate that by just leaving out brush strokes in the places where the tree is light. And this is precisely how we work until the texture is done. Also, let's start drawing some of these smaller branches. Then let's look at if the shapes are actually correct. Sometimes you can only tell that once you've added texture because then it has more contrast to the background and errors stand out more clearly to you. So right here, I'm using the eraser to just make some of these shapes look a bit more clean. Nice. So now we can move on to the biggest task of creating this tree, which is drawing the foliage. Let's go with a classic O texture here. And let's draw this texture everywhere where we see foliage. Many, many, many, many os. I'm starting at the bottom, and I'm drawing these os everywhere where I see single leaves or groups of leaves. Remember to apply more pressure and add more density to all the parts where the foliage is darker. And this is pretty much your only important task here, the only thing that you have to think about. Look at the reference. Where is the foliage darker? Where is it lighter and vary the pressure and the density in your drawing depending on that. So apply all the principles from our foliage lesson and simply look at the reference to determine where to put the shadows. And the thing is, as you add more and more foliage, you notice more and more where the small branches and the small details are because the precise proportions of the tree start to manifest themselves as you add more texture. So at this point, it actually makes sense to switch back and forth between drawing the small branches and drawing the foliage. So whenever you arrive at a point where you notice that next to the foliage shape that you've just drawn, there is a small branch, then just draw that small branch. You don't have to exclusively focus on one aspect of this drawing now. Just find your flow, don't rush it and use your sketch as a rough orientation for where to put everything. So stay patient, work your way through, and focus on each individual shape to give you the correct highlights and shadows. As you can see, as I'm expanding the texture, I'm getting to more and more parts where there are small branches that then I add, of course, but I'm also getting to parts where there are holes in the tree, which I also draw by just leaving them empty. So yeah, this is actually pretty much everything that I can say here. Just follow through on the explanations that I gave you and look at what I'm doing here and do the same thing. I'm taking a lot of time here, staying patient and not rushing it. And yeah, in the end, this will definitely pay off. In the end, I'm erasing parts of the sketch that went a little bit too far outside. Nothing wrong with that. That's why we've drawn it so lightly. But I'm also doing a quick check, and I'm looking at the whole thing in terms of highlights and shadows, and I'm noticing that I should probably add a bit more darkness to the dark parts. So I'm just drawing a few more O's on top of them to make these dark parts more dense and increase the contrast. If you can find a way to add more contrast to one of your drawings, then you should pretty much always do it. Just makes it more clear what's going on and also more interesting to the viewers. So yeah, now I think this tree looks pretty solid. In the end, I'm adding a bit more grass on the bottom just to make the thing look more complete and to give it a bit of context. I know it's not part of the course, and we didn't have an extra lesson on how to draw good looking grass, but come on, some chaotic vertical lines. I'm pretty sure you guys can manage that. So yeah, here we go. And that's it. This is our finished tree, and I think it's actually a pretty nice representation of what we can see in the reference. Obviously, it's not exactly like the reference. I mean, we got a bit more texture here, and some of these highlights and shadows are a bit different, but that's not the point. We got a nice and realistic looking tree, and that's it. The cool thing about drawing from reference was that we didn't have to think at all about where exactly to place these highlights and shadows and how the shapes connect in a three dimensional world. We just looked at the reference and we drew it how we saw it. That's why drawing from reference is very, very good. And if we draw without reference later on, we'll have to think a bit more actively on our own. But, yeah, I think this is a very nice introduction for how to draw Detail tree. So in the next lesson, we can take care of the next reference. Let's go. 12. Drawing a Conifer with Reference: Okay. Welcome to our second detailed drawing. This time, we're going to use this image as reference, and it depicts a very different tree than the one before. In case you're wondering which one it is, this one right here in the middle. We're just going to draw this tree and nothing around it. So what's different here? First of all, of course, we have a background. So sometimes it's not easy to see what belongs to the tree and what not. So we'll have to use logic to figure that out. This actually happens more often than you think when drawing from reference. And the second thing that's different is it's a coniferous tree. It has needles, so it has a little bit of a different structure than the tree that we've drawn before. So without further ado, let's draw this thing. First of all, I am once again adjusting the reference a little bit. I just want to see this tree very clearly when I draw right next to the reference. But as I've told you in the last lesson, how you handle your reference is completely up to you as long as you can see it. So let's start by sketching the tree trunk and indicating it with a very thin line. But actually, as you can see, if you look closely, we have two tree trunks here as the tree splits up at the very bottom. So make sure you include this one as well. So just sketch and scribble the rough shapes of these tree trunks, but draw them very lightly because we want to put a lot of detail on top of them. And once the shapes look about right to you, it's time to add a few smaller branches on the sides. So just draw some thin lines in the places where you can see branches in the reference. And as you can see, at the very top of the tree, these branches grow more upward than in the middle more sideways and longer, and at the bottom, they fall down, as it's typical for these evergreens. And then I'm drawing some very basic round shapes for the foliage also very lightly. These shapes don't have to be exactly like in the reference, but they should definitely represent the correct proportions of this tree. So make sure you get those right. These shapes are supposed to be indicators for where you're going to put the detail, and they are supposed to show you where to look in the reference at any point in your drawing process. Alright, so now this is a solid and usable sketch. Now I'm drawing this arrow to show where the light comes from, which is not really necessary when drawing from reference, but I still like to do that because when there are parts where I'm confused, I can use this arrow as orientation. But, yeah, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. Now it's time to draw the details, starting at the bottom, and then we're going to work our way to the top. So I'm starting with a little bit of grass, and then I'm adding a color transition to the tree trunk that indicates highlights and shadows. And I'm also drawing some of the smaller branches that are lit up at the bottom right here. And while I'm at it, I'm also drawing some of the parts of the tree trunk that we can see through the foliage just to know where this tree is going. And then for the foliage, we're going to use a W texture. I really like to use a W texture for needle trees because Ws are very nice shapes and they look very spiky, which is exactly what we want to represent needles. And yeah, adding this foliage is basically something that we've done many times before now, that we make the texture a bit smaller and more detailed this time. But the process is still exactly the same. You add this texture to every shape, and then you make it more dense where there is more shadow. That's it. You can just use the reference to figure out whether it is. Right here at the bottom, I'm adding many, many Ws because the texture is very dark, but you still have to be careful where you put these Ws, because as you can see in the reference, both these tree trunks are lit by light on the left side, so you want to leave those lit up places completely empty and not put any Ws there. Just make the right side of these tree trunks very dark at the foliage where it belongs, and you will have very nice contrast in the end. So that's the process. I'm just slowly working my way up, adding shades where the tree trunk is, adding ws where the foliage is, and adding some small lines for the branches. Right here where the foliage is very bright, I'm adding a texture of very, very light w and lines that you almost can't even see. And on the right side where the trees are a bit darker, it's actually a bit tricky because if we look at the reference, then the tree merges with the background. We can't really see exactly where the tree ends and where the background begins. But luckily, we can use our brains and logic to figure that out because this is an evergreen, we can assume that it's at least somewhat symmetrical, we're just going to make it roughly as white on the right side as it is on the left side at any given point. That way, we can make sure it looks realistic in the end, even though we can't exactly copy the right side from the reference. As you move further and further to the top, you might actually notice some mistakes that you made at the bottom. So fix them if you notice them. As you can see, the tree is always very dark on the right side next to the tree trunk. And sometimes the foliage goes over the tree trunk. So I don't even draw any tree trunk there, just for the texture, like right here in the middle or up here. On average, I would say you should pay even more attention to the bright parts of the tree because you should make them very, very bright and not add that many Ws there. It's always easier to make the texture darker in the end than it is to make it brighter, which you can pretty much only do by using an eraser. And as we all know, using an eraser on a beautiful drawing usually doesn't answer well. So I recommend make this tree a bit lighter than you think and add more dark parts in the end where you need them, because the other way around, it's going to be very difficult. For example, right here, I'm adding a few more horizontal branches everywhere on the tree because now I'm actually confident that they fit. As you arrive at the very top, you'll notice that the reference is actually cut off a little bit. Is this a problem? Of course not because we know how this tree is most likely going to end. It's a classic evergreen with a transition in the direction of the branches. So at the very top, they just grow upward, very thin and have a few needles around them, just like this. And yeah, this is pretty much it. You can now make a few adjustments to your tree if there is anything that you want to improve. For example, I'm adding a few more small branches everywhere than a few more shadows on the second tree trunk and because why not a bit more grass at the bottom. So this is done, and I would say this tree actually looks pretty nice. Nothing too crazy or too hyperrealistic, but still good work. This is the basic process of drawing trees from reference, and you can apply it to any tree out there. You just do it exactly like we've done it here and in the last lesson. I hope this helps you and you like your drawings. So if you participated in both these lessons and you feel good, then I would say you're ready for the next level, which is drawing a detailed tree without reference. 13. Drawing a Tree without Reference: So, welcome to the last detailed drawing of this course. And actually, this is pretty much the final test for the whole drawing segment. In case you have not yet succeeded in creating something that looks nice, now's your time to shine. You have lots of options here to draw it in a way that suits your style, your personal preference, whatever, because in this lesson, we're going to create a good drawing of a tree without following a reference. Drawing without reference is hard, admittedly, but I think it's possible at this point with all the practice that we've done. So, take out or open up your medium for drawing, and let's start by sketching a basic tree, just as we've done it in the first shapes lesson. Some nice rounded lines that split up more and more and have a consistent style of structure. The thing is, you don't have to follow me and you can actually draw whatever tree you like here. Your only task for this lesson is to create a detailed tree without the help of a reference. But if you don't feel super secure yet or you have absolutely no idea what to create, you can also just follow me as I draw this tree. I made sure that it covers, again, different aspects than the trees we've drawn before. For example, I'm giving it a very thick bottom part, so we can add lots of bark texture there, which we couldn't really do for the two trees before. So make sure your tree is very thick and rounded and has some nice, bake level branches that we can fill with a texture. Make sure they overlap in at least one place so we can practice the three dimensional aspect of trees. Also, let's add a few nice big roots at the bottom that make it look like a very old tree. And then some straight, thin level two branches at the very top. Remember that you can always switch up the style if you go to another level of branches. So your level two branches could also be pointing downward or grow very far to the sides or whatever you like. You just have to follow the basic rules that we've talked about so often in this course. Okay, and then it's time to add the shapes for the foliage, some lightly drawn, very simple shapes on top of these level two branches. Make sure you add lots of individual shapes so we can have a lot of detail in the end. Actually, I think for the composition, it would be better if there is another small branch down here. So I'm just repeating the process, sketching it, drawing a thick level one branch, and then some thin straight level two branches and the shapes for the foliage. Just the same thing once again. Just a few more shapes and more individual branches. And yeah, this is a very nice sketch. Now it's time to determine where the light comes from. So we can add correct highlights and shadows in every place of this tree. So let's just say it comes from here. So from the right side and a little bit from behind the tree, as well. So it's going to be darker in the middle on average. Then let's add our texture to the tree trunk. I'm drawing some angular shapes like this to fill the whole tree. I'm trying to not make them too small, so we have some empty space inside where we can add individual highlights and shadows. So in the end, we'll have lots of detail here. Notice how the shapes follow the direction of the tree trunk, the branches, and the roots, depending on where they are. So in the middle on the tree trunk, they are very vertical. On the roots, they are pretty much horizontal and on the branches, they are on an angle. This is completely logical, if you think about it, but as a beginner of drawing tree textures, it's very helpful to actively become aware of this. The texture doesn't look the same on the whole tree, but it obviously follows the shape of the bigger object that it's on, like a branch, root or the tree trunk. Also, you should, of course, mind the points from the tree trunks and branches lesson. So make the texture more dense on the sides to indicate the cylindrical shapes until you end up with pretty much just lines on the edges of the tree. Nice. Now I fill the whole tree with a texture, so it's time to add a bit more detail to it. Look at your light source and fill every single shape on this tree with correct highlights and shadows. So in this case, I'm scribbling a lot and I'm making the front side of the tree very dark because I have determined that the light comes a little bit from behind the tree. So I'm adding a small colour transition from dark to bright on every single shape. This root in the middle is very dark because it's pretty much completely covered from the light by the rest of the tree, and this root on the right side is a little bit brighter on top. As well as, of course, the right side of the tree trunk, because that's where the light comes from. And the root on the left and the left side are very dark, so I pretty much just scribbled over the whole thing, except, of course, the very edge of the tree on the left side and the top of the left root because a little bit of light just gets around here because of the cylindrical shape. The smaller branch here is, of course, also very dark at the bottom. And as I'm drawing the texture to it, I'm also using the opportunity to add a few smaller branches to create a bit more detail. Alright, and we pretty much just continue like this for every branch, every shape, the whole tree trunk. And I know this seems like a daunting task because you have to think in three dimensions, where does the light, hit the tree, and add a texture to every single small shape here. But that's just what you have to do. If you want a great result, you just have to put in some time. The good thing is that if you follow my instructions, then this invested time will definitely be worth it, as we will create a very, very nice looking texture here by doing actually pretty simple things. Alright. Now it looks pretty solid. Guess what's left now. Of course, adding a texture for the foliage. I'm going with a fine and spiky X texture here. Notice that this is probably the hardest texture to draw out of the ones that we've covered. So if you want, you can also choose another one, like a simple O texture or W texture. But still, I would say it definitely makes sense to practice a different texture now than the ones we've added before. Like, I think the first tree was an O texture and the second one a W texture. So now if you want to get the most out of this practice, choose a different one like this X texture. And yeah, I think I don't have to say that much about the process of adding this foliage texture now because we've done it many times before, and it's literally the same procedure. You just have to be aware of the light source, keep a consistent level of detail, and add according highlights and shadows to every single shape. Also, you can, of course, add more smaller branches wherever they are needed. So take your time and take care of the whole tree. Additionally, I'm adding some very, very light lines that are almost not even recognizable as axis on the top right parts of the shapes just to give the foliage a bit more volume. I think we've explored this technique in our basic trees lesson before, so I'm also making use of it here. All right. And in the end, let's look at the whole thing and decide if we need a bit more contrast, which I think we do. I'm adding a bit more texture to all the shadow parts. So on the bottom left of each individual shape, take your time to make your final adjustments because this is the last drawing of this course. And yeah, now it's done. I'm pretty sure that if you followed all the exercises so far, you know what you're doing when you draw a tree, no matter if it's with or without reference. We've explored quite a bit of theory. We've sketched lots of different things, and we've created these three pretty solid tree drawings. If you don't feel super confident yet, then I recommend you just repeat the exercises that I've shown you. This course is not just about what exactly you should practice, but also how you can practice on your own and what you should think about during each step of the creation process. If you need more practice, just look at all these different things that we've made here and add more iterations of them or repeat them. I'm not going to lie to you and say that you automatically become a master of foliage if you draw these ten leaf bundles. But these are options, and this is how you practice creating these leaf bundles. So if you just do exactly these things that we've done in this course repeatedly, then you will inevitably become a master. That's the principle that we follow here. So if your detailed tree drawings look absolutely horrendous right now, then you probably just need to spend a bit more time on one of the steps before that. So this is how you learn to draw trees and the exercises that I highly recommend. Now let's move on to the thing that I personally prefer overdrawing. When you're ready, I invite you to move on to the next big section of this course, which is all about painting. 14. Painting Info: Welcome to the painting part of this course. We are going to start with painting, tree trunks and branches. But before that, I have to give you a quick info and say a few things because, well, painting is very different than drawing. In the drawing section, it was pretty easy to follow me, no matter which medium you were working with. When I said, draw a line here, then you could draw a line here, no matter if it's pen and ink, a pencil or digital. But now in painting, it's a little bit more complex because you have way more options here. You can follow these lessons with watercolor, oil paint, acrylic, digital art with different softwares. You probably already know what your medium of choice is. For me, this is still the free software crea, because that's just the easiest and most effective way to show you what to do. So what's my point here? Don't worry if your paintings don't look exactly like mine. Paintings that were created with different mediums just look different. I'm not here to show you exactly what your paintings should look like, but what you should practice to build up to being able to paint good looking trees. When I say make this part of the tree trunk brighter and add this color there, then you hopefully know how to do that with your medium because I cannot cover every single brush or color mixing technique in traditional and digital art. With some mediums, you may have to wait for the paint to dry before you can add another layer on top of it. But this doesn't matter in this course. This is about the technical aspects of trees. How do they work? How can you build them up with simple shapes? Which exercises should you complete to be able to create them? This is why you can follow these exercises with any medium. You just need to know a little bit about your medium, like how to create color transitions and how to make clean shapes and stuff like that, which shouldn't be too complicated. All the rest, how to use these shapes and colour transitions to create awesome looking trees will be covered right here. So don't worry if your brush strokes don't look 100% like mine, and just follow my instructions. It's going to be excellent practice. So let's go. 15. Painting Tree Trunks & Branches: In this lesson, you will learn how to paint tree trunks and branches. This is the second step that you have to complete if you want to be able to paint complete trees. Why the second step? Well, painting the basic shapes was the first step, and we've done that quite a few lessons ago. So you hopefully know how to do that. So now let's find out how you can apply texture, highlights and shadows to these basic shapes to make them look like tree trunks and branches. The first thing that we have to talk about here is color. So tell me what color does our tree trunk usually have? If you said anything else in brown, then stop watching this course immediately. You need to go outside. But let's assume you know that when we paint tree trunks and branches, we usually work with different shades and tones of brown. That's the easy part. But which shades and tones should we use exactly? Well, let's have a look. First of all, the thing with brown is that it's basically just a dark, desaturated version of yellow, orange or red. So if we look at the color wheel, there are browns that are more on the yellow side and browns that are more on the red side and anything in between. Also, of course, there are darker browns and lighter browns and more or less saturated ones. You can use pretty much all of them to paint tree trunks and branches. It just depends on what the lighting is like and what kind of tree you work with. So far so good. But you know by now that tree trunks and branches are three dimensional shapes that are based on a cylinder with highlights and shadows. And unfortunately, it's not as simple as bright brown versus dark brown here. At least not if you want to do it correctly. Take out your medium for painting, and let's create a simple color transition so I can show you how it works. Let's start with very dark and saturated brown. And let's create, like, a little box that could be a part of a tree trunk. Make your brown be based on orange. So if you work traditionally, just mix yellow, red and black, just so it looks something like this. Alright, for adding highlights, I not only make my brown a little bit brighter, of course, but I also shift the hue a little bit toward yellow, a few degrees on the color selector. But traditionally, you can also just mix in a little bit more yellow. Then I'm adding a smooth color transition on one side of the tree trunk. And then for the even brighter parts, I shift the hue toward yellow even more. And you should do this every time you add a brighter layer of brown paint here. Now the good thing is that how much you shift your hue toward yellow in the highlights is not that important, actually. It shouldn't be too much because otherwise, the image will look very impressionistic unless you like that, of course. But in general, there is no exact formula for this. If you just add a slight shift toward yellow in the highlights and toward red in the shadows, then your tree will look way more realistic. But not only that, but you often also have a little bit of reflective lights on the shadow side of your tree trunk. So on the very right side of this tree trunk, I'm adding just a little bit of blue, but not too saturated. This doesn't always occur, and mostly on flat surfaces where light is reflected a lot. But this often helps to make your tree trunks look a bit more exciting in terms of color without looking unrealistic. So this right here is an example for a good color transition on a tree trunk. Yes, it might be a little bit more saturated and colorful than it usually appears in nature, but that way, you can see way better how the colors work, because it's very important that you internalize these principles and really understand them. So create one basic color transition for a tree trunk like this without any texture. Just focus on using the correct use and the correct values and make them flow into each other smoothly to make it look three dimensional. Okay, and this is our basis. You can basically just work like this if you paint any tree that's a little bit further away. Simply add this colour transition to the tree trunk and the branches, and it's going to look very good. But if we look a bit closer or we just want to give our trees more detail, then we have to combine this colored transition with a texture. So, to make sure we get everything right, let's first isolate that skill and paint a few different textures just as we've done it for drawing. One way to paint a bark texture is to start with very dark brown and then putting lighter brush strokes on top of it. You can make these br strokes follow a certain pattern or you can make them completely random, like I'm doing it right here. What always looks good is working with different layers. So right here on these bright brush strokes, I'm putting some even smaller, even brighter brush strokes. So we have a little transition. This is a very simple and effective way to give a bark texture a three dimensional aspect. You can repeat this and create three, four or even more different layers. So yeah, this usually works very well. What you can also do is start with dark brown and then put lighter circles on top of it. Let's add some highlights to these circles by putting just one or two brighter br strokes on the top left and you can create even more detail if you put even smaller circles in the gaps between them. You can give them a different version of brown, but you don't necessarily have to. If your tree texture is very close up and it's well visible, then it makes sense to give all the individual elements, like in this case, the circles an individual highlight and shadow. These highlights and shadows obviously don't have to be super detailed and sophisticated. But if they are just there and roughly follow the shape of the element that they're on like circles in this case, then they already contribute a lot. Next up, let's practice a texture that is a little bit more common in nature, and that is adding vertical curved lines to the base color. For different levels of detail, you can make some thinner lines and thicker lines and vary their size, and you can vary the color and mix darker with brighter brush strokes. It's very efficient and comfortable to add a whole texture like this to a tree. Another interesting way to paint a texture is to build it up with differently colored shapes in the first place. So it looks something like this. You can combine two colors like I'm doing it here, but also three or four if you really feel like adding a lot of detail. Remember, once again, that if your texture is up close, it makes sense to add individual highlights and shadows to each individual shape, very simple ones, but they will look very good if you do them right. And if you're having a very good day and feel like adding lots of detail, then you can also add individual random spots to these shapes just like this. You can even give them different colors. You can add lots of variation and lots of different stuff to your bark textures as long as they are consistent and don't suddenly move in any direction, like the shapes get bigger or brighter or change angle. So yeah, that's probably the most important point here that I wanted to get across. So now it's time for you to practice creating a few more different textures, and you can use mine here as inspiration. For example, right here, I'm painting a texture where I combine different versions of brown, like, more or less saturated ones. And then I'm creating a more cartoon like texture with different angular shapes that have individual outlines and highlights. Then one texture that consists of very simple lines and is a little bit more saturated, which also works for trees. One texture with big oval shapes that each have quite strong individual highlights and shadows. Then I'm creating a texture with thin brush strokes and very high contrast that's very desaturated and actually looks quite realistic. And one final one with small round shaves. I would say create ten different textures in total, that should be a good basis. And if you give them all a slightly different style like right here, then you should get comfortable with this very fast. Nice. So once you got that, let's move on to the next step and apply these textures to actual three dimensional tree trunks and branches. Let's start very simple. Paint the silhouette of a dark tree trunk that has a small branch on the side just like this. Let's say light comes from the right side. So let's create a smooth colour transition from light brown on the right to dark brown on the left. For an easy start, let's not worry about the hues too much and just make it a little bit brighter on the right side. Okay, let's add a little bit of light brown on top of the branch too. And then we can add a texture with dark vertical lines. Make them a little bit chaotic but consistent, just as we've talked about. Start in the middle. On the left side, you don't even have to paint any of these lines because the tree is so dark that you can't see them. But on the right side, we have to mind something, and that is the cylindrical shape of the tree trunk. As you remember, textures that are put on a cylinder get compressed and therefore more dense the closer they are to the edge. So make your lines thinner and put them closer together, the further you move to the right side. And, of course, on the top edge of the branch, too. On the bottom edge, it's once again so dark that you can't see anything. Nice. Once we got that, we can even add some brighter lines to create a bit more contrast and detail. Treat them just the way you treated the dark lines. Very thin, very bright on the right side in the middle, make them a bit bigger and on the left side where the shadow is, you add none of these lines. All right, that's how it works. Next up, let's go a bit more three dimensional and create a tree trunk that has some roots at the bottom. Let's start with a dark brown block like this, and then we can add four roots at the bottom that get thinner and thinner and spread out around this block. Perfect. Now, let's say the light comes from the right side once again. So let's block in the areas where there would be highlights on this tree. So that's approximately the area right here, and then it extends down on top of this root down here, and of course, a little bit on top of this root as well. Use very bright brown for this. And after that, let's add mid tones in between the highlight and shadow areas. So in the middle of the tree trunk and just a bit below the highlights on the roots and a little bit on this root on the left side as well. When dealing with three dimensional detailed objects like this tree trunk with four roots that go in different directions, it definitely makes sense to first block in the highlight, mid tone and shadow areas. So you have some clarity before you start applying more complex textures and highlights and shadows. So now let's do that and apply a very simple texture with some thin lines, light lines in the bright areas and dark lines in the dark areas. Make these lines follow the shapes of the roots and the tree trunk. Just look at the highlight, midtone, and shadow areas that you've already created and divide them into smaller segments, and they will start to merge together and create an organic structure. This happens automatically as you add more and more differently colored lines. Simply follow the shapes that you've already created and mind the light source to give them correct colors. All right, looks pretty good. Now, let's make something more complex and more detailed as well. Start with two dark, curved and overlapping branches. And let's add a texture to them with small circles that are a bit brighter. But first, only paint them in the middle of these branches and leave a little bit of space on the sides. After that, you can add smaller, more oval circles to the sides. So our branches look nice and three dimensional. As you can see on the very edge, these circles are pretty much just lines. Nice. Now, we're going to add individual highlights and shadows to all the circles, starting with the highlights. Let's say light comes from the top left, we add a small curve with very light brown on all the top left edges of the circles. But don't add any highlights to the circles on the bottom right edges of this tree. Now, this is very good, but you have many options to continue adding more detail here. So I'm going to show you some of them. So you can add touches of different browns inside these circles. You can add even more shadow that the branches cast onto each other, and you can even add some blue reflective lights on the very bottom right edges of these branches. Once you've determined where the highlight and shadow areas are and you've added a consistent texture to tree trunks and branches, you actually have lots of freedom what you can do with them. You can add more highlights or more shadows for contrast, and you can even add small random brush strokes on top, and often it will look like nice detail. As long as the texture still dominates, of course, you don't want to make it invisible with too much random detail, but it's possible to add some. So once you've painted 23 dimensional overlapping branches like this, I would say you're doing pretty good. So let me just show you a few more options for what you can practice. For example, I'm painting a tree trunk that actually shifts its hue towards yellow in the light parts and has some reflective lights. So it's a bit more impressionistic. And for the texture, I'm combining lines with rough brush strokes here because this also works. And you can keep going on and on with all the options that we have now. You can make a tree trunk that is less detailed in terms of texture, and you just practice adding correct highlight and shadow areas. You can make one with a very detailed texture, some reflective lights and everything and see how that works. And yeah, you should definitely include a few different styles like this in your practice. What's also a clever thing to do is create a few taller tree trunks, so you can specifically practice being consistent with your textures, which is also very important. Make sure you make each texture a little bit different. Right here, I'm trying out quite unique things like these horizontal lines on the first tree trunk or this moss on the second tree trunk. And on this next tree trunk, I'm creating some very interesting contrasts by starting with a flowy transition from highlight to shadow area and then adding these dark angular lines on top of it. I'm definitely a big fan of combining different styles like this because it's a very easy and efficient way to create something that looks unique. On this last tree trunk, I'm adding very chaotic and dynamic lines, and I'm using very saturated colors. So it has intense highlights, shadows and reflective lights. So yeah, because these four tree trunks for a little bit more rough and experimental, I'm going to conclude this lesson with one more classic detailed bark texture. For this one, start with some neutral brown as the base color and then sketch some angular detailed shapes on top of it with very light brush strokes. Of course, these shapes get thinner and thinner and are pretty much just lines on the very edges. I'm pretty sure you know how that works at this point. And then we add highlights and shadows with careful brush strokes to each individual shape. In this case, I'm even adding a few midtons with more saturated brown and just a little bit of light blue as reflective lights on the right side. Take your time to complete this last tree trunk because after that, you'll have all the tools and all the skills that you need to move on to the next lesson. And that one is about painting foliage. I think this is going to be interesting. 16. Painting Foliage: Welcome to painting foliage. This is a very big and very interesting subtopic of painting trees, and it's probably also the part where people are generally the most confused about what to do. And the reason for that is very simple. There are just so many different ways to paint foliage. Enjoying it definitely makes sense to follow the approach with the letters because with a pencil, we can pretty much only create lines, and we need to make them look like a consistent abstract texture. But in painting, the main difference is that we can create big shapes with even a texture directly by just putting our brush on the canvas, which is very useful and very cool, but also a bit overwhelming because there are just too many options now. You can see artists like Bob Ross who literally press their brush on the canvas three times and it already looks like a detailed layer of foliage. Then there are artists that use fine brush strokes to create many, many, many, many individual shapes that almost represent the individual leaves, like I did it in this painting right here, and there is anything in between. So when we talk about painting foliage, we first have to establish that there are many options. So don't look at one artist and ask yourself, why do they paint foliage like this? Am I doing it all wrong? Don't worry, not necessarily. You follow a few basic principles, you have all the freedom in the world with your brushes. So let's first talk about which basics hold true for foliage, and then we can practice different styles and techniques to unlock the full potential of our brushes, no matter which medium, let's go. The first thing that you have to understand about painting foliage is how to handle the colors. Take out or open up your medium for practice, and let's create a simple color transition for a bundle of foliage. Let's start with very dark, normal green that is saturated and just put a few bake brush strokes on our canvas. Create a simple round organic shape like this. This is our basis for a bundle of foliage. Then for adding highlights, we have to make this green, of course, a little bit brighter like this, but we also have to shift the hue a little bit toward yellow. This is very important. Then fill approximately the top left half of your shape with this new color and let the two greens fade a little bit into each other. And then we do the same thing again, make the green a bit brighter, little bit toward yellow, and fill out a smaller part of the top left side. And you can add as many layers as you like here, depending on how much detail and how much contrast you want. You just always have to shift the hue a little bit towards yellow for every new layer of highlights, or you mix in a little bit more yellow paint traditionally. Just like with tree trunks, we also have a color transition on our foliage. The right it gets, the more the green is on the yellow side, and the darker it gets, the more it is on the blue side. Once again, there is no exact formula for this and you don't have to vary your hues massively every time you paint a tree. But at least a slight shift in the hues between highlight and shadow areas always occurs, and if you include it, it makes your foliage look awesome. So just like this, add a few more layers to your leaf bundle until it looks smooth. Just do it like me and add a few big chaotic brush strokes that follow the colour transition. All right, I would say this is a solid basis. So now let's create a few bundles of foliage with more detail. Pick very dark green. Then paint a small organic shape with big brush strokes that go in different directions. Then let's paint another shape like this behind it so they overlap and then paint another small shape to the left. Now we have a classic structure of leaf bundles. But of course, they need some highlights. So let's make the green a bit brighter and shift the hue a little bit toward yellow. So now we can paint them. When painting highlights on foliage, I like to divide my main shapes into smaller shapes. So I'm not only creating a transition from light to shadow in terms of value, but I'm also adding my highlights a little bit randomly. So we have a more organic structure. But of course, on the top left side of each shape, these highlights should be the most frequent because in this case, that's where the light comes from. And you do this for every layer of highlights that you add. You make your brush strokes smaller, you make the green brighter, you shift the hue a little bit toward yellow, and then you paint smaller and smaller highlights, especially on the side where the light comes from, but also a little bit randomly, so you have a more organic structure. This is the formula for making simple brush strokes look like foliage. You don't even have to paint any individual leaves. It's all about the shapes and the colors, like in this case, where it's just small chaotic brush strokes, but it looks like a layer of foliage. It's actually a simple principle once you understand it, and then it's only practice. Right here, let's add a few more shadows. But of course, we not only make our green darker, but we also shift the hue a little bit toward blue. And then we're good to go and we can add a few brush strokes in the shadow parts to make them look more detailed. Alright, maybe a few more highlights with a very bright yellowish green. And then that's it. We can theoretically create a whole tree just like this. So on one hand, we could just paint a tree trunk and some branches below this thing, and it would be a cartoony tree, or we could add just more leaf bundles like this to build up a whole detail tree. That's the funny thing. There is really not that much of a difference between a cartoony comic style tree and a completely realistic looking tree. It just depends on how many of these exact leaf bundles you add and how big they appear. But let me show you another technique. This time, let's create something more smooth. Pak dark green and then create a large organic shape with a few bumps like this. Then make the green darker and shift the hue a bit toward blue. Then we can divide our shape into smaller shapes by painting some dark shadows. Make them very smooth and very round and put them on the bottom right of each shape that you're creating. Then let's make the green brighter and shift the hue toward yellow, more so than the first green that we've used. And then we can paint some highlights on, of course, the opposite side of the shadows, which is the top left. For this, paint downward curves that all point in the same direction like this. Paint many, many, many of these curves to create smaller shapes and make a smooth transition from light to shadow. It should look something like this. Then we can make our green very bright and shift the hue toward yellow, and then we can create very small and thin curves that represent our highlights. Only add these curves in the highlight areas and make sure that they all point in the same direction, so we have a consistent texture. You can add one or two more layers if you like, each time making the green brighter, shifting the hue toward yellow, and making the brush strokes more thin and appear more frequently on the top left side. This time, let's not add any detail to the shadows because oftentimes you don't see anything there. In the light, you can see more. So if you paint foliage, you can oftentimes just leave out detail in the shadows and it will look realistic. You don't always have to do this, but if you have lots of contrast and extreme light conditions, then this is oftentimes a good idea because, well, it's not unrealistic and it just saves you time. This is one thing that I wanted you to learn from this leaf bundle. The other thing is that if you have a texture with directional brush strokes, make them all go in the same direction, and it doesn't matter which direction it is. In this case, we used small curves, but you can also build up your foliage with letters like we've done it for drawing. So you technically already know a bunch of different techniques for painting foliage. You just have to include the right colors. But whether you're painting with letters or curves or whatever, your brush strokes always have to be consistent, and there should be no structural outliers. Alright, onto the next style and technique. And this time, let's make it a bit more simple. We'll work with big brush strokes here. So pick the biggest brush you can find or select a big texture brush. And then let's paint a large organic shape, starting with dark green. Then let's make the green even darker and of course, shift the hue a bit toward blue. And let's add a layer of shadows, especially on the bottom right side. I always recommend that you start with darker green and then at the highlights. In this case, let's create the highlights by just touching the canvas very lightly with our brush, or if you work digitally, clicking on it. For that, your brush has to be very big, but as you work your way toward the highlights and it gets more and more detailed, you can also make your brush a little bit smaller or apply less pressure on the canvas. However that works for you. The important thing is just once again that we divide our bigger shapes into smaller and smaller shapes by adding more and more highlights. In the end, I'm actually doing something interesting. I'm making the green very bright and I'm shifting the hue a lot towards yellow, and then I'm taking a different brush that produces a different texture, and I'm just touching the canvas very lightly with it in the highlight areas. If you don't overdo it, combining different types of brushes, either traditionally or digitally is a really nice way to make your foliage look more interesting and more detailed. But I would pretty much always start with a nice, consistent texture, and then just in the end, consider if you want something more special. It doesn't always have to be. So that's also a method. At this point, we have covered pretty much everything that you need to know theoretically, and it was quite a lot, so let me summarize it. So we have a little checkpoint here and we're all on the same page. When painting foliage, you have many options. You can use very big brush strokes that look like a texture or build it up with many small brush strokes. Build up your foliage with organic shapes that are determined by highlight and shadow areas. The more shapes you have, the more detailed your tree will look. Start with dark green and add highlights on top to create more and more shapes. The hue of green that you use should be more on the yellow side in the highlights and more on the blue side in the shadows. Your brush strokes should either all be chaotic or follow the same direction because you want a consistent texture. And in the very dark shadow areas, you can often leave out detail because there you can see less. Alright, I think this sounds pretty good. So now let's practice these concepts by creating a few bundles of foliage in different styles, just so you cannot possibly forget this. First, let's build a bundle of foliage with small brush strokes. Very simple, very classic style. Create four individual overlapping shapes like this and then add different layers of highlights, midtones and shadows with short brush strokes just like this. Make sure that they're all either dots or follow the same direction. Let's make them a bit smaller in the highlight areas, so it looks like there is more detail and of course, a bit more yellow. Then let's add a few bigger brush strokes with darker and more bluish green to the shadow areas. By the way, for these leaf bundles that we'll practice now, it doesn't really matter where your light comes from because we're not painting a whole picture with one clear light source. The lighting should just be consistent on one bundle of foliage. In this case, obviously, we have light on the top left and shadows on the bottom right. I would say this right here is probably one of the most common ways to paint foliage with many, many short, chaotic brushstrokes that look like they represent individual bundles of leaves or maybe even leaves themselves, depending on how close up you define this bundle of foliage. Now let's practice something totally different. We'll start with something that actually should be part of most tree paintings, and that is a sketch. Especially if you want to add a tree to a big composition, it definitely makes sense to first sketch it to know where everything goes and if it fits. So take out your pencil and draw a few round overlapping shapes of different sizes, something like this. Then let's fill them with slightly different tones of green. And then create a smooth colour transition to apply some soft highlights. Just pick some brighter green that is a bit more on the yellow side and smoothly apply your brush strokes. I'm also adding some random highlights in the middle, so it looks a bit more detailed. But generally, this bundle of foliage is going to be pretty stylized. To make it interesting, I'm first adding many dark chaotic brush strokes in the shadows and some very bright chaotic brush strokes for the highlights. Just make sure that these highlights and shadows somewhat follow the three dimensional shapes thereon, and you'll end up with a quite unique looking bundle of foliage. Okay, onto the next one. Let's paint a very dynamic bundle of foliage that looks like an explosion like this. Then another smaller one right next to it. Then paints smaller and smaller and brighter and brighter layers of highlights, following the principles that we've talked about. So you shift the hue more toward yellow, the brighter it gets, you add more of these bras strokes on the light side and you make your brush strokes thinner the more in the highlights they are to make it look like there is more detail. The principle that your brushstrokes should go in the same direction also applies here, not that the brusserokes go in exactly the same direction, but they follow the same pattern. So like a star shape, in this case. Maybe I should have formulated that principle differently. Like, they should follow the same pattern and not the same direction. But yeah, you hopefully get it by now. There should be no structural outliers. Alright, so finish this one and move on to the next. For that one, let's once again start with a pencil sketch. Draw a few round overlapping shapes that point upward, like a little bush. Then fill them with dense green bras strokes. And these bruss strokes should follow the shape that they're on, so they should go upward and a little bit to the outside. Determine your light source and add a few layers of highlights and shadows following the same pattern. Analyze which shape would get the most and which would get the least light, and think of this bush as a three dimensional structure. Your individual brush strokes can be very big and very rough. As long as they follow the shape that they're on, it's going to look good in the end. Alright, let's move on. I'm going to move through these last few bundles of foliage a bit more quickly and just give you instructions for what you could practice. Create a bundle of foliage with huge brush strokes. Make the brush strokes very horizontal on average and use bright versions of green to create lots of contrast. Place short brush strokes with a big brush to develop a feeling for how you can add highlights and shadows like this. After that, create a more detailed bundle of foliage with small circular scribbles of your brush. Add lots of detail and contrast to this one and make sure your brush strokes are consistently chaotic. You can vary the size of your brush strokes by varying the amount of pressure that you apply. I really enjoy painting this style because it's an easy way to create lots of detail in a short amount of time. Lots of contrasting colors and small chaotic brush strokes of different sizes, and it's very simple. Then let's create a small brush with long directional brush strokes that all point upward like this. Make a smooth transition between highlight and shadow area by applying different versions of green here and focus on creating a good three dimensional shape with lots of contrast. After that, create a bundle of foliage that is a little bit less dense with many, many small brush strokes. Create lots of contrast between highlight and shadow areas using different versions of green. I'm creating smaller and smaller and more detailed shapes with the highlights and midtones. And in the end, I'm adding lots of dark br strokes underneath the individual bundles of foliage to give it more contrast and more volume. This looks really nice, actually. Okay, in the end, I would say you should practice at least one more bundle of foliage with a big texter brush and one with smaller brush strokes where you combine different types of brushes. I would say these are the two main ways to create foliage. So yeah, as you can see, there are many, many methods of creation. So to make it more detailed, less detailed, more contrast, less contrast, different sizes of the brush strokes, et cetera. You have a good overview now and you know what to practice so you can either continue practicing or you take the next step and move to the next lesson where we combine it all and paint some actual basic trees. See you there. 17. Painting Basic Trees: Painting basic trees. Now it's all coming together. In this lesson, we're going to combine the skills of the last few lessons and paint complete trees. Finally, but one quick disclaimer, not super detailed ones yet. That has to wait a little bit. Because before we can do that, we have to focus on creating good basic trees, focusing on the process, painting the basic shapes, painting tree trunks and branches, and painting the foliage. We need everything now and explore in which order we should combine these aspects. So we're going to create a bunch of basic trees in different styles. So not super good looking, but perfect if you need something to put in the background of your artworks. You know, it's always good if you know how to create a variety of different basic trees. So here is how you do that. First of all, before you start painting a tree, you have the choice. Do you want a sketch or not? Both is possible. If you just want to chill and create a tree for fun, then sure, go ahead, start with a tree trunk, some branches, and add some foliage to it and see how it goes. There's nothing wrong with that and you can definitely create great looking trees like this if you just practice a bit and apply the principles that I've taught you. But if you want to go a bit more detailed or you maybe already have an existing composition where you want to add a tree, then it makes sense to first start with a pencil sketch to plan where everything of your tree goes. That way, you can make sure the proportions are right and your tree actually fills the composition because it's definitely easier to adjust a pencil sketch than a painted tree trunk with branches. So there is no absolute perfect process that every artist uses. Some of them always start with a sketch, and some of them never. It just depends on how you work and what you prefer. In this lesson, we're going to practice both methods, some basic trees with a sketch, and some without. In the end, you'll know how to do both and you can choose what you like better. Now, one last thing that I have to mention before we get going because we are now combining foliage with tree trunks, we have to make sure that we don't give them completely different styles. If you paint a super detailed tree trunk, but you just drop a few brush strokes for foliage, it just doesn't look good. Same thing if it's the other way around. You must keep the level of detail relatively consistent for the whole tree. Other than that, you have lots of freedom. I hope you're ready because now it's time to open up or take out your medium for painting. Let's start our first basic tree with a sketch. Draw a very basic tree structure with a few upward pointing level one branches like this. Slightly curved. Make it spread out a little bit, make the style of structure consistent. Let the branches split up more and more. You know how it works by now. Once you're done, you can indicate the thickness of the tree trunk and the bigger branches like I'm doing it here. Then let's add the shapes for the foliage with very light lines. Remember that the more individual shapes you add here, the more detailed your tree will look. So don't add too many of them. Just a few round shapes of different sizes everywhere where the branches end. So far, it's actually the same process as for drawing. But now let's switch over to painting. So take a brush very dark brown, and let's start painting the tree trunk and the branches, starting at the bottom and working our way upward. Now it's very important that the branches always get thinner and thinner, split up more and more, and you cover every part of your sketch equally. Also, let's add some very simplistic roots at the bottom. Okay, that looks solid. Now it's time to add the foliage. Let's start with very dark green and quite big brush strokes first. Move your brush in a circular way to fill these individual shapes with paint. You should end up with a dark and dense layer of foliage like this, then it's time to add some simple highlights. Make your green brighter and shift the hue a little bit toward yellow. Let's say the light comes from the top left. Let's add smaller shapes with this new green on the top left side of each individual shape and make them less frequent as we move to the bottom right. It's very important that you stick with circular brush strokes, so the style of the tree is consistent, and that's pretty much it. Once you've got that, let's do the same thing again, but with smaller brush strokes that are brighter and a little bit more on the yellow side, circular brush strokes to divide the bigger shapes into smaller ones and add more and more detail to this tree. Let's add two more layers of foliage here. The last one being very bright and very much on the top left side. Okay, that's our foliage. Very simple but effective. Now, let's add a few more detailed branches. Switch back to the brown with which you had painted the tree trunk and add smaller branches underneath these shapes at the bottom. Make your lines very thin, so apply low pressure with your brush. Also, let's add a few short branches like this at the top and in the middle that you can see through the foliage. Nice. Now our tree looks already pretty detailed, so it's time for the final step and add a more detailed texture to the tree trunk and the bigger branches. Let's make it very simple and start by shifting the hue a bit toward yellow and making the brown brighter. Add a layer of highlights to the left side of this tree trunk and some of these bigger branches. Just a little colour transition from light to dark. Feel free to add a few vertical lines in the middle for detail, both brighter and darker ones. As long as, of course, you still mostly have highlights on the left side and shadows on the right side. Actually, let's add a little bit of reflective lights here with very thin blue brass strokes. And last but not least, let's add a few random dark spots to make the texture look more detailed. This pretty much always works on trees to make it look like they have a more detailed texture without putting in much effort, which is great. All right, and that's it. I think we've created a very solid basic tree that covers pretty much everything that we've talked about. Now let's create one in a slightly different style. This time, let's start without a sketch and just create a few brush strokes that get thinner and thinner. Make them very dark brown. A few thick, overlapping level one branches that split up kind of early. Then let's add level two branches to their ends that are obviously way thinner, but they also bend to the sides a little bit more. So it should look like this. You should end up with a quite three dimensional structure here that has some branches in front of and behind the tree. Okay, let's immediately add foliage with a big texture brush. Big shapes with light brush strokes on top of your level two branches. Start with a tone of green that is a lot on the blue side. All right, then some highlights that are more on the yellow side with smaller brush strokes. Let's say the light comes from the top left. Also very chaotic short brush strokes here. Then to add more contrast, let's add some very dark shadows on the bottom right. Generally, I would recommend you start with the shadows and start with dark brush strokes, and then you make them lighter and lighter. But if you need some extra shadows, it's always fine if you add them later on. Now let's add one more layer of highlights and then I think this is solid foliage. Add some rough highlights to the left side of the tree trunk and the branches. If you touch the canvas very lightly with a brush, it pretty much automatically generates detail, which works in both digital and traditional art. Now, it might take you a little bit of practice to find out how much pressure you need to apply with this exact brush because that's always different. But the more you paint, the faster you will find it out for new brushes, which is very rewarding. Right here, in the end, let's add a few more detailed smaller branches with very dark and thin brush strokes and just a few more spots of light paint on the left side of the tree trunk, so we can get a really nice texture. So complete this basic tree and move on to the next. Let's make this one split up very early and grow vertically, some long straight branches with dark brown. Then switch to dark green and add very small chaotic brush strokes for the foliage. Let's create long vertical shapes on top of these branches that are made of many individual brush strokes that go in different directions. So it looks something like this. And then we can add some highlights in the same style with some brighter green. That is, of course, more on the yellow side, but only on the left side of these individual shapes and in general, more frequent on the left side of the tree. So on the right side, there are pretty much just one or two brush strokes, and the left side is full with them. After that, let's add another layer of highlights with very fine and thin brush strokes, green, of course, brighter and more on the yellow side. And then let's add a few more detailed defined branches with very thin brush strokes and dark brown. Move your brush quickly and with low pressure to create these dynamic lines. I think that's what usually works best for this additional layer of branches on top of the foliage that we often add on trees. After that, add a simple texture of your choice to the tree trunk and the branches. I'm just going with some light vertical lines here. It really doesn't have to be much here. Just make sure that you're able to tell where the highlights and shadows are. So I think let's add another layer of highlights for even more contrast, very bright, very yellowish green and small brush strokes just on the left side here. Regarding the process, it might seem a little bit chaotic at this point, but this is basically what it is. You can switch back and forth between adding more foliage or a texture to the tree trunk or more detailed branches. There is no exact order in which you should complete these tasks. The only things that I recommend is that you start with the tree trunk, then add the darker, bigger shapes of the foliage, and then go brighter and smaller, at some point, you can throw in the texture for the tree trunk, some smaller branches and different layers of foliage. You can, of course, always switch it up a little bit and make adjustments like add some darker shadows in the end like I'm doing it here or adding even more smaller branches. Switching back and forth between adding layers of foliage and layers of branches actually makes sense because that way your tree will look more three dimensional. Okay, I think it's finally time to move on to the next tree. I've kind of talked too much here. So let's paint a savannah tree. Once again, branches split up very early, but this time, make the tree a bit more wide and these branches a bit more horizontal before they grow up. And at the top, let's add small level two branches that grow more upward. So you should end up with a few groups of branches here. All right. For the foliage, let's go with big brush strokes that go in different directions. This time we can start a little bit more on the yellow side because that's usually good for savannah trees. So let's create some flat horizontal shapes on top of these level two branches, just like this. Then of course, some highlights with smaller brush strokes and green that is brighter and more on the yellow side. Add a few layers until it looks something like this. Then let's actually add a more defined texture to the tree trunk. Paint some very thin, very dark lines that follow the shapes of the branches. Then let's make every branch a little bit brighter on the left side. Of course, with a tone of brown that is more on the yellow side. So paint a simple savannah tree like this and don't make it too detailed and don't spend too much time on it. If you find yourself spending too much time on these trees longer than ten to 15 minutes, then you should scale them down a little bit and paint them like they are a bit further away. Let's switch up the style once again. Start with a sketch of a very simple, very normal tree with branches and these shapes for the foliage and add simple tree trunk and branches just the way we've done it before. Then define the foliage with very round shapes and mid tones. Then we can add the details like the highlights and shadows with directional brush strokes. In this case, a little u shape for the shadows and for the different layers of highlights as well. Always the same shape, so we have a consistent texture. This gives our tree a very distinct style. Add as many layers as you like, as long as you follow that style with the u shape, I'm adding some very bright reflecting sunlight on the very top of the tree. After that, we can add more detailed branches and a simple texture to the tree trunk. And Alright. After that, let's practice a very different tree once again. We're going to make a very old like Mediterranean type of tree. So give it big branches with many curves that overlap. Let's make them smaller and smaller and point a little bit to the left side. And then for the foliage, let's add many brush strokes of different sizes with lots of contrast. Let's add chaotic brush strokes that go in different directions with very bright and very dark green. Then add a very natural texture with random spots to the tree trunk and the branches, also with slightly different tones of brown. Followed by some reflective lights with very, very thin desaturated blue brush strokes. That looks very good once in a while, and here it's a really nice contrast to the warm colors of the tree. Very typical for impressionism. So once you've completed this nice small tree, let's move on to one that is a little bit bigger and further away. Let's make it very tall with thin vertical brush strokes, and then some even thinner level two branches that grow to the sides at the very top. This is a very typical structure for beech trees, for example. A let's add the foliage with many, many brush strokes a little bit like pointillism on top of the level two branches. Make the shapes of the foliage also quite horizontal because it should pretty much always follow the level two branches. Then two more levels of highlights, more frequently, of course, on top of the tree. Make the last layer very bright, so we have lots of contrast here. Then let's add a texture to the tree trunk, making it lighter on the left side, but still very desaturated. First add very bright and then dark brush strokes for detail like little spots. In the end, I'm giving the foliage a little bit more volume by adding a few more layers to it. As you can see, you have lots of freedom when it comes to the process of creating basic trees as long as you follow just a few rules, of course. We've created quite a few different trees here, all with a little bit of a different process, style, and different techniques. So now you should have a good overview of what you can potentially do. I think now it's time for me to stop giving you annoyingly precise instructions, and let's do some freestyle practice. You are more than ready for it if you participated so far. So I would say create ten more basic trees before you move on to the next lesson, maybe even more if you need it. But don't worry, they can be very small and very quick. Just try out a few different styles, processes, and techniques. Just follow the rules and concepts that we've talked about and try to be original with your tree structures and not make the same tree over and over again. Right here, for example, I'm experimenting with a unique tree that has very vertical growing branches and very horizontal foliage and highlights only at the very top. Then I'm painting some very small, very basic trees, just trying to come up with different structures for the branches, and of course, giving them unique foliage as well by trying out different brushes. Or this tree with very directional branches and foliage that looks like wind is blowing through it. Feel free to combine different colors and different types of brush strokes like I'm doing it on this autumn tree right here. For autumn trees, shift the hue of the foliage more toward the yellow side, the brighter it is, and more towards red in the shadow parts. This is pretty much the same as for tree trunks, only that tree trunks are way more desaturated and dark than the foliage of autumn trees. Tree trunks and branches appear brown and not yellow, orange and red. In the end, I'm creating a few very small trees. Pretty much no detail. I'm just trying out different techniques with different brushes. But these trees still follow the rules that we've talked about. This is the point. So that's how you can create basic trees. I hope this lesson was useful to you. If not, then I think you just need to practice more. And you'll be surprised by how fast you can get better at this. I've shown you tons of examples for how you can practice and different styles that you can check out. If you follow through on this and you keep creating basic trees every once in a while, you will, with time, develop a huge toolkit and a large repertoire that you can apply in your paintings. Once you internalize these basics, you can create any tree you like. Except, of course, this one type of tree that we've completely left out here. Conifers. So let's take care of them in the next lesson. 18. Painting Basic Conifers: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to painting basic conifers or evergreens however you want to call them. Let's just say trees with needles. Just as for drawing, they have a little extra lesson here because they just work a little bit different than trees with regular leaves. But, luckily, evergreens are definitely not more complicated. So I think we can get this done quite quickly, especially as we're still painting basic trees and nothing too hyperrealistic. So in this lesson, we will simply practice the process of creating basic evergreens with brushes and explore a variety of different styles. So you can manifest the basics. Pretty simple. So let's go. One thing that's a little bit different about evergreens is their form and their structure. We have basically already covered this in the lesson about drawing conifers, but I'm pretty sure not everybody has seen this lesson, so I'm just going to repeat it. Generally, conifers grow in a cone shape, which means they get wider and wider on the bottom and thinner and thinner on the top. On average, this is the important part. Not every single branch of a conifer is longer than the ones above it and shorter than the ones below it. We have a little bit of variation and randomness because, well, this is nature, but on average, an evergreen still has a cone shape. All right. Also, this cone shape dictates that a conifer is pretty much always more dense in the middle and less dense on the outside. This unique structure of conifers results in a different process that we have to follow if we want to paint them. For normal trees, we start with a sketch of the basic structure, add some round shapes for the foliage, and then we fill everything with texture, highlights and shadows. You know that by now, hopefully. But for a conifer, we pretty much always start with the silhouette and then we apply textures, highlights and shadows on top of the silhouette. So I would say the best thing we can do right now is start painting a bunch of basic silhouettes for conifers. You will need silhouettes all the time. So take out or open up your medium for painting. Let's go. I'm going to paint these silhouettes straight black, but you can also take dark green or dark blue or whatever. It's not about the colors, it's about the shapes. Paint a line with a thin brush stroke that indicates where the tree trunk is. So this line will be the basis of our tree in terms of height and angle. So let's just make it straight like this. And then let's start painting the tree working from the top to the bottom. Just many slightly angled lines that all fall down like this. Start with a fine brush so you can apply thin brush strokes at the top, and then at the bottom, apply more pressure so your brush strokes get bigger. As you can see, I'm painting very dynamically, making the branches longer and longer on average the further down I go because the tree gets wider at the bottom. Make sure the tree is very dense in the middle and you don't have any gaps there. And at the very bottom, add some downward pointing lines, so we have a round finish. And that's pretty much it. This is how you create a basic shape for a conifer. Let's make another one. Again, let's start with a line approximately the same height, and then we can add the foliage with downward pointing angular brush strokes. Wait, can you call it foliage for conifers? I don't know. You know what I mean? This time, put your brush strokes in small layers. So it looks like this. This is also a very typical structure for evergreens with these layers that get wider and wider at the bottom. Ideally, there should always be a few completely random branches for detail, but on average, they are bundled together in these layers. So practice one basic silhouette like this and don't spend too much time on it. After that, let's explore another type of conifer, starting with a slightly curved line this time. And then let's add upward growing branches at the top. Make them very thin at the top and add many of them. As you move to the bottom, apply more pressure with your brush so the branches get thicker. But also, you should change the angle of the branches a little bit, make them fall more downward and make them be more flat the further you move down. So this is another basic conifer. For the next tree, also start with upward going branches, and the further down you go, the more they fall down. But this time, add a little bit more space between the individual layers. So we have little gaps in this tree. So we have a nice pattern here and a transition in the direction of the branches, pointing more upward at the top and more downward the longer they are. Nice. At this point, I would say we have the most important basics of conifers covered. We have one that's very dense and chaotic, one with layers, one with upward growing branches, and one with a transition in the direction and small gaps between the layers. You can basically combine different aspects of these trees however you like. Let's practice a few more silhouettes before we move on. Create one tree that's a bit thinner that has very wild and chaotic branches that still grow in little layers like this. Then create one with very straight branches that is pretty wide. This also works. Then create one where you first sketch individual branches, and then you add smaller downward pointing branches to them, which is more of a gimmick and not a very efficient process, but I think it's a fun practice. And if you create a more detailed conifer, this can also work. After that, let's create the silhouette of a tree that is a little bit more bent over. So the branches also fall down on that side where it bends a little bit more, and it looks like this. If a tree heavily leans to one direction, then you also have to keep gravity in mind. And I think this looks pretty good. And finally, let's create another tree that is a little bit bend with round shapes for the foliage or needles. You can also make round shapes like this if you follow the basic structure of a conifer with a cone shape. And there we have it. These are the basic shapes of conifers that you should definitely practice. At this point, you can, of course, practice way more individual silhouettes if you don't feel comfortable yet. Just create the same ones over and over again to get a bit more practicing or try to come up with new ones by combining different aspects of these silhouettes. I've shown you everything that you need, so let's move on to basic conifers with colors. Let's start with the one that I think is the most basic and the most common. Paint a basic, chaotic silhouette of a conifer like the first one, but this time with dark green. So you start with a basic line, and then you put branches on top of it. Great. Then make the green a bit brighter and you guessed it, shift the hue a little bit toward yellow. Yes, this is not different here. Let's say the light comes from the left. So add your highlights with very smooth brass strokes. Put these brass strokes on the top left of all the individual branches that you can see, and also create new branches in the middle of the tree using your brighter green. So in the middle, just create small oval shapes like this and make them less frequent on the left side. Then for another layer of highlights, we can do the same thing again, make the green brighter, shift the hue towards yellow, and make your brush strokes a little bit smaller for more detail, then we can add these highlights on the top left of each individual shape. Notice that conifers are generally less saturated on average. But in this lesson, I really want to showcase the colors, so I'm exaggerating a little bit here. Here, I'm just adding another layer of highlights following the same principles. I'm adding these final highlights with very low pressure because we don't want too many of them. In the end, I'm adding a little bit more shadow and contrast with very dark green bra strokes that are, of course, more on the blue side. And here we have our very first basic conifer in color. Well done. Now, let's see what else we can do. For the next conifer, let's start with a thin line and add many, many layers with fine bra strokes. And then for the highlights, let's add many downward falling brush strokes that follow these layers. Make them more dense and more frequent on the side where the light comes from. So you have a little transition on every layer. In this case, let's say light comes from the left. When you arrive at the bottom and you have a nice pattern, you can add a few random brush strokes for detail. Then let's just add another layer of highlights following the same pattern. In the end, if you need them, just add a few more shadows underneath the individual layers, just like I'm doing it here. Maybe another layer of highlights with very thin brush strokes, and here we go. This is another conifer. As I've said, don't spend too much time here and just try out the techniques that I'm showing you. Now, let's make a conifer that is a little bit different. This time we're actually going to start with a sketch. Now you may be wondering why because I've said that you don't really need a sketch for a conifer, but this one is just a bit different. Have a look, sketch a tree that splits up at the bottom and has these horizontal branches with lots of space between them. Like this, just draw a few horizontal lines. And then because we have a lot of space between our layers, we can see the tree trunk, so we have to paint it. Let's make a very simple one with just a few lines for highlights on the left side. And then we can add layers of foliage, starting with very dark green on these individual lines. For these, I'm moving my brush in a circular way. Make them nice and smooth and more dense in the middle because this is a three dimensional structure. And then of course, some highlights on the top left of each individual shape with a green that is a bit brighter and more on the yellow side. Then another layer very lightly. This is also a way you can paint conifers. Definitely something different, but I think it looks really good. Now let's go back to a more regular one. Let's start with very dark green and with rough brush strokes, let's paint a small conifer with downward pointing branches like this. Let's make the edges very chaotic so we don't have any clearly defined layers. Then let's use some highlights to create smaller individual shapes in the middle of the tree. Let's make these ones also very chaotic. After that, let's add another layer of highlights on top of it, obviously with a bit smaller brush strokes. And you can see, I'm pretty much just scribbling here on the left side of each individual shape. Now, we could say this is done because this is also a way to pin conifers, but let's actually add some reflective lights on the right side with desaturated blue. And actually, let's create another layer of highlights just for more detail. In the end, I'm just adding a few more random dark shadows in the middle for contrast. And yeah, this is a conifer with a really nice color transition. You can also paint evergreens very chaotically if you just follow the basic principles and use nice colors. So I would say it's time for freestyle practice because you basically know how it works by now. Let me give you a few examples for what you can practice. Right here, I'm creating a conifer with not a lot of detail at all and very horizontal branches that are pretty much just lines. Then I'm painting one that's a bit more detailed and has these really long, very chaotic brush strokes. For these highlights and shadows, I'm using a little bit of an X pattern to make the branches look very dynamic. Also a few reflective lights to make this a very impressionist tree. Then I'm creating a tree that's very freestyle with pretty much small individual conifers as the bundles for foliage. I'm basically combining the process of painting a normal tree and painting a conifer here because why not? There are definitely conifers in real life that actually grow like this. After that, I'm creating a more basic conifer with many, many individual brush strokes and upward pointing branches, and I'm adding lots of individual layers with many, many horizontal lines here. This also works. Moving on, I'm painting a tree that's a bit more complex, so I'm first making a sketch. Nice layered branches that fall to the side because this tree is a bit bent over. I'm adding these branches on top of the tree trunk very dynamically with a big textura brush. It kind of looks like wind is blowing through this tree. I definitely recommend you experiment a bit to replicate these dynamic brush strokes here because they work really nicely for conifers, but you don't have to because there is also a way more simple way to create a conifer with a texture brush. And that is, find a way and the correct brush that you can just press on the canvas to create individual layers of foliage. It might feel weird and it might take you some time to find the correct pressure, the correct brush and everything. But once you got it, you've unlocked a very efficient way to create conifers. I think this is how Bob Ross paints most of the time, and I have to say it works very well for conifers. But for details like the highlights in this case, I still think it's better to work with smaller brush strokes just to have that extra bit of precision. Alright, in the end, I'm even adding a tree trunk very carefully between these layers. Generally, it's, of course, better if you first paint a tree trunk if you want it. But in the end, it's also fine if you don't cover too much of the foliage with it, and you're very careful. You often have to add another layer of foliage on top of the tree trunk then. So as you can see, there are many ways you can create basic conifers. Keep practicing and you can get better at painting basic conifers very fast, and you might even discover ways to create them that I've not showcased here. These are just the ones that I like and I recommend. Do this and you'll always have something fancy and flexible to put in the background of your artworks. 19. Extras on Trees: Let's talk about putting extras on trees. With extras, I mean stuff like fruit, flowers, moss or nots. You know, everything that's not on every tree but can be part of a tree. I've dedicated a little extra lesson to this because I believe it's way more important to focus on the basics like creating good shapes and textures. So you can create any tree confidently. But nevertheless, there are just trees that have more stuff like an apple tree with apples or a very old tree with lots of nods and moss and plants growing on it. With time, it will become boring to only paint basic trees, at some point you want to add extra stuff like fruit, flowers, moss or nots, ideally, you want to be able to add that stuff without the help of a reference. So you have to know how it fundamentally works, and that is precisely why we got this little extra lesson. We will talk about how fruit flowers, moss and knots work, how much or how many of them you should add, and when you should add these extras in your painting or drawing process. And of course, we will practice everything. So let's go. Let's first talk about fruit. When you add fruit or nuts to a tree, be aware that it always hangs down. Things like walnuts or apples are just heavier than leaves, so they always fall down beneath the branches there on. Plus, they usually grow on the smallest branches on the very outside of the tree. So what this means for your drawing or painting, you have to place fruit underneath the individual shapes for the foliage, like this. If you draw or paint an apple above the foliage, then it looks like we're on a planet with very low gravity, which doesn't look very natural to us. So always place fruit underneath the individual shapes for the foliage and ideally in small groups. It always looks better if you put your fruit in small groups of two, three, or four instead of just adding them individually. All right. Now let's talk about flowers. Flowers also look best when they are placed in small groups and not individually. However, flowers usually grow on top of the individual shapes for the foliage because flowers are as light or even lighter than leaves and they need light in order to blossom. So they grow on the outside of a tree and on top of the foliage. Alright, then what you also have to know about fruit and flowers is that they are consistent on the whole tree, just like everything else that we've talked about here. There are no big outliers. The flowers and fruits stay the same size on the whole tree with only small variations. And they also don't appear more or less frequently on one side of the tree. They have to be consistent. So always keep track of the whole picture so you know that you're still drawing or painting in the same style. This is very important. Unless of course you're creating something very special like a tree that has already been harvested on one side and you can see people carrying away the fruit or something, in that case, obviously, only draw the fruit on the other side. But, you know, that's a very special case, and you'll know how to handle it. In general, your fruit and flowers should always be consistent for the whole tree. Here we go. Now let's talk about moss. Moss is usually handled best as a simple, two dimensional layer of chaotic green brush strokes. You can make it more or less detailed depending on how big or small your brush strokes are. But in general, I would always go with a very simple texture. The deciding factor for moss is the positioning because moss likes moisture, so it always grows in the place of a tree that is the most wet or moist. And that is usually the site that gets the least light. You can actually observe that in the northern hemisphere of the world, moss usually grows on the north or northwest side of a tree trunk. Now, I'm not telling you that you have to define where north and south are in every picture that you draw or paint. Tn vary. But if you make a composition with multiple trees, it makes sense to think about where the moss would grow on them. So if you draw or paint moss on the shadow side of your trees, then you're usually safe. Ideally, when you have multiple trees in a picture, give them all moss on the same side. That way, it will look really good. All right. The last extra that I want to talk about here are knots or these little bumps that some trees have. I define them as an extra because you can very easily add them to any tree after you've already finished it. And we're going to do that later on. Luckily, these knots don't have any specific rules like they only appear in groups or they only grow on the east side of a tree. There is none of that here. Some trees just have one or multiple little bumps on them, usually very old trees. And in order to add such a knot, you just extend the tree trunk in terms of color and texture. Just make a round shape and give it correct highlights and shadows, and that's pretty much it. So that's what you have to know. Now let's begin with our practice, starting with drawing. Have a close look at the process because for drawing, this is very important. I thought it's a cool idea if we draw one tree where we have all our extras represented like fruit, flowers, moss, and knots, so it doesn't take us too much time. So let's go. Let's draw a tree. I hope you still remember how this works. We need the sketch of a tree that has four main branches like this that may be split up once or twice. Add a few round shapes for the foliage and indicate the thickness of the tree. Very simple. You can also add roots like me, but that's not necessary. Now it's time to determine our light source, and let's say it comes from the top right. If you want to add light flowers to a tree like this, now's the time to start. Let's create a few very simple flower like shapes. Remember, they grow on the outside of the tree in small groups and on top of the shapes for the foliage. For example, like this, keep them very simple and don't add too many lines to them. Maybe just a very simple pattern like this, and then we can draw in the darker texture for the foliage. Once you've added a classic layer of foliage, you can draw over these flowers once again to make them stand out a bit more. For example, by intensifying the edges. The important thing that you should learn here is just if you add bright flowers to a tree, it makes sense to add them before the foliage and then you draw the foliage around them. But here is another way you can do it if you want darker flowers. You can just start with foliage like this. Let's make a simple o texture here with just a few highlights and shadows, and then we can add darker spots on top that are supposed to be flowers. This is also a possibility, but as you can see, you don't have as much freedom anymore because you've already added a dense texture and you can't add anything brighter to it. All these flowers can pretty much just be dark shapes. But if you put your dark spots in small groups and predominantly on the outside of the shape, then they will most likely still look like flowers. So you have two options. Create your flowers first, plant them, and then draw the foliage around them, or add very simple flowers later on. Now, let's turn to fruit. Draw a few apples underneath the leaf bundles for one of our main branches. So just some circles of approximately the same size underneath these shapes and put them in small groups of two or three. Then add some shadows to them to make them look somewhat three dimensional. After that, you can add a texture of your choice to the foliage and your apples will still be visible because they have a different texture and a different brightness. That's one option. On the other hand, you can of course also draw the foliage first and then add some very dark fruits still underneath the individual shapes for the foliage. Again, you don't have many options for the texture of your fruit anymore because they have to be darker than the foliage if the hair is supposed to be visible. So your basic two options for fruit and flowers are plan them first and draw the foliage around them, or accept the fact that you have to make something very simple and dark. This process is the same for any type of tree or amount of leaf bundles that you have. Now, the reason why we don't have any texture on the tree trunk yet is because we want some moss, ideally, you also have to plan and sketch that before you add any texture. So let's do it. Let's add a few random organic shapes on the opposite side of the light source. And then let's add a texture with simple dots to them. That way it already looks a little bit like moss. And once you're done, then you can add the texture to the tree trunk. In this case, let's go with straight lines. So we have lots of contrast between the moss and the tree trunk, and we can see the moss clearly. Okay, the last extra we will add is some knots, because we can always add them after we've finished everything else. So just add a few bumps to the tree trunk and extend the texture to these bumps. Then give them some according shadows if you need them. Alright, this is a very simple example for how to add extras to a tree drawing. This works for any level of detail or types of fruit or flowers. This example here was very simplistic because it's not the point of the course to show you how to draw good bananas or cherry blossoms. But I hope that you understood the principles that are behind these extras on trees, when you should add them and how they generally work. So yeah, draw one tree like this and then move on to our practice for painting. The nice thing about painting is that we can pretty much always add something brighter, at least if the paint is dry. So we can just take out already existing tree paintings of ours and add extras to those. Search for your file or your papers where you have practiced the basic trees, and then search for this old tree right here. Or if you skipped it, then that's a pity because it's one of my favorites from this lesson. But yeah, alternatively, just use the one that looks the most similar to this one. Let's add some oranges to this tree. And what color do oranges usually have? Of course, pink. No, I'm just kidding. You know what, paint your oranges with this orange color. Put them in small groups underneath the individual shapes for the foliage. Just like this. Then add according highlights and shadows to make them look more three dimensional. Obviously, highlights on the same side where you find them on the tree trunk and the foliage. But also look where your oranges are. Some of them are covered by more foliage and therefore get less light. That's especially the ones on the right side here. I'm not adding any highlights to those, but some of these oranges in the very bright light have a little reflective light on them because there is so much sun, add different layers of highlights or shadows to your oranges until they look right. Once you got that, it's time to add another layer of foliage to cover some of these oranges, obviously in the same style as the rest of the foliage. This is so that the oranges are not all on top of the foliage and it looks more three dimensional. I'm first using very bright green for the oranges and the highlights and very dark green for the ones in the shadows. So, yeah, now I think this looks pretty good. But you know what? Let's add a little bit of reflective lights to the oranges because remember, this was supposed to be an impressionist tree. Because oranges are very flat surfaces, they reflect lots of light. So let's add a little bit of blue on the bottom right side of some of these oranges in the shadows. In case you've added too much reflective lights to one of these oranges, just paint more orange on top. No problem. Now, once you got the oranges and you're happy with them, let's actually add a few knots on some of these bigger branches. Just paint some round bumps on your tree and give them according highlights and shadows and reflective lights in case they're necessary, like right here. You'll see this is definitely quite simple. Now we've created a really nice old orange tree with a bit of an impressionist style. I really like this one, and I hope you like yours too. Now let's practice creating some flowers. And for this, we're going to use this bushy tree structure right here. Let's transform it into a lilac bush. So start with very dark purple and add these triangular lilac flowers to the whole thing. Make them all point away from the tree and to the outside. Just look how I'm doing it here. Once you've added your lilac to the whole thing, add some thin scribbly highlights to every single flower. Of course, more to the ones that are in the highlight areas of the tree. Pro tip, as you make your purple brighter for different layers of highlights, also shift the hue a little bit toward pink, so it is warmer in the highlight areas. All right, looks pretty good. Now let's add some more leaves on top. So it looks like these lilac flowers are covered by some of them, and it's more three dimensional. But of course, only cover the bottom parts of your lilac flowers because they stick out from this tree or bush. And then, here we go. This is a pretty solid lilac bush, I would say. Now you should have a really good understanding of the process of adding fruit or flowers and knots, which are really simple. The only thing that's missing is painting moss. So let's pick a tree where this would be fitting. I'm just going to go with this one. And then let's start with dark green and just scribble moss in the shadow parts of this tree trunk and some of the bigger branches. Then let's add some brighter spots just on the left side where the light comes from, and then some more very dark shadows. Moss is really simple if you just get the colors right, and you can always add it in the very end. All right, this is how you draw or paint extras on trees. You can apply these processes for whatever extras you have, whether you're dealing with cherry blossoms or pineapples or whatever. You should have a good overview now and a little bit of practice, which results in a flexible toolkit when it comes to extras on trees. I 20. Artwork - Oak Tree: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here we are. Welcome to the artwork section of this course. At this point, we've covered everything that you need to know in order to create trees. So now it's finally time to actually do that. No more sketching, no more practicing, no more building up to something or exploring a concept. Now I'm going to take you through the whole process of creating actual tree artworks. And, in fact, five of them. That's more than in drawing where we've only created three artworks because in painting, there are just more options, and I want to give you a good overview for what you can do by showcasing my creation of different trees in different styles that you can follow with any medium. So the following few lessons will be less of me talking because I've been talking for 3 hours now, and I don't need to explain everything in depth anymore. You know all the theory, all the concepts, and all the tactics for each individual part of the tree creation process. So now just watch and follow as I'm putting everything together. Of course, I'm still going to talk and give you some instructions so you can always watch ahead a little bit, then pause and then do it yourself. But I won't repeat everything that we've covered in this course so often. So let's go. Take out your art supplies or open up your painting software. We're going to start with a basic painting style and paint an absolute classic, a big old oak tree. Let's start with a sketch. Take a pencil and sketch a large tree with a short thick tree trunk and long branches. These branches should spread out around the tree in a circular way as it's typical for an oak tree. Make the branches overlap for the three dimensional aspect, but don't make them too detailed yet. Then indicate the thickness of the tree trunk, the roots, and the big branches. Then give your tree a consistent layer with the shapes for the foliage, all being very round and on top of the branches. Once you have a big usable sketch like this, it's time to fill the tree trunk and the branches with very dark brown paint. At this point, you can add some more detailed branches and some more knots or roots, if you want. By the way, you don't have to add that many individual branches to the middle of the tree because this part will be covered with lots of foliage. If this were a winter tree without foliage, we would have to paint way more individual branches in the middle because of the three dimensional structure. But right here, we can save a bit of time like this. So now let's add the foliage to our tree. Using very dark green, fill every single individual shape with chaotic brush strokes that go in different directions. Make them smooth and consistent and take your time. A once you're done and your tree looks something like this, it's time to determine where the light comes from. In this case, let's say the light comes from the top right. That's where we paint individual highlights to every single shape, of course, with a brighter green that is more on the yellow side. Still, let's use relatively big and chaotic brushstrokes. Obviously, we make these highlights more frequent on the top right, where the light comes from. Then let's add another layer of highlights with a green that is even brighter and of course, more on the yellow side. And at this point, it should slowly start looking like an actual tree. So take your time and don't rush it. Now, let's add some more detailed highlights using even brighter green that is more than the yellow side and smaller brush strokes. We only paint them on the very top right of the individual shapes and always a few random spots for detail. I'm also painting some of these highlights on the shapes right here at the bottom left because some light reaches there from behind the tree. Now I'm adding a few more mitons to make the transition between highlights and shadows more smooth, but also to make the middle of the tree denser. After that, it's time to add some small, more detailed shadows with very small chaotic dark brass strokes. I'm adding them on the bottom left of each individual shape, and I'm also creating more shapes using them. As you can see, the smaller brush strokes make the edges of the tree more natural and they are very good for contrast. I'm also adding some of these smaller shadows in the highlight area. Then I'm once again giving the tree a bit more volume using mitons. All right. Now it's time for more detailed branches. Switch back to your dark brown and extend the branches that you can still see through the foliage. So that's not all of them, but on every big branch, you should have a few places where you can see through the foliage and you add some of these smaller branches there. Also paint many thin lines on top of the foliage for some detailed branches that you can see through. And yeah, you can add them pretty randomly, actually. Just apply very low pressure to make your lines thin and let them split up every once in a while. No. Nice. Now, let's take care of the tree trunk and the branches. I'm selecting a lighter brown that is more on the yellow side, and then I'm first blocking in the areas where there would be highlights. So that's especially on the right side of the tree, a little bit in the middle on top of these roots on the right side, of course, and just a little bit on the branches as well. So here on the right side of the branches that you can see through, I'm just scribbling a little bit. And then I'm creating a more defined texture by crosshatching with my brush. This is actually not that easy, so add many layers until it looks good with fitting tones of brown. Also, for a bit of detail, I'm creating this little branch hole here in the middle. And then as the texture gets more and more detailed, of course, I use thinner and thinner brush strokes, but I'm always cross hatching to give the tree a consistent texture. For this artwork, it actually took me quite some time to get the texture of the tree trunk right, and I had to add many layers of cross hatches to make it look good. But that's fine as long as you don't paint outside the tree and completely ruin it. It's just important that the highlights and shadows make sense and the texture is consistent. Also, don't add too many highlights to your branches because this tree has lots of foliage and therefore blocks out most of the sunlight. So most of the branches at the top are very dark and there should be just a few places where you can see through. Okay, now we've created a nice smooth looking texture, and I think it's time to add another layer of leaves to create a bit more contrast. For this, we will use very bright, very yellowish green and small brush strokes. At this point, your tree should start looking really nice and have lots of contrast as you're creating smaller and more detailed shapes. And then I'm painting some almost white brush strokes at the very top right. They represent some of the sunlight that is being reflected in the many leaves of this tree. At this point, you can add a few more layers of highlights, mitons or shadows in places where they are needed because after that, we are done with the foliage, finish it off. Alright, if you like, you can add just a few reflective lights on the left side of this tree. I think they are kind of fitting here. So I'm adding just a few smooth blue bras strokes. Then one more thing, I just noticed that this tree trunk is just a bit too bright, so I'm adding more shadow on the left side with very dark brown. Then a few more details until it looks really good. And then it's time for the last part of our creation here, which is adding some moss to the tree trunk. I mean, in the last lesson, we've talked about this, so we have to practice it at least once here. I'm creating the shapes of this moss with very dark cross hedged green first. And then I'm adding some more highlights to it with smaller brush strokes. Many individual dots will look quite good here because they match with the texture of the tree trunk. Ebola, here we have a very classic oak tree artwork. This is how you do it. So paint one oak tree like this and then move on to the next lesson. 21. Artwork - Birch Tree: Alright, artwork number two. Now we're going to make something very different. In fact, a birch tree. I actually think we haven't drawn or painted a single birch tree in this course, even though they are quite common. But birch trees are just kind of unique because well, first of all, they don't have a brown tree trunk, which is very special and this pattern with the dark spots, but they also have a quite unique structure of the foliage, if you look at them. So, yeah, I think this is going to be interesting. Let's build up our birch tree without a sketch. Take a brush and pick some dark gray, not brown, please, and then create the basic shapes of a birch tree, following the principles that we've talked about in the basic shapes lesson. Make it split up quite a few times, starting with very long and relatively straight level one branches that grow upward and some level two branches that are angled a bit more to the sides. Once your tree looks something like this, it's time to add another layer of branches that grow even more to the sides and are very small like this. Let them fall down a bit to the left and the right side of each branch. Really take your time and add these curve branches everywhere on this tree. Okay. And because we're now in the detailed artwork section, let's add another level of branches, this time falling straight down from the other branches and being very thin and very close together. So you should add many, many, many of these individual level four branches on the ends of your level three branches. That's how you make it look like a birch tree. Okay, these are the basic shapes of a typical birch tree. Well done. Now, let's continue with the texture of the tree trunk. For this, use very light gray, so almost white and a very smooth brush. Let's say, in this case, the light comes from the left side. So I'm not adding this light gray everywhere, but I'm leaving a bit space on the right side where the shadow is. So smoothly and patiently, add your light gray to the left side of every beggar branch of this tree. You can leave out these small branches. No Okay, that's a solid basis. Make sure ob tree looks something like this before you move on. When you're ready, it's time to add the first layer of foliage, and this is going to be a bit different. First of all, pick very dark and desaturated green. Let's add our foliage following these small downward falling branches. Create the foliage with many, many individual jittry brush strokes and make it thinner as it falls down. So the foliage is very thick and dense where it grows out of these branches, and then at the bottom, add some long lines made up of individual dots like this. To find out where to put your foliage exactly, just look at your level four branches. That's where it goes. These leaf strings also count as shapes for the foliage. Make them nice and long, more transparent as they fall down and make them consistent on the whole tree. Okay, once you got that, let's go a bit brighter with our green but still desaturated. And then add another layer of foliage on top, especially on the left side because that's where the light comes from. So these highlights get less and less frequent the further you are on the right side of this tree. By doing this, your tree will start to look more dense and more realistic. Paint over some of these branches and dodge others. So you have a three dimensional structure, and imagine which parts of the foliage would get the most and which the least light. All right, then I'm adding another layer of foliage, this time a bit more saturated. And after that, a layer of mitons to give the thing a bit more volume. This time, a bit less saturated. Okay, this foliage looks pretty alright, but let's make it more interesting by giving it even more contrast. For this, I'm taking very dark green, almost black, and I'm adding a few more defined brush strokes. So I'm applying more pressure, and I'm using a more dense brush that's a bit less watery and has more thickness of the paint. And just like that, I'm adding some scribbly downward falling lines to all parts of this tree. I recommend using a very thin brush for this. After that, let's do the same thing, but with a very bright green this time. So we're adding these brighter lines predominantly on the left side of the tree. Depending on what you need, you can add a few more mid tones, shadows or highlights, or you can say that you like your foliage and you're done. But I'm adding just one or two more layers here because I think that mine is not quite dense enough. By using slightly different greens for different levels of the foliage, you can create a really nice combination of colors in the end. But still, on average, this tree should be way less saturated than the last one because that's just how birch trees work. They're a bit more light and not super intense in terms of color. Once you're content with your foliage, we can move on to the next step. To turn this into an actual credible birch tree, we need to, of course, add this typical birch tree texture to the tree trunk and the branches. So let's switch to black or very dark gray and start applying this texture. First of all, make the whole bottom part of the tree very dark because this often happens for birch trees. And then add a layer of these horizontal dark spots for the texture. Make them relatively random and make them more thin and more short on the sides of the tree trunk because of the cylindrical shape. And just like that, scribble your way upward until you've covered the whole tree with a nice texture like this. By the way, on the smaller branches, you don't have to go that detailed and create individual spots. Just scribble a little bit with dark gray or black, and it's going to look like a birch tree. Okay. After that, we're going to add a bit more white on the left side for contrast. You can scribble a little bit randomly in the middle of the tree trunk, but in general, this white should be way less frequent on the right side. After that, let's add a few more shadows with black, especially up on the branches because they are covered by lots of foliage and not much light reaches there. And maybe a few more thin horizontal lines for detail here. Okay, I would say this looks pretty much like a birch tree. Now, let's go over the foliage once more with another layer of bright highlights. As you can probably tell by now how many layers of foliage you add is kind of dependent on your feelings and how you want your tree to look. But in general, the more detail you want your tree to look, the more layers of foliage you should probably add. Alright, in the very end, let's add just a few more reflective lights on the right side of the tree trunk and the individual branches. Just some very thin blue brush strokes. Then let's add a few more knots or cut off branches. Simply extend the tree trunk a little bit and give these things correct highlights and shadows. This one on the bottom right also has a little bit of reflective lights. Okay, now it's already time for the final adjustments. I'm just painting over the tree trunk a little bit, adding a few more branches. And then I'm adding some roots at the bottom, because I feel like they would actually do well here. Of course, they should follow the same light and shadow structure of the tree. So light on the left side, dark on the right side, and a little bit of reflective lights. And here we have it a solid birch tree painting, a little bit of a different painting style, but it still looks quite realistic because we capture the typical structure and the colors of a birch tree. So once you got that, move on to the next lesson where we switch up the style once again. 22. Artwork - Snowy Pine Tree: Artwork number three. Here we go. It's time that we cover a coniferous tree. I've shown you how to create basic ones, so we have to dedicate at least one lesson to painting a detailed conifer. But so it doesn't get boring, there will be a little bit of a twist, and you'll see what I mean. Without further ado, take out your art supplies or open up your painting software. I think sketches are usually not that necessary for conifers because they pretty much always have the same structure and you just know where they will go. So let's just start by indicating the height of our conifer with a straight, dark green line like this. Alternatively, you can also do this with a pencil, just, you know, create a vertical line. All right, and then we can start creating the basic shapes working from the top to the bottom with very dark green, almost black and very thin brush strokes, just as we've done it in the basic conifers lesson. Make the branches at the top grow upward in the middle more sideways and then transition into downward falling branches at the bottom. Also, make your brush strokes thicker and bigger the further you move down. But still, you should create many, many layers so we can have a nice and detailed conifer in the end. By making this tree very slim, so the branches don't get longer quickly. So, and right here at the bottom, we'll just paint some classic downward pointing branches to finish it off. You should know how this works by now. Okay, that's a pretty good silhouette. Now it's time to make this tree look more three dimensional by adding some highlights. Make your green brighter and shift the hue just a little bit toward yellow. Let's say the light comes from the left side, so that's where we make our highlights more frequent. Apply precise and thin brush strokes to create transitions on the individual branches. And using these highlights, you should also create new branches in the middle of the tree that just fall down a little bit, just as we've done it before, only more detailed. So you just add more of these branches. Notice, as you move downward, your branches become longer and the highlights bigger. In the end, I'm painting a few thin, completely random lines for detail. This easily works if you have a solid set of basic shapes as we have it here. Nice. So now let's add another layer of highlights for which we make the green brighter and shift the hue a bit toward yellow, just as always. And then just add one or two lines of these highlights on every branch on the left side. Maybe a few in the middle and none of these highlights on the right side, please. A Nice. So this is already a pretty solid coniferous tree, and we could say that we're done here. However, that would be a bit too easy, right? So it's time for our little twist. We're going to add snow to this tree. Yes, you have that right. And it's actually quite simple. Select a deep, desaturated blue like dark blue mixed with light gray. This is going to be the base color of our snow and what it will look like in the shadows. So we're going to start adding this base color to our whole tree, left and right side equally, so you don't have to think about light and shadow here. The only thing that's important is that obviously this snow only lies on top of these branches. So look at your individual layers and just put the snow on top of the branches. Also, make it fall down on the ends of the branches a little bit. So you have a little downward curve on every end of a branch. If you want more detail, you can also add more of these downward curves everywhere on the tree. That way, you can make it look like this tree has many, many individual small branches on which the snow rests. So we are pretty much painting the smaller branches by not painting them directly, but by painting the snow on top of them. And just like that, patiently work your way downward. It might take you some time, but you'll find that this process is actually quite relaxing. On the bottom, these downward curves on top of the branches should also get longer because the smaller branches get longer there. Okay, here we go. Once again, I'm adding a few thin random lines for detail this time with blue. Once your conifer looks something like this, it's time to add another layer of snow and this time with the more typical snow color, which is, well, white. But as you know, white is a very bright color. So it only appears in the parts that are lit by light, which in this case, is the left side of this tree. So add these white bra strokes on top of these blue bra strokes on the left side of the tree and make them less frequent the further you move to the right. Other than that, you can pretty much do the same thing as for the blue snow. Just make sure you don't cover it completely because otherwise it would have been a waste of time to paint it. Just a little bit of white on top to create these nice highlights. And this step might also take you some time depending on how big and detailed you've made your tree. But if you're a patient, it will definitely pay off because these very simple looking brush strokes will look very detailed and very nice in the end. Okay, now I'd finally say it looks pretty good. Now we can add many, many thin random lines on the left side of this tree. Well, not completely random. Most of them should still follow the direction of the branches and therefore fall down mostly. But you can also add a few completely random ones because we have a very solid basis for this tree structure. Nice. Look at this. That's an actual conifer. Now, let's go with some light blue and add a few light blue lines as well, just for a bit more detail and a more interesting color combination. This time, let's add these lines predominantly on the right side. They could represent a little bit of reflective lights. So this is it. An artwork with a snowy pine tree. So we have the conifers covered as well. I hope you enjoyed this one. I know painting conifers like this may be a little bit more boring than painting regular trees because these ones are just a bit more homogenous and don't have any super interesting branches or something like that. But that also means that there are no tricks and shortcuts here. How good your tree looks simply depends on how much time you invest into it. So yeah, do it well and move on to the next lesson. 23. Artwork - Savanna Tree: Artwork number four. Now we will paint a savanna tree. Those often have very unique structures, so they are perfect to play around with different levels of branches. We're going to paint this savannah tree a bit more abstract and freestyle to practice applying the skills that we've learned in this course in a flexible way. You don't only have to paint trees that are super realistic, but you can also have a little bit of fun. So right here, let's paint a tree that has wild branches and a really fancy texture for the tree trunk. Let's go. For this savannah tree, let's start with a sketch. Long level one branches that grow upward and then bend to the sides. Make them split up more and more and make them overlap a little bit. Maybe a round one and a few smaller ones. So you should end up with approximately three to four main groups of branches here. You don't need to sketch all the smaller branches. You just have to establish the main shapes of the tree. Now let's put some flat shapes for the foliage on top of them. These very classic savannah tree shapes. Alright, then it's time to indicate the thickness of the tree trunk. Let's make it slim and elegant, but not too thin, so we can put lots of texture on it later on. Just some thin lines with a pencil. Also, let's add some curly roots at the bottom. Okay. This is our finished sketch that we're going to use for this tree. Make sure that yours looks somewhat similar and once you got it, it's time to add some color to the tree trunk and the branches. First, fill the big tree trunk, the roots, and the level one branches with thick paint. Very simple. Some dark, semi saturated brown. I then paint some thin level two branches that grow a little bit more curved and wild. Make sure that as they split up from the level one branches, they first grow to the sides, and then in the end, they all go upward again. And they're all very chaotic, overlapping and split up more and more the further they grow. And, of course, always watch out that they get thinner and thinner. So create a classic, basic tree structure like this, but with many, many individual branches at the top, so it looks detailed. Okay, I guess this works. Now it's time to add the foliage with a big textar brush. We're going to start, of course, with very dark green that is a bit more on the yellow side. So it's savanna green, which seems like a solid choice for a savannah tree. So fill your shapes for the foliage with small chaotic brush strokes that go in different directions. Just touch the canvas very lightly and many times with your brush. Fill every single shape like this and don't brush it. Okay, then let's say the light comes from the top left. So let's add a layer of mid tones to the top left side and the middle of our foliage. Once again, create lots of texture with light brush strokes. Also, I'm trying to paint a little bit around these branches that appear in front of some of the foliage, but we can also fix them later on because I want this bundle of foliage to appear behind the branches. Nice. Then we can add another layer of foliage, just doing the same thing, but with a little bit brighter green. That is, of course, more on the yellow side. I really hope this is natural for you at this point. And then, same thing, once again, brighter green, more on the yellow side, and very small brush strokes this time because this is going to be the very detailed, very lit up foliage. And, of course, only at the very top of these shapes. Now, I'm going to leave the decision to you as a now competent tree painter if you want even more highlights, mid tones, or shadows. Just add more layers of foliage until you really like it. So once you're content with the foliage, as I am right now, let's turn back to the branches for a minute. Because we have to fix some of these branches that now appear behind the foliage. So I'm just painting over some of these branches. When you have complex three dimensional structures like this one, then you often have to switch back and forth between painting the foliage and painting the tree trunk and branches. Or if you paint digitally, you can also just use different layers, but it would be kind of unfair to the traditional painters. If I demonstrated it with layers here. So yeah, I think now it's good. After that, I'm adding a few more dark, very thin branches for detail, some of them on top of the foliage, so you can see them through. Just a few ones like this. And then we are ready to add a texture to the tree trunk. Let's first indicate approximately where the highlights and shadows are with a big texture brush. Then let's add a texture with round spots on top of it. First, very bright and desaturated ones. And in the shadow areas on the right side, of course, these spots get a bit darker and they get thinner and thinner until they are just lines on the very outside of the tree on these edges. I'm making these spots very light on the thinner branches, and I'm pretty much just scribbling little circles with my brush there. On this tree, add multiple layers with intense highlights and shadows and different versions of brown. I'm taking a long time for this tree trunk and these branches here, and I'm giving them a very detailed texture with many, many overlapping circles. Make your texture consistent on the whole tree, from the roots to the branches. Also, keep in mind the three dimensional aspect of your tree. So watch out which branches would cast a shadow onto other branches and how the shapes on top affect the lighting. So in the very end, I'm adding a lot more darkness to, especially the top parts of the tree because the foliage just doesn't let that much light through, as we've made it very dense. But you don't have to calculate super precisely, just a few more shadows where it would approximately make sense will already make this tree look pretty good. And I'm also making a few more adjustments to the tree trunk of my tree by adding a few very small, very bright circles for contrast. Then also some darker ones. As you can see, painting trees is a quite flexible process where you can generally switch back and forth between different parts of it. In the end, we have a quite detailed texture and a unique structure. So yeah, I would say this counts as a solid savanna tree. It's maybe a bit too saturated to be 100% realistic, but I like it. So paint a savanna tree like this and then move on to the next lesson where we create the last artwork of this course. And let me tell you that one's going to be really good. 24. Artwork - Autumn Tree: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fifth and final artwork of this course. It's been a long ride. There will be a few more lessons where I talk a little bit, but consider this the final test of the skills that you've acquired. For this one, I thought, let's make something special. Well, I think I've said this for almost every artwork so far, but it is what it is, and this time, I really mean it. Because we're going to paint an autumn tree in a very impressionist style, which means we're going to use many colors, lots of reflective lights, and lots of contrast. So let's go open up or take out your medium for painting. For this final artwork, we got to do it well. So let's start with a sketch. Start with a line that bends heavily to the side like this and has a few nice curves. And then let's immediately indicate the thickness of the tree trunk, which should start very thick but get thinner very quickly. Draw some big upward growing branches that slightly overlap. It should look like an old tree in the end that has not too many branches and bends to the side. Also, give it some roots at the bottom. So approximately like this. Then we can continue by filling the tree trunk and the branches with dark brown paint. Carefully complete this step by painting smaller and smaller branches by releasing the pressure on your brush. The branches should all be very curly and overlap, so it looks like a three dimensional structure. Don't forget about the very thin smaller branches as well that should follow the same style. And then let's actually contrast that by adding a few thin straight branches for detail. So the style of the structure is consistent. We have to add these branches everywhere on the tree where there are smaller branches. Okay, now we can paint some foliage. This time we're not going to start with dark green, but because this is an autumn tree with dark orange. So paint your foliage lightly with small chaotic brush strokes on top of the small branches. This time we didn't sketch any shapes for the foliage because it's not always necessary. We can just put this foliage where the smaller branches are, and we'll be fine here. This also works, especially for trees that are not super big and have many, many individual bundles of foliage, but maybe just a few ones like this one. So let's make this foliage consistent on the whole tree, and let's not make it too dense yet because we're going to add a few more layers to it. I would say this looks pretty good. So let's add a layer of highlights with the color yellow. Let's say the light comes from the top left, so you know what to do. Place your highlights on the top left side of each individual shape, or in this case, group of brass strokes and make these highlights less and less frequent the further you are on the bottom right. So now our foliage has become a lot more dense. Now let's add a layer of highlights using white. So we have some reflecting lights in these leaves, and therefore, lots of contrast. Just a little bit on the top left of these shapes. Then a little bit more yellow. And then a layer with very dark orange, so almost red to give this tree a few more detailed shadows. Notice, however, that you don't have to follow my exact process here. I'm just looking at the whole thing, and I think, Okay, maybe we need some highlights here and some shadows there, and I'm adding more and more layers until I like it. Maybe you already have lots of contrast and you don't need another layer of red or yellow or white. Your task here is simply to create foliage that you like, and that looks approximately like mine in terms of structure and colors. And you know very well how to create foliage by now, at least if you paid attention. All right. Once your foliage looks nice and maybe something like this, it's time to add a little extra to this tree. And by that, I mean a collection of small fruit. Now, in order to make our fruit visible in this very chaotic layer of foliage, we will use one of the most classic art tricks in history, which is using a complimentary color. So let's take some very, very dark blue and start painting a few. Well, which fruit is blue? Of course, plums. So let's paint many, many plums here. This is, by the way, how you make good decisions in art. You know, red apples would add pretty much nothing to our tree painting because they have the same color as the foliage, and you wouldn't really be able to see these apples. But plums, you know, blue and orange, that's pretty good. So here we go. Paint many small oval plums underneath the individual shapes for the foliage. Ideally, put them in small groups. You know how it works. And then we can add some highlights with a little bit brighter blue. But of course, only on the left side of the plums and only on the plums that are lit by light. So all the ones on the bottom right side of this tree don't need any highlights, and also the ones that would be covered by lots of foliage. Nice. Now I'm adding a few more yellow leaves to cover up some of these plums, but also to give the tree a bit more volume. And then as I've expanded far outside the tree, we need a little bit more red there for contrast. All right. Now it's time to add a few more detailed branches on top using very thin brush strokes. Move your brush very quickly to create these dynamic small branches. And let's add many of them just because they look nice. After that, it's time to add a texture to the tree trunk and the branches. I'm basically creating a texture with individual organic shapes that are a little bit vertical and follow the shape of the tree trunk, and I'm using a few slightly different colors to make it interesting. Remember that this tree will be quite impressionist in its style, so you can actually go crazy with the colours and add very saturated browns or even yellow or red here. Just try to stay on the warm side of the color wheel, and you should be fine. At least if you follow all the rules that we've talked about. I'm adding many layers of different colours here until I like it. And then let's add lots of reflective lights. This should never be missing in an impressionist artwork. And then I'm adding a few more darker and brighter brush strokes on the tree trunk for contrast. And of course, as it gets more detailed, I make my brush strokes smaller and smaller. And at this point, you could actually say that the tree is done if you like it. I'm just adding a bit more detail to the tree trunk, a few more layers of foliage, and that's pretty much it. Now, if you are very bold like me, then you can actually add some reflective lights to the foliage. So some blue brush strokes in the shadow parts. And because this is impressionism, you can even try out some very saturated blue like I'm doing it here. It's very risky because that's an intense color and you don't want to overdo these reflective lights. But if you do it well, it would look really awesome because of the high tension between the blue and orange parts. To make it consistent, I'm even adding some of the saturated dark blue to parts of the tree trunk. Impressionism is a really nice excuse to go crazy with the colors. In the end, I'm adding a layer of very dark red to the shadows to make them look more detailed and yeah, this is a very intense looking foliage. We wouldn't really find this exact tree in nature, but it still looks like a tree because we followed all the principles of this course. They're saying how you first have to master the basics of something and then you can play around with it and do crazy things. I like to think that this tree is an example for this. Anyways, we've done good work and created five very different looking detailed trees. They all differ in terms of structure in terms of color, in terms of detail and even the artistoric movement, we got some impressionism, realism, pointism, some comic style. So yeah, we know how to paint trees by now. That's the point of it all. So yeah, do your practice and follow the projects. I can't say it enough, and you'll arrive at a point where you're very comfortable living out any creative ideas for trees in any style. So this is it for the practical part of this course. You know precisely what you should practice if you want to be able to draw or paint any tree. I made sure we got it all covered. In the next two lessons, I got a little bit more theory for you regarding how to put your trees in perspective and how to add them to compositions. I think this is going to be interesting. 25. Trees in Perspective: All right. In this course, we've created many, many, many, many different trees, but they all have something in common, and that's that we've depicted them all from the side. But this is, of course, not how we always see trees. Very often, for example, if you go outside once in a while, you stand below a tree and you look upward, and then it looks very different than the things that we've created in this course. So trees in special perspectives is something that we have not really covered here. And it may seem like this is a totally different thing, and you're now unable to paint a tree from any perspective than from the site. So in this lesson, I want to talk about this. I'm going to explain why we have not created any trees in special perspectives, why that's no problem for the most part, and how you can create trees in special perspectives anyways. So let's go. In this course, we've looked intensely at the anatomy of trees. We've broken down what they usually look like and how you can use simple lines and shapes to create something that looks like a tree, and we've practiced all that immensely. You should know very well what a tree usually looks like and how it grows. Now, when you have a tree in an unusual perspective, it may look very different at first glance, but you know that it still has the same anatomy. You still know that the branches get thinner and thinner and they split up more on the outside of the tree, et cetera. Even if a tree is very foreshortened or it appears in a very weird perspective, it still follows the rules that we've talked about because it's still a tree. This course was about understanding and creating trees. So you have lots of skills and knowledge related to trees specifically. At least if you participated in the exercises that I've shown you. Perspective, however, is a totally different skill. Just as for trees, there are many, many different exercises and concepts that you can explore and practice to learn how to draw and paint in perspective. So this topic is simply too big to cover here as well. If you want to learn how to draw something from any perspective, you have to study perspective and practice it in particular. The topic is simply too complex. There are too many different options to develop any specific theories for trees in perspective. They just work the same as other three dimensional objects. In this course, obviously, we focused on trees specifically, and we've depicted them in the perspective that we find them by far the most often, which is from the side. Now to the important question that you've probably been asking yourself. Does this mean our skills are useless? If you want to depict a tree, for example, from below? The answer is, of course not. They are still very useful. You just need to combine your tree skills with your perspective skills that you've either already acquired or you will learn later. It's quite simple. If you look at tree from an unusual perspective, you can observe that it follows the rules of perspective and the rules of trees. This tree right here, for example, has very curly branches that grow to vortas. So these branches get thinner and thinner because, well, they are branches, but not as quickly as branches that grow in another direction like these ones because of foreshortening, which is a rule of perspective. Or look at this interesting picture of a tree. It may not look like a lot of the trees that we've created in this course, but it still follows the same rules. For example, the one with different levels of branches. You see, we got the level one branches that grow straight from the tree, and then we got the very thin level two branches that split up more and more and are a bit more chaotic. It's still the same thing, only that the level one branches spread out around the tree in a circular way because we look from below. The tree trunk right here is also a great example for this. You see, we got this texture with a dark spots that is, of course, consistent and bends around on the sides because of the cylindrical shape of the tree trunk, just as we've talked about. But it also follows foreshortening from perspective, so it gets very dense very quickly as we move up. You have to combine the skills of creating trees and using perspective case by case. This topic is very complex and there are no specific rules that I can give you, unfortunately. You have to become a master of trees and a master of perspective. If you really want to be able to draw and paint any tree from any perspective, it's often very hard to predict what happens in perspective. Right here, for example, we have this branch that follows the rule of well being a branch, and therefore it gets thinner and thinner. But it also follows the rule of foreshortening from perspective, so it gets bigger as it grows toward us. And in this case, these two rules cancel each other out. So it looks like the branch has the same thickness all the way. So you always have to take all the aspects from trees and from perspective into account, and that's the only way you can make it work if you want to make something that looks realistic. Now, before I let you go with a depressing conclusion that you have to study perspective, let me give you a tool that you can use to work around this a little bit and still be able to create trees in perspective. And that is, of course, using a reference. If you use a reference, you have no problems. You can just sit back, analyze and recreate what you see without thinking too much. And we've covered how to use a reference for a tree at the very beginning. You can easily apply this to trees in perspective. But here's an additional special tip for that that I find very useful. And that is, use a reference just for the perspective and get creative with the rest of the tree. You don't have to replicate a tree that you use as reference exactly. You can just recreate the structure and sketch it to get the perspective right, and then you add whatever texture to the bark you like, or whatever foliage you like. Just look at your reference to find out where to put all that stuff and how it reacts to the perspective. For example, the bark texture is foreshortened and gets smaller and denser as we move up, and the foliage spreads out around the tree because we look from below it. So you can get creative with the things that I've shown you in this course, and you don't have to understand a damn thing about perspective. Well, it's still useful to fill in some gaps with logic, but if you look closely, you can't really go wrong. So if you want to draw or paint a tree with perspective, look for a reference with this exact perspective. It doesn't need to have anything else in common with your tree like texture or types of leaves or curvature of the branches. You just use the perspective of the reference for the structure and composition of your tree, and then you fill in the rest with the skills from this course. I hope this makes sense to you. So this is how I would go about drawing and painting trees in perspective. A little bit of a special lesson here, but I just wanted to say that because, yes, it's definitely possible to apply the skills from this course to create trees in special perspectives by either using reference or learning perspective. All right. In the next lesson, let's talk about trees in composition and how to make them look good in groups. That's also a skill, see you there. 26. Trees in Compositions: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. You've made it to the final lesson of this course. Can you believe it? Right here, I just got a little bit of extra theory for you. That's very helpful, just like in the last lesson. We are still completely done with drawing and painting trees. You know how it works. You know what to practice, but there are still a few important things that you should definitely know about if you draw and paint trees. And that is how to arrange your trees and where to put them in your compositions. Yeah, composition is a big topic that I certainly can't cover in this lesson alone. But regarding trees, there are actually just a few things that I want to share with you, and it would be a shame to leave them out after talking about trees for such a long time. So let's go. First of all, let's talk about a tree that is the single focus point of your image, like, for example, the artworks from our artwork section. You know, a big detailed tree that you want to showcase on a canvas or piece of paper or whatever without anything else, really, like people or something. When you have a singular focus point, make it stand out using contrast, which means it must be different from its surroundings. This difference can be in terms of size, brightness, hue, shape, or other factors. There are many different ways to create contrast, and that's a separate topic. But notice that trees usually have high levels of detail, so their immediate surroundings should not have high levels of detail. You know, there is a lot happening on trees. We have different textures for the foliage, different colors on the tree trunk and the individual branches and highlights and shadows and everything. So from the perspective of composition, you can say that a tree appears like an intense collection of different patterns to the viewers of your artwork, and you need to be aware of that when you add other stuff to your artwork. Now, in this course, we've placed our trees only on white backgrounds because we just wanted to specifically focus on trees and not worry about anything else. So we had no issues with this topic. But when you make an actual artwork that has a tree in it and you, for example, start by painting a sky, then you wait until it dries, and then you place a tree on top of it, then you have to mind this. Your tree is a detailed focus point and you want to make it stand out using contrast. So you don't want much detail in the background around the tree. This is the point here. Make a very simplistic sky with a subtle color transition and just a few clouds that are not too high in contrast, if you want the viewers to actually look at your tree, or you can paint very distant desaturated mountains. The important thing is just don't put lots of contrast and detail like a pattern behind a tree that you want to be visible because trees have detail themselves and they just don't look good if there is even more detail in the background behind them. This is, of course, also the case if you add a background layer to a digital artwork. Just in traditional art, you have to think about this first because there you usually start with the background. Make your backgrounds very subtle, make the clouds very smooth. Don't add lots of contrast patterns and detail behind your trees. This also applies if your tree is maybe not necessarily the main subject, but just part of the foreground. It often just looks best if there is not much stuff behind your tree. I mean, you can make a tree stand out against a detailed background using other types of contrast like hue or value, but it's very hard and usually not the best idea. In general, the contrast of detail thing is a pretty big one. And the arrangement of the areas with highest detail is a defining factor for good compositions. So if you just make your tree stand out with very simplistic backgrounds, you're always on the safe side. Remember this. Alright. Now let's talk about putting trees in groups. If you draw or paint multiple trees in an artwork, don't just focus on making the trees look good individually. You can follow every single rule of this course and still make your trees look bad in practice because you don't know how to arrange them and your trees have no relationship between each other. So here's what you should do, starting with the basics. When you put multiple trees next to each other, give them a little bit of variation, and don't draw or paint the same tree over and over again. This should be a no brainer at this point, but I still wanted to mention it here because I actually see beginner artists do this once in a while. They just know how to paint exactly one tree. But for you, after watching this course, this is totally unacceptable. After all these lessons about how to build up trees, you should be able to come up with a slight variation for every new one that you add, even if it's the same type of tree. Like, make some trees with more or less branches, some taller ones, some wider ones, with longer or shorter branches, there are so many different things you can do, and you should do them if you place multiple trees of yours in a composition. Do not tell me that you can't come up with ten slightly different conifers for the background of one of your artworks. Just give them different heights and slightly different shading, and you should be fine. I mean, this is literally what this whole course is about, being able to create a huge variety of different trees and still making sure that they look good and realistic. So make use of all that practice and don't paint the same tree over and over again. Even if it's just in the background, add a little bit of variation, and it will look way better. But just adding variation to your trees is not enough to make them look good in groups. The way that your trees are grouped together and how they relate to each other also has to be natural and authentic. I can't believe that I actually have to say this, but I do see from time to time people that group their trees together when they're supposed to be in a forest, like it's a fricking alley. Just don't put the exact same space between your trees. Make them overlap, group some of them together, make some of them stand out or something. Just look at the space between your trees and make sure it's not all the same. Alright, then what else do we have? Obviously, different levels of contrast for trees that are in different parts of the picture. For example, you should add less contrast and less detail to the trees in the background than to the trees in your foreground. That's just a classic rule of composition that doesn't make an exception for trees. However, here's another interesting thing about trees specifically that you can use to make them look more natural in groups. And that is look where a tree gets the most light to determine where most of its branches are. Remember when I told you that branches always grow to the light. This is true, and this is interesting effects when trees appear in groups. For example, when trees appear in very large groups, which we call a forest, then they get very little light from the sides. So they usually grow more tall and upward because that's the only way they can get to the light. Just go outside and you can observe this everywhere. You don't really find trees like this one in a forest because they don't get enough light to develop this spherical shape with branches that grow all around the tree. This can pretty much only happen to a tree that is free standing on a field or something. Even oak trees that we usually know as these curly white trees with branches that grow in all directions around the tree, they are actually pretty slim and tall if they grow in a forest. Now, I don't want this to be a biology lesson, but this is useful to know if you paint trees in large groups like a forest. But now it gets really interesting. When you have trees that are on the side of a big group, like on the edge of a clearing or right next to a road, then these trees have branches that pretty much exclusively grow to that light part where there are no more trees. They grow away from the group and toward the light. This is very important to understand. Look at this, for example, this big tree here has pretty much only branches that grow to the right side and not the other. Because where we stand in this photo behind the trees, there are probably way more trees and light pretty much never comes from this direction. The branches of this tree think, well, it's not really worth it growing there. Now, this doesn't happen on every single road in every clearing because it also takes time for trees to grow. If you cut a new clearing, then the branches of the trees don't immediately fall over to one side. It does take the branches some time to readjust, but it happens at some point. So when you create a group of trees, don't only watch out that they have a little bit of variation and different spacing between them, but also give the trees on the edge branches that grow away from the group and tub of the light and let the trees in the middle of the group grow more tall and upward. This will pretty much always result in a more realistic composition of your trees, and they just look better that way. You can of course practice this by putting simple trees in groups like I'm doing it here. But at the very least, you should remember this principle until you need it. So these were my tips for how to make trees look more natural and just better together. Now a few words about using trees for framing in compositions. This is where it gets really professional because trees are not just something that is nice to have with a few patterns and detail, but they can actually enhance a composition immensely if they are used well. And in my opinion, this is pretty much the best reason for why you should learn to paint any tree without a reference because then you can always create a tree that absolutely perfectly fits your composition and does stuff like framing the character, for example. You can use branches or tree trunks to authentically frame a focus point to make it appear even more important and direct attention. Trees are a perfect, flexible tool to not only fill a picture, but purposefully fill a picture and enhance the composition. Now, how trees and branches can be used to interact with a focus point and how they can frame stuff is too big of a topic to cover here because that goes into composition itself. But just try to see trees as a flexible tool. They're not like a house that always looks the same, but you can add so much variation to them that they always perfectly fit your picture in terms of color, composition, shape language, and stuff like that. This is why you should practice everything in this course, so you have the complete toolkit, and then you can experiment with it. Finally, there is one more specific tip that I want to give you, and that is that big detail trees are usually an eye catcher because they have many patterns and lots of contrast. So when you make an artwork and you have a detailed tree somewhere in the foreground, but you also want the viewer to look at something else in the tree, then you have to make that something else stand out too. For example, by using this tree to frame it and putting a bit of space between it and the tree or by giving that focus point even more contrast. For example, by using a complimentary color. So this is it. I hope this lesson was at least a little bit helpful to you and not too abstract and theoretical. I mean, the main point of this course was still to just get you some practice on drawing and painting different trees, and what you ultimately do with them is up to you. But I still wanted to give you some tips and tricks for what works and what not according to my experience. 27. Outro: Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that's it. This was how to draw and paint any tree. I hope you enjoyed the course. This took me a very long time to put together. So I'd be grateful to see feedback of any kind. Leave a review and tell me whether I wasted your time or not. I'd really like to know. Was this course helpful to you? Did you participate in the exercises? Did you learn how to draw and paint trees from the ground up, or are you perhaps a more experienced artist and just wanted to learn a few more specific things about trees, where you may be only interested in drawing or painting. Did you enjoy the artworks or are you perhaps disappointed? Do you think we've covered a good variety of trees or do you think we're liking something important? Was the theory helpful or did I maybe talk a bit too much or too little? Did you enjoy the style in which I taught, or would you have wished for more fast paced editing or maybe more uncut sections of me just drawing or painting? And do you plan on repeating some of the exercises? Would be super awesome if you could answer at least some of these questions when you leave your review. I can always add another lesson in case many people report the same thing and wish for something that's missing this course. So tell me if there is something. Other than that, thank you so much for being here and sharing interest in this topic that I've spent such a long time on researching, practicing, planning, breaking the whole thing down, and making it digestible with my mediocre English skills and also developing some of these new concepts and principles and trying to explain them, because there are quite a few things in this course that I couldn't find anywhere else, but they just make sense to me, and I use them in my drawing and painting process, like the thing with different levels of branches, for example, so, yeah, there is a lot of stuff here, and I hope it didn't feel too overwhelming, but still structured. Feel free to share your work and upload it to the website because I'm very interested to see what you got there. So, absolutely, make sure you leave a review and share your results would be awesome. Also, I want to give a big shouter to pixels.com and pixabay.com for the stock footage that I've used in this course. I mean, I would have taken a long time and had to travel very far if I were to collect all these images and videos of trees in different angles myself. So yeah, these websites saved me a lot of time, and I can recommend them if you need a reference for your drawing and painting. So this is it for the course. Keep practicing, keep improving. If something doesn't feel good yet or you're not super comfortable with one step, then I'm pretty sure you just need to repeat some of these exercises more intensely. And yeah, that's the way to go. There is no quick fix, no shortcuts. You watch this course once you're a master of trees, but this is how you do it. This is the process that you need to go through if you want to build up this specific skill. So that's everything I have to say. Thank you for your patience. I hope you have a very good day and have fun creating any tree you like. Cheers.