Chapter 4 | TREES WITH FOLIAGE

In reality a group of leaves arises from one of the arms of the tree. The groups lie in front and behind each other because a tree is not a flat thing. Here’s a way to learn how to draw a tree with large groups of leaves in five steps:

Exercise 1:

Draw each step before moving on to the next step.

Step 1: above the trunk you draw as lightly as possible circles right through each other. The circles don’t have to be perfect! Each circle represents one group of leaves.

Step 2: now choose one circle that will be in front and erase the lines of the underlying circles. I’ve done this with the circle in the middle, just above the trunk. Can you see the difference between step 1 and step 2? Your eraser now becomes a drawing tool!

With an eraser you determine which circle lies in front of the other

Step 3: now choose in the other circles (groups of leaves) which are in front and which are behind. Each time erase the lines of the underlying circle.

Step 4: make the remaining lines as light as possible again with your eraser. Then make the outline of each circle leafy. It doesn’t have to be tight along the edge of the circle and just let the leaves point in all directions.

Step 5: draw more leaves in each group. Let them point in different directions.

EXTRA: add shadow using grayscale (everything between black and white) or color. It is useful to start with a light color first. Where groups of leaves dissapear behind another, make them a little darker.

In Exercise 1 I started with circles as basic shapes but different types of trees may of course have other basic shapes. Later you can make those basic shapes leaf-like again. In this way you can even make a real Christmas tree (the bottom two).

Exercise 2: draw as lightly as possible the following models of trees. If you want to make the basic shapes more leaf-like, it is useful to view some photos of the type of tree. In a weeping willow, for example, the leaves point downwards like tears. Color the tree as you like.

Christmas tree

Trees

Chapter 4 | TREES WITH FOLIAGE

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