Drawing & Painting Trees in the Landscape PDF
Preview Drawing & Painting Trees in the Landscape
drawing & painting in the trees landscape Claudia nice Table of Contents Introduction CHAPTER 1 beginning with pencil and pen CHAPTER 2 foliage colors and techniques CHAPTER 3 creating textured tree trunks CHAPTER 4 rugged evergreen landscapes CHAPTER 5 portraying the graceful hardwoods CHAPTER 6 spring flowering trees CHAPTER 7 the splendid colors of autumn CHAPTER 8 the beauty of winter contours Index About the Author Dedication Introduction “To every thing there is a season” … and the seasons are reflected most vividly in the branches of the deciduous trees. Spring brings swelling buds, tender leaves, and blossoms that vibrate with the hum of insects. The beauty of renewed life beckons us out of doors. Some of us are clutching cameras and sketching tools. As spring slips into summer, the deciduous trees sheathe themselves in foliage cloaks. The variety of leafy hues is almost endless. On our painting palette, yellows, blues and flecks of red are swirled together to produce olive green, chartreuse, emerald, viridian, and most everything in between. But alas, summer is fleeting and before the oil paint is fully dry on our pastoral treescape, the fruit is ripening in the orchard and the squirrels are gathering nuts. Autumn arrives with fire in her hair. The trees reflect the radiant hues and excite our senses with burning color. Eagerly we dab and swish into our favorite painting medium, striving valiantly to capture the splendor of the fall scene. Subtly, leaf by leaf, the glory in the crown of the trees drifts to the ground. Winter glides in on a crystal snowflake and the deciduous trees bow before her unadorned. Each defect, twisted limb and textured length of bark is displayed for us to contemplate and set down in detail. Pencil and pen move deliberately over the paper to suggest wood grains and knotholes. When our senses weary of grays and browns, the evergreen trees come to the rescue. This is their season of grandeur. They stand like noblemen, richly-clad green boughs stretched above the sleeping earth. They add life to our drawings and paintings as we work near the warmth of the hearth, whether in home or studio, and look forward to the coming of spring. This book is about trees and how they relate to the landscape in all seasons. It’s a guide, intended to help you get better acquainted with trees artistically, so you can relax and have fun as you sketch and paint them. Just as the seasons change, so do the moods and colors of the trees. There is not one “perfect” medium or painting style with which to depict them. Therefore, within the pages of this book, you’ll find leaf, limb and bark techniques in a variety of mediums and styles. Choose your favorite or broaden your horizons and try them all. If finding the perfect foliage and bark hue has caused you anxiety in the past, the simplified color mixing charts included in each chapter and alongside each project will show you how to master the creation of color. I’ve heard it said that sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees, but by increasing your observation skills and simplifying what you see, you can learn to see both tree and forest clearly and paint them as well. I invite you to walk with me down the wooded path, through the seasons, and we’ll share the adventure of drawing and painting trees. CHAPTER 1 beginning with pencil and pen The texture of deeply grooved bark, the warped grain of weathered branches and the massed thickness of overlapping leaves can be eloquently described with the stroke of a pencil or pen. It can be done simply, using just a few suggestive lines and scribbles or worked in intricate detail, as illustrated by the drawings of the rugged fir tree on the facing page. Since most pencil and pen drawings are finished in tones of gray and black, the most important factor in creating a good representation of the subject is line and tonal contrast. The mark or line made by the drawing tool is responsible for defining the edge and overall shape of the subject, its roughness or smoothness, and its stance or movement. The darkness of the mark and how close the lines are drawn together is responsible for creating contrast of value—the relative gray and black tones in the drawing. It’s the value contrast that lends the drawing a three-dimensional appearance, by describing the form shadows, cast shadows and the surface texture. Consider the drawings of the walnut shown below. Figure 1 is a simple line drawing describing the general shape of the subject. From those few lines we can conclude that it’s a rounded, centered object divided into sections, with hard, smooth edges. Its identity is still rather vague. Figure 2 has a few additional lines, which tell us that the surface of the object is covered with smooth bumps. It’s starting to reveal itself as a drawing of a nut. In figure 3, value contrast has been added. The inner shape of the walnut, the surface shadows and texture, are now fully defined. The cast shadow beneath the nut lets us know that it’s resting on a smooth surface. This chapter is designed to get you started with the basics. It will show you how to turn a few pencil lines into the beginnings of a tree and how to add the texture and shadework that will bring it to life. So gather your sketching supplies and let’s get started.
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