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Thursday, August 23, 2012

SKETCHBOOK ASSIGNMENT: Trees & Leaves -- 10 Exercises to Try

For our next theme, Trees & Leaves, we'll start out working in our sketchbooks again.  So, grab your pens and pencils, sketchbooks, and a few colored pencils, brushes, and watercolor paints, and head outside for some nature drawing.  Save the inside exercises for a rainy day . . .



1)  Draw a scene, with trees in your yard, in pen.  Then, add some color with your watercolors.  Write about your experience, in one sentence, on your page . . .





Now, go for a little hike or walk.  Stop at a place that appeals to you, and draw some of the trees in ink.  Write about where you are, and then add some color with watercolor -- either on the spot, or after you return home. . . 







2)  Draw a bird's-eye view of a plant -- either a houseplant or a plant in your garden.  Draw this in pencil, and then add some color with colored pencils. . . 






Do another bird's-eye view of a plant -- this time, draw a contour drawing in pen . . . 








3)  Draw one or two trees, like fruit trees.  Simplify the shapes -- draw clumps of leaves and not individual leaves.  Add values with shading, to get some depth.  Draw some with pencil . . . 





This time, try drawing a tree with a ballpoint pen . . . 







4)  In ink, draw some plants in pots or planters, on your deck or patio -- or a friend's plants.  Place special emphasis on the leaves, rather than the flowers.  Paint in a little color, and remember to note where you are, on the page . . . 











5)  Draw a tree, concentrating on the trunk and the branches, and any cast shadow that you see.  Try to ignore the leaves.  Use a black ballpoint pen for this one, using cross-hatching and line work for your light/medium/dark values, and write a little something about where you are . . . 






Now, draw another tree -- this time in pencil.  Draw a frame around it, letting some of the branches spill out of the frame. . . 







6)  Draw a leafy plant, with a black ballpoint pen -- start with a contour drawing, and add a little cross-hatching for your values.  Then, write a few sentences about your day, on the page . . . 











7)  Draw some palm trees, in ink.  Add cross-hatching for the shapes that are in the shade.  In this drawing, just have two values -- the white of the paper for all the shapes that are in the sunlight (plus the sky), and a middle value of cross-hatching, for all the shapes in the shade.

If, like me, you don't live around any palm trees, use a photo -- one you have taken on vacation, or one from a magazine. . . 







8)  Do a contour drawing of a plant, with a black felt pen -- no pencil first, and no cross-hatching. . . 










9)  When you're camping, or on a hike or walk, find an interesting piece of petrified wood, or a stick, or  some driftwood on a beach.  Draw this with a black felt pen that is NOT waterproof (or a pen called "Elegant Writer").  When you are through with your drawing, use a wet brush on some of the lines, allowing them to bleed -- a great way to add some shading  . . .  






Using this same pen, draw a scene with trees and bushes, near your campsite or picnic site, or in your backyard . . . 








10)  Gather some leaves from your trees  -- and draw them in pencil, within a skinny vertical format.  Overlap the leaf shapes, and be aware of the negative shapes that you are creating.  Try to make these negative shapes interesting and varied . . . 
















5 comments:

  1. When you use a black ink pen, do you spray a fixative on it after you've drawn or traced your picture? Is it just a waterproof ink? Loved these drawings and examples, and have to tackle these. Love the idea of using the felt pen and letting it bleed through. Thank you so much for these great examples.

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    1. Gosh, sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I don't spray a fixative on black ink. It just depends on what kind of pen you use, whether it bleeds or not. Flair pens and Elegant Writer pens bleed when wet. Sharpies do not.

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  2. This is wonderful! It helps me overcome my artist's block.

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    Replies
    1. Sometimes, it only takes a suggestion or two, to break through a block -- glad this helped!

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  3. Really appreciate your work. This helps me a lot. I also found some newly added sketches of leaf on a youtube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd6xANmbqgHQzSvrjyo5XoQ .
    Thank You friends, your tutorial helped me a lot :)

    Regards,
    Ranu Chandra

    ReplyDelete