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 . . .