Tree branch

[Lpostma]

Hi Mike,
I've attempted to draw part of a tree branch. My brain is firmly not thinking tree no matter what I seem to tell it. I studied pictures of trees, as we're in the middle of winter over here.
I attached my attempt, forgive the not great quality, my scanner and I are not friends, haha, and my phone camera is even worse.
Anything I can do to make it better?

Thank you!

Luzia

[Mike Sibley]

I've attempted to draw part of a tree branch. My brain is firmly not thinking tree no matter what I seem to tell it. I studied pictures of trees, as we're in the middle of winter over here.

There's a quote in my book that says, "If you can't draw hair, it's because you don't know what hair looks like". That you studied pictures - never a bad idea - tends to suggest that without them, you don't have a clear idea of what trees look like. There's nothing wrong about that, and it's a perfectly human trait. I mean, why would you ever need to know that? Certainly not to recognise something as being a tree.

In time, you'll find that will fix itself. It's an ARTIST thing. The more you draw, the more you begin to study the world around you, so the more you can recall details as you draw. I find it quite magical.

So, I think what could be improved here is recession. You have created leaf shapes in a wonderful variety of shapes and positions. But, I believe, you concentrated on those shapes without seeing them as being real leaves. Or you possibly didn't think about the direction of the light. Also, banish outline. There are quite a few leaves in this that depend on outline for their shapes. Outline is completely unnatural, so try to avoid using it.

I corrected the balance of your scan and that has increased the contrast to bring out some recession, but I often find that exaggeration can work wonders in a drawing. So, I attempted to work on an area or two for you, but the scale is too small for anything meaningful to show... so I abandoned it. Sorry!

LUZIA-tree-branch1.jpg

Push the contrast as much as you can. For example, your leaves could have darker backs than their glossier fronts. This is your world, so you can decide these things.

I also noticed that a lot of your leaves are shown in their entirety. And where you did attempt to mass some together, you lost the sense of them being leaves because of soft edges. Keep your edges sharp. Your masses of leaves seem to blend into one large shape. But sharp edges will help our eyes see individual leaves rather than a mass. My solution to this is to draw one or two foreground leaves with very sharp edges, lighter than the midground leaves, and displaying an obvious leaf shape. The idea is that the viewer's eye will instantly recognise those leaves and automatically assume all the shapes behind them are also leaves. Like this:

LUZIA-tree-branch2.jpg

The shapes behind those leaves only need to be vaguely leaf-shaped. Which reminds me that one common error you can make it to be too detailed. Little in Nature is fully understandable most of the time. And in the case of grass, plants and trees, it’s usually the foreground leaves that tell us what the rest of the mess behind them is.

[Lpostma]

Thanks for the reply! Yes you are definitely correct, I do not know trees, haha. I live surrounded by them, have studied them but have never truly made sense of them. But I'm determined, I've been afraid to draw them and I have drawings to do with trees. So learn I must!
Light source is another thing for me too. I sometimes just pretend it doesn't exist, which doesn't work out too well for me, haha.
Ok, I will try again. Bare with me!
Would it be better to learn on a larger size then scale down for my drawings once I've mastered it? It is quite small at the moment.
Thank you!

[Lpostma]

Hi Mike,

Ok I have tried it again, thinking more tree. I think I am starting to understand, but feel like I still have a ways to go.
New scanner finally ordered! Soon my drawings will look like they do in real life, I hope anyways.

Thanks!

[Mike Sibley]

LUZIA-tree-branch3.jpg

What a difference! It struck me immediately how alive this is.

That extra contrast has helped greatly in providing depth and recession. And I sense your thinking had less to do with LEAF than telling us about how you saw the leaves - the way they related to each other, and were twisted in the light.

Don't overthink detail. What works for me - and you too now - is to present one or two obvious leaves in each area, and then create freely behind them. All the viewer needs to see is the obvious leaves to understand the rest are also leaves.

[Lpostma]

Oh fantastic! Ok, thank you for your help! I'm hoping to do a full tree next. I watched your tree video again, so will give it a go.