How to Draw Trees

Hi everyone and welcome to this drawing video. In this video I want to show you how to draw trees. I'll show you a few different examples of trees that I like to use in some of my landscape drawings and I will also just give some advice and tips along the way. In terms of the materials, I like to use HB and 2B pencils for the outlines and then later on for the shading I was using 4B and 6B pencils. To smooth some of the shading I was using a blending stick and then to add some highlighting along some of the leaves and bark I was using a small eraser. But please don't worry at all about any of the equipment you have, as long as you have any pencil and any paper in front of you, you'll be able to work on this drawing and create something similar. As you can see for this small oak tree I started by roughly sketching the trunk and some of the main branches and my advice when you're working on this stage is to have a very light grip on the pencil, working on some very light outlines. You don't want to add any dark outlines for a drawing like this, starting with very basic sketches to begin with and just slowly developing the shape. In terms of references, I highly recommend going outside and taking some photos. I've recently been doing it a lot and it's such a fun and rewarding process to get those references and then put them into your work. I've found that doing things this way has also helped me to notice more detail, like I wanted to add that knot in the tree towards the bottom. I was really looking forward to adding some shading to this. In terms of the branches, don't think too much about how exactly you want the branches to look. It will benefit your drawing so much if you have a relaxed hand and a relaxed wrist and you approach it much more organically, just working on each branch as you get to it. If you do have any reference images in front of you, I really recommend not to copy them. It's so nice to use photos for inspiration and that also helps with the relaxing aspect of it, because if you are thinking too much about the process, I find this ends up making the drawing look a lot more awkward and planned. If you're being much more relaxed with a light grip on your pencil, you can create all these interesting and natural shapes. When it came to working on the shading of this tree, I was imagining that the sun was shining from the left and so I would need to place the shadows on the right side. So starting from the roots of the tree first and working my way upwards, I started placing the dark shading towards the right of each of the segments of the bark and trying to add some twists and shapes to the texture of the bark by placing some of that dark shading and then blending across it with my blending stick. It also helped in some areas towards the left side of the tree to use my small Tombow mono eraser to add some sharpened, highlighted, erased sections along the left. That contrast between the dark shading and the highlighted side of the tree is what really adds a lot of shape and depth to the drawing. It's also important to make sure that the texture of the bark follows the shape of the tree, so in areas where the branches have trailed off from the main trunk, that's where the texture should kind of twist and then form to the shape of the branch. When it's time to work on the leaves, I strongly recommend not working on each individual leaf, mainly because it will drive you crazy, but also because it will end up making the drawing look a lot less natural and much more awkward. I recommend holding your pencil almost flat to the paper, like you can see me doing here, and with little relaxed movement with my hand, I let the side of the lead touch the paper in random places to create the idea of lots of leaves. I love the texture it creates and I think it's a really great way to work on trees like this without having to start working on all the individual details that would end up driving someone crazy and it would end up taking a lot more time. So just creating the texture like this is, I think it's much more effective in creating a more natural look to your drawing. With this oak tree completed, I made sure to place some grass at the bottom, along with some shading, remembering that the sun is shining from the left. Next up, I'm going to show you my example of a silver birch. So the same process to begin with, with a light grip on the pencil, with a relaxed hand and adding some faint outlines of the main trunk of the tree. The main trunk of the tree actually becomes very elongated towards the top. The branches have much more of an upward angle as well, especially towards the top. I think it's also really important to remember that trees aren't symmetrical, so in nature you'll see all these really random and interesting and amazing shapes. They're all unique and I think that's the beautiful thing about it. You can follow the fundamental ideas of what a tree should look like, so with the silver birch it's elongated towards the top and the branches are angled upwards. Those are the basic ideas, but then you can build upon that with all your own random shapes and I think that's what I've really loved about working on drawings like this recently, where I have the freedom of choice and just adding all these details like broken branches and knots in the wood. You can add lots of your own details. When I finished sketching the main trunk and the branches of the tree with my 2B pencil, that's when I brought out the sharpened HB pencil again to start adding the finer details towards the end of each branch. The interesting thing about silver birch trees is the branches kind of curve downwards towards the end. With the weight of the leaves, they start to have a bit of a curve, so that's what I added with the HB pencil. With the outlines of the silver birch completed, it was then time for me to work on the shading and I was really looking forward to this because I love working on the bark of a silver birch tree. It's so interesting and so different from all other trees. I started by thinking about the sun shining from the left, so I wanted to add some light shading on the right side of the tree and then blended that with a blending stick. Adding some sharp lines streaking across the tree and blending some of them with a blending stick, also adding some knots and some patches where old branches have fallen off, and having these darkened patches really contrasting the bright white of the bark of the tree. And just continuing this process all the way up the tree and at the same time working on the branches as well, adding a mid-tone shading to them along with some darkened shading, just always considering the light source. Then before it was time to start adding the leaves, I decided to add a few more sharp details with the HB pencil and making sure to add a few twigs hanging from each of the branches. For the leaves I followed the same process as I did for the first drawing, where I used the side of the pencil lead with a relaxed hand and just quick random motions with my hand and just letting the side of the lead touch the paper in random places to just create the idea of lots of leaves. In this case I wanted the leaves to be following the twigs dangling from each of the branches, so it's a bit different from my first drawing where the leaves were just following the main shape of the branches themselves. And then after that, with the silver birch completed, I added the grass and the shading underneath. Next up I'm going to work on a couple of evergreens. These are the types of trees I love to add to my misty forest scenes, and my process for creating them is very different than the previous two drawings. In this case I like to start from the top first and work my way down, and I begin by using a 6B pencil just from the top of the tree and sketching downwards, adding layers and branches, in this case angling the branches upwards, trying not to make it all symmetrical, adding a bunch of different random ideas and shapes and working my way with this sketching all the way down towards the bottom of the tree. Then once that sketching is completed, I then use my blending stick to blend the details towards the centre. And then to add the next layer of details on top of this base layer of shading I've just added, this is where I use the sharpened lead of my HB mechanical pencil, pressing quite hard to create some dark lines, and starting from the top of the tree first, and much like the previous two tree drawings, I want to create the idea of details without actually working on the individual branches and leaves themselves. I'm trying to just create all these sharpened details that kind of create the illusion of detail within each layer, and I just continue this process all the way down the tree drawing. And at the same time I'm adding the trunk of the tree between all the layers as well, and this really helps to add to the depth. It's such a fun process because you don't have to follow any particular pattern, you don't have to follow any particular example or any references, just add lots of random sharp details to each layer of the tree, and it just develops this awesome and natural look. For the other kind of evergreen tree that I like to add to my misty forest scenes, it's the same process again, but for this example I angle the branches downwards, and so you can see I add the base layer first with the 6B lead, and then blend over the top of it, and then I use the sharpened HB mechanical pencil to add the sharpened details, making sure that it's not symmetrical, adding a bunch of random shapes and interesting details, also adding the trunk in between all the layers, that really again helps to add to the depth. And if you wanted to add some lighting to these trees you could use the small eraser to add some highlighting to each of the different layers, and that's another process that could add more depth to the drawing. To finalise these drawings I then made sure to add the grass underneath along with some shading. I really really hope this helps out in some way, as I mentioned before it's all about having a relaxed hand and working in a much more organic way to create a more natural looking drawing, and also in terms of symmetry you don't want your drawing to look too symmetrical, you want to create some unique and exciting shapes. Please let me know what you think, and also let me know if you have any suggestions for future drawing videos. If you'd like to see more drawing videos like this then make sure you're subscribed, and any likes or shares, they really mean a lot to me. If you would like to follow my progress, and see progress photos before I post these videos, then make sure to check out the links in the description box below, check out my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And once again thank you so much for watching this, and thank you so much for the support, I really appreciate it. I hope you're having an awesome day, and I'll see you all soon.