How to Sketch & Draw Trees - Understanding the Fundamentals

What's going on everybody, Brandon Schaefer here. I'm going to talk about trees just in a general sense today and kind of give you kind of my thoughts on trees and how to go about drawing them because they can be pretty difficult. And there's many different kinds of trees but generally speaking, you know, when we think of trees we kind of have to break them down into what they are. There's a trunk, tree trunk, which is the base of the tree, what keeps the tree standing, as well as the roots, root system, underground, and what happens with the tree. So usually the widest point of a tree, this is generally speaking, is at its base. This is going to be the widest point and as the tree grows up to the top, it kind of grows back and forth in this rhythm. But what happens is it tapers off. It eventually gets smaller and smaller and smaller. And if we want to see this in a larger, more dramatic sense, the bottom trunk can be very big. So if we get rid of that line, this is kind of how a tree grows for the most part. Large trunk at the bottom, as it grows up, up, up, it tapers off. Not only does it taper off at the top, it can also have other main branches. So it can have other larger branches branching off. And guess what? These branches as well taper to a point. Once they get to the final end, they taper off into a very small point. And so on and so forth. Same with the smaller and even smaller branches. It just keeps happening. There's this taper that happens with trees. So that's one way to make your trees appear realistic. Like I said earlier, in a general sense, the trunk is the widest point there, but there is cases where there's a lot of branches. If there's a lot of branches coming off this tree right at this point, the tree can actually get kind of wide right here. It can become almost wider than the bottom. And you'll see this sometimes, but as long as you keep this taper throughout the trunks, it doesn't matter how wide this point is because it'll just come across naturally as it working. So I hope this makes sense. So as the tree grows and grows, you can have branches coming out of all different areas. It's best to look at reference photos online or look outside of trees and try to just get ideas for how branches grow from trees. Another thing to keep in mind is that a tree is a three-dimensional surface. So it's kind of like a sphere if you want to think of it as a sphere. So all the way around this thing, there's branches coming out toward you that taper like that, taper real short. And there's branches that branch off to the side like this one coming out. There's branches that come out. There's branches that go back. So they go from the back into the distance. So those are kind of like the ones that come toward you. So those are going to be shorter branches, something like this. So that could either be coming toward us or going pointing backwards. So you want to keep that in mind when you're drawing these trees. It's not just a fan shape like this. It's actually this three-dimensional object, this sphere. But like I said, trees have many different shapes and there's a lot involved with trees. There's different balances. So some trees can be kind of like this one where they kind of just grow and it kind of grows in this spherical sort of shape. You know, and then of course there's leaves on top of that. There's different foliage and things happening. Other trees can kind of grow, you know, kind of off to one side like this and then have a major branch coming out the other way. So they can kind of have this leaning effect with different branches growing. I mean, it's just you have to observe trees in nature. There's a lot of different elements of trees and aspects of how they grow. Let's flip another page here. So when you think about it, every tree has kind of its own personality and that's kind of what you want to capture. It's kind of like capturing the likeness of a portrait. And of course there's all different kinds of trees. There's redwoods that are, you know, some of the biggest trees, whether it's a kind of, you know, just this big massive tree. And they can all be, all have different things going on. Some of them can have burrows and different kind of growths coming out that are kind of this spherical type of growth. You know, some of them can have deep gashes in them from scarring from fires. And so they can have this character to them that is unique kind of to redwoods. And the branches kind of come out like this all down the sides of the trees. And of course there's foliage coming off like this. But my point is, you know, there's all different types of trees. Baby trees, smaller trees can have just, you know, they're just this kind of skinny small trunk. They can have other branches coming off. But most time you'll see them to have longer branches at the bottom and as it goes up smaller and smaller depending upon the tree. So each tree has its own character, its own personality, and you kind of want to capture that. There's other trees that, like we were talking about earlier, they kind of grow in this spherical kind of shape with a few sky holes and different branches. And that kind of tapers all the way up and kind of fans out. And really the best way to get good at drawing trees is to draw trees as much as you can, especially from life. Just look outside and start drawing trees. Start, you know, playing around drawing different branches, different sections of branches. Like if you just get used to figuring out how branches look and what kind of things can occur on a branch, you'll start to realize that you can kind of create these on your own and make it look somewhat realistic. It's all about just getting that form correct and understanding the principles of trees and how they react, you know, without how they look without leaves. How is foliage going to look on these trees? Each tree has its own different kinds of foliage. Also another thing, just to keep your drawings interesting, if you're doing like tree studies or, you know, a whole what I do with my paintings, what I try to remember is something John Carlson said in his book. So if you have your painting or drawing in this square, try not to make, unless you're doing like pine trees or some kind of tree that's small and skinny and straight, try not to make your trees parallel to the edges of your canvas or your sketchbook or your paper. So what that means is each tree, try to have it lean one direction. Make it have a bias towards is it going to go, you know, to this side, this side. You know, if all your trees are straight up and down like this, there's not really any movement going on. Now, it doesn't mean you can't ever draw trees like that because there are instances like pine trees and things that are pretty much straight up and down. But it doesn't hurt to, you know, throw in some that have a little more character and, you know, kind of slightly lean them to one side, something like that. So just keep that in mind when you're drawing trees. You'll start to see these things, all these details and things when you're out drawing them. But mainly it's just about having fun and doing your best at capturing all the different little nuances of each tree, the branches, the foliage. Every tree has different things. So anyway, I hope this helped you to begin sketching trees and start drawing them. It's something that I love to paint and I always try to draw them when I can and paint them. And I've done a lot of redwoods and things. So I'm looking forward to going more in depth and to doing a whole series on drawing trees and shading them, creating the values, just going more in depth. I'm doing a whole series on drawing trees and landscapes and forests and all kinds of things. So anyway, if you'd like to support me, you can support me on Patreon. Just check the link below in the description. Anyway, thank you for watching and I hope to see you in the next video. Take care. Peace.