How to draw a tree

using mix media , ink, water color, ext.

Hello Everyone, can’t believe it is march already! spring is approaching, my two little birds is singing tirelessly every morning at my balcony. In this month’s post, I would like to invite you to draw a tree/ trees. I will share my detailed process and explained how I use my sketch book to help me explore the style. I will show the whole process from very rough early sketches to the final artwork. So ready? let’s go.

Single color to start

I start my experiment with only ink. sometimes it is quite stressful to think of a beautiful color palettes. So to warm up our hands, I try to use the most simple color and tools. I don’t know if you have try this fun technique or not? When i was a kid, I remember I used to drip ink on the paper and blow a tree. It is so much fun, and the image seems to come to life, as if it grows by itself. So I copy this trick and use it in my sketchbook again

you can’t really 100% control where these tree trunk will grow, but I really like this dynamic energy .

then you can splash some water drops, I also use charcoal to mimic those shades and volume from the tree leafs

Finally, I use some orange as leafs to let it pop up .

I drew two more pieces to try out this blowing ink technique. but this time, I drew a colored background either with pastel or watercolor.

Move to a bigger format

now that I have tried out those medium in my sketchbook, I build some confidence to challenge myself with a bigger format. Now the big blank paper is not so scary to me since I already know how those medium will interact with each other.

the process is similar to what I have applied in my sketchbook: 1. watercolor background—-2. dripping ink ——3. blow a tree trunk

so far, I like the texture and I think it is a good foundation to add some more details

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I use pastel, oil pastel and colored pencil to enrich the details.

being as a children’s book illustrator , I always think about the narration aspect of every illustration I create. drawing a tree alone isn’t so much fun, and there is no storytelling aspect of it. So I add some little kids under the tree.

at this point , they all pointing to the tree, so there must be something that draws their attention. I add a little collage bird, the red color will makes it really stand out.

and vola! here is the final look！

You can also check the video process that I recorded.

Hope this post can provide you some inspiration, now go and grow a tree of yourself~