How to Draw a Tree

13 àwọn ìtàn ~14 àwọn àkóónú Àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò 3/5 Free, kò sí ìṣàmúlò-ètò

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Draw the trunk as two lines that spread apart at the base.

The trunk should be clearly wider at the ground than at the top.

Ṣẹ̀dà nínú àwọn àyọkà àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò

Fi àwòrán àwọn àwòrán àwọn àyọkà rẹ pamọ́

A tí fi àwòrán pamọ́ fún ọ. Àwọn àkọlé àwòrán ní pàtó àwọn àwòrán.

Àkóónú àwòrán yìí

Everybody's first tree is a lollipop: a brown stick with a green cloud on top. The reason is that a tree has roughly two hundred thousand leaves and you cannot draw them, so the brain substitutes a symbol.

The professional answer is not to draw leaves at all. You draw five or six clumps of foliage as masses of light and dark, put a few leaf-shaped marks around their edges, and let the viewer's eye supply the rest. It does, every time.

Àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò

Àwọn ìtàn 1

Draw the trunk as two lines that spread apart at the base.

A trunk is not a rectangle. It flares where it meets the ground, and that flare is one of the cheapest things you can do to stop the tree looking like a post someone hammered in.

Wòyé Parallel-sided trunk with a flat bottom.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The trunk should be clearly wider at the ground than at the top.
Àwọn ìtàn 2

Fork the trunk into two or three main branches.

Every fork loses thickness: the two branches leaving a fork together should add up to about the width of the branch they came from. Get that wrong and the tree looks inflated at the top.

Wòyé Branches as thick as the trunk they come from.

_Ṣẹ̀dà Each branch should be thinner than the trunk below it.
Àwọn ìtàn 3

Fork each branch again, thinner each time.

Two more levels is plenty - most of these will be hidden by foliage anyway. What matters is that the structure exists under the leaves, because the canopy shape follows the branches and looks arbitrary without them.

Wòyé Branches that stay the same width all the way out.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The outermost twigs should be thin lines.
Àwọn ìtàn 4

Sketch the overall canopy shape, lightly.

One big irregular mass - never a circle. Real canopies are wider than they are tall and lopsided, usually leaning toward wherever the light comes from. This is a guide you will break, not an outline you will keep.

Wòyé A neat symmetrical dome.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The canopy should be wider than it is tall, and asymmetrical.
Àwọn ìtàn 5

Break the canopy into five or six overlapping clumps.

This is the step that decides whether you get a tree or a lollipop. Each clump has a bumpy top edge and a flatter shadowed underside, and they overlap - some in front, some behind. Vary their sizes deliberately.

Wòyé Clumps of equal size arranged evenly.

_Ṣẹ̀dà You should count at least five distinct clumps of different sizes.
Àwọn ìtàn 6

Leave two or three gaps where sky shows through.

A solid canopy reads as a cutout. Sky holes - especially near the middle where you can see through to the branches behind - are what tell the viewer this is a three-dimensional thing with air in it.

Wòyé Filling the canopy completely.

_Ṣẹ̀dà You should be able to see branch through at least one gap.
Àwọn ìtàn 7

Add leaf-shaped marks around the outer silhouette only.

A dozen small scalloped marks on the outside edge is enough for the eye to read the whole canopy as leaves. Adding them across the interior destroys the mass you just built and turns the tree into wallpaper.

Wòyé Drawing leaf marks all over the inside of the canopy.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The interior should have no individual leaf marks in it.
Àwọn ìtàn 8

Pick a light direction and shade the underside of each clump.

Every clump is a rough sphere, so it is light on top and dark underneath. Shade the undersides all from the same direction. This single step is what turns a flat green shape into a volume.

Wòyé Shading the outside edge of the canopy instead of the underside of each clump.

_Ṣẹ̀dà Each clump should have its own shadow, on the same side.
Àwọn ìtàn 9

Push the clumps at the back darker than the ones in front.

Sort the canopy into a front group and a back group and pull their tones apart. Depth in a landscape comes from grouping values by distance far more than from shading each object individually.

Wòyé Every clump the same tone, which flattens the canopy into a single shape.

_Ṣẹ̀dà You should be able to say which clumps are nearer.
Àwọn ìtàn 10

Shade the trunk, leaving a light strip down one side.

A trunk is a cylinder, so it takes the same treatment as the mug: dark on the shadow side, with a slightly lighter strip right at the edge where light bounces back. Keep the strokes vertical, following the bark.

Wòyé Shading the trunk evenly, which makes it a flat plank.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The trunk should have a clear light side and dark side.
Àwọn ìtàn 11

Add the canopy's shadow onto the trunk.

The foliage above blocks light from the top of the trunk, so the trunk is darkest where it enters the canopy and lightens toward the ground. Missing this is why drawn trunks often look like they belong to a different picture.

Wòyé A uniformly lit trunk under a heavily shaded canopy.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The trunk should be darkest at the top.
Àwọn ìtàn 12

Draw the ground line and the cast shadow.

A short line through the base of the trunk, and a shadow stretching away from the light. Both are one stroke, and without them the tree hovers - which is the single most common thing wrong with beginner landscapes.

Wòyé A shadow that does not touch the base of the trunk.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The shadow should start exactly where the trunk meets the ground.
Àwọn ìtàn 13

Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.

This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.

Wòyé Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.

_Ṣẹ̀dà The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.

Àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò tí a ti ṣẹ́

Àwọn àwòrán tí a ti pà àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò gbogbò nínú àti àwọn àkóónú tí o fẹ́ láti tọjú nínú àwọn à

The finished drawing of a tree with the construction lines erased

Ó kò lè wò nípa yìí, àti pé kò yẹ̀ fun. Ó jẹ́ ìṣàfarawégbèsì àti àwọn ààyè àwọn ààyè tí a tí wọ́ inú, kò jẹ́ àwọn àwòrán tí ẹnikẹ́kẹ́ bá ṣè láti jẹ́ àìbálẹ̀ - àwọn ààyè nípa ìṣàfihàn ọ̀rọ̀ rẹ̀ nípa àwọn ààyè àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò.

Ohun ti ọkan yio kọ ọ

This is the restraint lesson: how to suggest enormous detail with very few marks. The technique - draw the mass, detail only the silhouette edge - transfers directly to hair, grass, crowds, fur and clouds, which is to say most of the things beginners avoid.

It also introduces depth through value grouping. Rather than shading individual objects, you sort everything into a front group and a back group and pull their tones apart. That is how landscapes get their space, and it is a completely different skill from shading a single form.

Àwọn ìṣàmúlò-ètò: Line confidence Proportion Value range

Ohun tí o fẹ́

A pencil, and ideally a second softer one for the dark clumps. You will be building distinct light and dark masses, and getting them properly apart is much easier with two grades than by pressing harder.

A real tree out of the window works better than a photo here, because the thing you are learning to see is depth in the foliage, and a photograph flattens exactly that.

Tí o bá jẹ́ àìdájú

If it looks like a lollipop, you drew one outline round the whole canopy. Break it into five or six overlapping clumps with sky visible between some of them.

If it looks flat, every clump is the same tone. Some clumps are in front and lit; others are behind and in shadow, and that difference is the whole illusion.

Let the branches disappear into the foliage and reappear. A branch that runs unbroken from trunk to leaf edge tells the viewer the canopy is see-through.

Píríǹtì àwọn ìtàtì

Fi o kù nínú ojú-ìwé. Àwọn àtòjọ-ẹ̀yàn ìtàn tí a píríǹtì lórí ojú-ìwé kan.

Àkọ́lé (US) A4paper size

Àwọn Àtòjọ-ẹ̀yàn

Why does my tree look like a lollipop?: You drew one outline round the whole canopy. Break it into five or six overlapping clumps instead.
Do I have to draw individual leaves?: No, and you should not. Draw masses, then a few leaf marks on the outer edge only.
How thick should the trunk be?: Thicker at the base than you think, and it should narrow at every point where a branch leaves it.
Where do branches go?: They fork and get thinner every time. A branch never gets thicker as it moves away from the trunk.
How do I make the canopy look deep?: Some clumps light, some dark, and let sky show through in a few gaps. Even tone reads as a flat cutout.
What kind of tree is this?: A generic broadleaf. Conifers are easier - the same clump method with downward-angled masses.
My tree looks like it is floating.: No ground line and no cast shadow. Both take one stroke each and both are essential.
What should I draw after this?: The rose, which is the same problem - too much detail - solved with construction instead of restraint.