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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day - and how to draw a tree!

Drawing of a fruit tree meadow
Martin Stankewitz

Did you notice that Google has gone green for today - that's because it's Earth Day. Over on Watermarks we're having a posting extravaganza with posts about green and watery aspects relating to our appreciation of the earth we live on, the aspects which cause us concern, things we can all do to make a practical difference and help protect our planet and - of course - the subjects we draw and paint.

Here's a summary of links to our posts - we'd be very pleased if you come visit our small corners of this precious Earth!
How to draw a tree

Recently I discovered a delightful squidoo lens created by ace artist/draughtsman/printmaker Martin Stankewitz (Edition Handdruck) who lives in Germany (and hence English is Martin's second language). Martin develops fabulous monotype prints from his drawings and sketches done outdoors.

He's produced a really nice site about 'how to draw a tree' - and Martin's tree drawings are wonderful!
How to draw a tree - Find a collection of tree drawings and explanations how they have been done. Get inspired by famous and less famous, but very impressive contemporary and historic examplesof tree drawings and have a look at online drawing tutorials. Get some inspiration here to find your own way how to do a tree drawing.
a pen and ink study drawn from life
part of a landscape sketchbook project
Martin Stankewitz

His site covers:
  • Learning by doing - tree drawing from LIFE
  • Three critical points in depictions of trees
  • Rythm and patterns in foliage
  • Some tricks that help to get a convincing tree drawing
  • How to draw the trunk of a tree
  • plus some examples of how he applies basic principles in his own drawings in different media
  • and some examples from well known artists from the past and the present
"How to Draw a tree" is a gold nugget of art education - and in my view is it's well worth investing some time in studying what he has to say. I need to improve my tree drawing and I'm going to be reading it from end to end more than once!

It's now also a featured lens on Drawing and Sketching - Resources for Artists.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Katherine,
    thank you very much for this nice feature and the tip to go Squidoo!
    I always thought I was working on landscapes until I noticed that I only needed an excuse to draw a tree:).

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  2. Oh dear, Katherine. You really must put a warning on this blog. Something along the lines of DON'T GO HERE IF YOU PLAN TO MAKE SOME ART IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS! I had my paints out - experimenting with gouache - and I noticed you had posted 'Earth Day - how to draw a tree' so I thought it was safe to have a quick look. One and a half hours later, I'm now an enormous fan of EH and it's too late to paint with gouache. :)

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  3. Wonderful trees, wonderful post. I could draw/paint trees and skies for many decades to come, and appreciate your link on learning more about the elegant lines of trees.

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  4. Oh... a post to my own heart... I will go back to Martin's lens and site. But, thanks for this - it's very useful... now: how do I develop something from my Araucania photos and - so far - rubbish sketches.
    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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