Hlootoo's Art

ani-r:

Let’s talk about trees – a practical how-to for populating your natural environments and landscapes with trees and plantlife in drawings

I’ve seen a lot of people who really want to do nature/landscape drawings but struggle with filling the space. I’m by no means an authority on this matter, but I thought I’d share my observations and ideas about filling nature shots with cool stuff because I really like drawing them and spend a lot of time doing it.

Some observations:

• It’s hard to figure out what’s in a natural landscape unless you take time and really make a mental inventory of everything you see. Go explore and memorize
• Draw from life and references
• It’s too easy to fall into the habit of making ‘convenient shapes’ with trees and branches. Look for alternatives, examine how abruptly branches grow into different directions and split.
• Mix and match. I never draw a scientifically exact tree species, I mix the relevant qualities from the kinds of trees I know that fit the image. Combine stuff you’ve seen and your imagination.
• I try to ‘layer’ the vegetation. A forest looks empty with just trees. Think about the medium and low-height vegetation and bushes and then what’s closest to the ground and ON the ground.
• Take into account what you want to convey with the vegetation; seasons, is the environment lush or harsh, is it creepy or idyllic?

If you like this, please do reblog but do not redistribute/reupload or modify in any way without my written consent.