Try combining being outside in nice weather and drawing with these five types of trees sketch.
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Do you need an excuse to go outside? Do what I did and get outside by drawing a trees sketch. Not only do you get to draw but you get to listen to the wind rustles the trees, cars pass by, and birds sing. It is so relaxing! Don’t pass up this opportunity.
You will learn about trees sketch, how to draw realistic trees, sketchup trees, easy tree sketch, cool trees to draw, and more!
After learning different ways to do a trees sketch, you can go outside and sketch any tree you see.
Supplies needed:
- Drawing set (includes sketch pad, charcoal pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener, blending stumps)
- Kneaded Eraser (the drawing set includes a kneaded eraser but it doesn’t work well so I recommend getting this kneaded eraser, you will be a lot happier with it)
5 Different Techniques for Trees Sketch
How to Draw Realistic Trees
First thing first, you need to pick a tree to draw. Go out to your backyard or a nearby park and choose a tree.
For your first trees sketch you will want a tree that you can break down into shapes.
Draw the basic shape of the leafy top and then add the trunk and main branches.
You can break the tree down into even more basic shapes by outlining where the biggest sections of leaves are.
This helps when drawing the leaves so you know what part of the tree you are drawing compared to the real one. It is easy to lose where you are when you’re drawing countless leaves.
You can leave the outline or you can erase that section before you start drawing so you don’t have to erase around your sketch.
My biggest suggestion is once you start drawing leaves you don’t erase, them at all. If you’re a perfectionist this will be hard and unnatural.
You’ll draw a bunch of leaves and decide you hate it and want to erase it. I challenge you to leave it because if you don’t you will constantly be erasing and never finish the sketch.
Trees aren’t going to be perfect so your drawing shouldn’t be either.
The shape of the leaves of this easy tree sketch is a long thin oval. Some are larger and others thinner, some light and others darker. You don’t want every leaf to look the same. This sounds easy but it is difficult to not make them look uniform.
Have the leaves go in different directions and overlap each other.
Keep filling in the branches with leaves. This is the most time-consuming portion of how to draw realistic trees.
I found this both relaxing and frustrating. Which doesn’t make sense, but I would stop thinking and just draw which was relaxing. Then I would start thinking about how I was drawing the leaves too alike and then had to get back to not thinking.
Take a break if you find yourself going through the same emotions as I did. Set the supplies down and take in the beautiful world around you for a few minutes before getting back to work.
To add depth to the tree use a harder pencil (4B/5B/6B/8B). You can draw over leaves and draw new leaves.
Use a harder pencil to shade the trunk and branches. Leave a sliver of empty paper on one side of the trunk to give the illusion of light. Do the same with the branches.
For simple grass just shade the ground with a soft pencil (5H/4H/3H/2H). Create darker pencil marks for the tree shadow.
This is one way how to draw realistic trees.
Want some other ideas to practice your sketching abilities? Check out 13+ Creative Drawing Ideas Easy.
Sketchup Trees
You are going to want to do a general outline of the branches and the leaves as you did in the above sketchup trees.
These leaves are also football-shaped, but they are filled in. The top leaves should be smaller than the leaves at the bottom of the tree.
Go through and make some leaves darker than others to give the depth that makes it look realistic.
For the bark make some lines darker and others lighter.
If you want to add grass and a shadow go for it!
Another way to do art on the go is digital art. Check out this guide on How to Use Procreate: 9 Essential and Great Things for Procreate.
Easy Tree Sketch
This easy tree sketch is super simple and fun!
After doing a general sketch of the tree use the graphite 6B pencil unsharpened to create the leaves. It was the first time I used this pencil and so the top was flat which was perfect for what I wanted.
You will take that flat top and tap it within the tree sketch. It is as simple as that!
In areas of the tree where there are shadows do more taps with the pencil to make it darker.
The nice thing about this easy tree sketch is that it is extremely difficult to make every tap the same so it comes out unique without even trying.
After finishing the leaves add some branches up top and finish the tree trunk.
This one took less than 5 minutes because of the simple drawing technique.
Like drawing but want to add some color? Try out watercolor: 50 Simple Watercolor Painting Ideas.
Cool Trees to Draw
This was a cool trees to draw because it was old and established. There were a lot of dead branches which were a challenge to capture.
You will still want to do a general outline but the focus of this tree is the branches instead of the leaves. So take your time getting the large branches how you want them before adding the leaves and seed balls.
Once you get the branches how you like start adding the leaves. These leaves are drawn not as ovals but almost star-shaped with jagged edges. In this particular tree, the leaves were mainly at the end of branches and they were pretty scarce.
This opened up a lot of empty space. When this is the case don’t be afraid to not add lots of leaves. It is common for the green stuff to steal the show, but in old mature trees, the bark is often the most beautiful part of the tree.
There were also many dead twigs within the tree. These are thin and you don’t want to draw too much attention to them so draw them lightly.
If the tree has an interesting knot or a healing chopped limb be sure to add it into your trees sketch. It helps create character and ages the tree.
Here are more inspirational ideas for your sketchbook. 39 Things to Sketch when Bored: Ideas Easy to Hard.
Trees Sketch
This last tree was newly planted and looked like it was struggling to adjust to its new home.
There are a lot of bare thin branches. For this reason, draw the branches before adding the leaves. You don’t want to go overboard on the leaves to show that it is new and struggling.
You will want the branches and trunk to be pretty thin to show the age of the young tree.
Time to start adding the leaves.
Make them small and vague. Scribbling small ovals is a good technique for the trees sketch.
As said above, don’t draw too many leaves. You want to be able to see the scrawny branches that have only a few leaves on them.
The leaves will be healthier and more abundant lower down where they can get more nutrients from the roots.
After adding darker leaves for contrast, finish the bark.
This particular tree had three knobs in the trunk which I decided to add for some variety.
Good job on getting outside and sketching some trees! Keep working on your drawing ability and you will continue to see results.
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