Trees

Right so I was drawing a tree today. Why not right? Coz trees are rad.

I did have another one of those 'ah ha!' moments again today tho - coz my fab tutor gave me some excellent advice again - this time (what do you know) on drawing trees!

So, below, my original tree.

Then my tutor gave me some tips that I thought I'd share (especially as I'm hoping that putting it on here will solidify it into my spongey brain - it soaks stuff up but it has a lotta holes in it too).

So, observe below my glorious photoshop efforts to help me explain. 

(Please bear with me a little on this one - I am not very well practiced at Photoshop and also can't find my stylus for my tablet - so this was all done with the finger on the mousepad : P)

Check out my colourful squiggly lines. Cool huh? Heh heh.

Anyway, basic stuff that you all prolly know, but I needed reminding of:

Yellow: The yellow lines at the top are basically my tutor advising me to add more of the smaller branches at the top - or at least draw them in in the first place - gives the drawing more variety in the shapes and is just a bit more realistic. 

Orange: Something I did right! The use of the straight line vs. the curve - ye-yah. 

Pink (or red depending on your preference): I'd done a lot of curves in the trunk of the tree - so my tutor advised mixing up the shapes by making the bush behind more spiky - and also said to make sure I don't just follow the exact same shape as the roots of the tree below.

Green: I had done my lovely repetitive bubbly curves on the roots - but it made it a LOT more interesting and natural when he drew more of a variation in the line (similar to the trunk) with a curve then a straighter line then curve etc. Not easy to see in my wobbly green lines but hopefully you get the gist. 

So that 'ah ha' moment was especially when he pointed out those bubbly roots. Ech. They stand out so blatantly now to me - whereas before they seemed fine! Well hurrah for learning to see new stuff. 

And here's the girl who is going to be leaning against the tree reading her book. Complete with munted toeless foot. Nice. : )