On Drawing Trees and Nature

Trees! Trees! Trees!

Vintage drawing manuals and classic art instructionals.
On Drawing Trees and Nature: A Classic Victorian Manual, by J.D. Harding This vintage book is a classical art instruction book. Massive trees drawn realistically in nature make a great inspiration for getting out there and drawing. Exercises and diagrams show exactly how to start making marks on the paper that give you realistic foliage, branches, and bark. 

These Two Books Helped Me Learn 
How to Draw Trees

No matter what, trees seem to end up in my drawings and paintings. Sometimes as background or bit players, and sometimes as the star. I’m happy, though, because I have always felt a strong connection with trees. I remember as a child climbing an old pear tree, lodging myself into a crook of branches, and just laying my head against the bark as the tree moved and swayed in the wind. I loved that special pear tree!
Like almost all children, I loved to draw. In first grade, drawing with crayons is an important task! I remember drawing tangles of brown, blue, and green as my first tree. It was probably a pretty good drawing, actually. Then I was told that you must always draw trees with a straight brown trunk and a lollipop-shaped green top. That was “how you draw a tree.” It took half a lifetime to unlearn that. Trunks are not brown. Tree tops are not round.
A carbon dust drawing of the Juglans microcarpa, little black walnut tree by Karla BeattyJuglans microcarpa, a small black walnut tree, Karla Beatty
By careful observation, research, and practice, I taught myself to draw realistic trees. I still practice what I have learned, frequently. Luckily, trees are just about everywhere so it is easy to find models to work from. And I value teaching the techniques I've learned to my students. I've also published a number of exercises, practices, and suggestions in my ebook, Draw and Paint Trees. For my own "tree education," I have found two books that truly helped me to master the tree—structure, form, and element.

A page from On Drawing Trees and Nature by JD Harding.Page from On Drawing Trees
<-- The book On Drawing Trees and Nature  gave me a solid boost in the skills of drawing foliage as well as rendering trunks and branches. This classic drawing manual was a good inspiration for sketching and drawing beautiful trees and elegant scenes of nature. (left)
            
A page from The Artistic Anatomy of Trees by Rex Vicat ColePage from Artistic Anatomy
The book Artistic Anatomy of Trees gave me in-depth information, both about drawing or rendering and about using the correct details for each tree or species of tree that I wished to draw. (below)
The Artistic Anatomy of Trees, by Rex Vicat Cole This is the textbook on drawing I always wanted. From foliage form to details of buds, botanical information is matched to drawing technique. Every aspect of trees and how to depict them — in any style — is covered with unusual clarity and precision.
Vintage drawing, painting, and art books are great. It’s like going back to an earlier art form where technique is placed above speed, and knowledge above expression. You learn the basic art principles and how to practice them.