How to draw a tree branch with a pencil. How to draw trees? Drawing oak, pine and weeping willow step by step

Trees may seem like some of the easiest subjects to draw. If you have never drawn, the task may be too simple...

...or too literal:

In none of the drawings do we see anything similar to real objects. The first is just a symbol of a tree, and the second suggests the definition of a tree. Your job as an artist is to paint what we see, not what we know. Drawing trees– a great exercise for developing this skill!

In this lesson I will show you, how to draw oak, pine and weeping willow trees in a simple and realistic way.

What you will need:

- Several sheets of paper;

— Hard pencil (HB);

— Pencil of medium softness (2B);

— Soft pencil (5B or less);

- Sharpener.

Usually a pair of hard pencils (HB) is enough, but this set is not universal for all drawings. To get dark shadows, we need soft pencils. There is no need to choose expensive ones - I bought the most common ones, and they perform their function perfectly. If you doubt whether you need to draw, then a set of pencils of different degrees of hardness will not be a big loss on your budget, and drawing with these is much easier!

You will also need a sharpener. A dull tip leaves lighter strokes and does not achieve the expected effect. Always keep your pencils sharp and remember that soft pencils wear out faster!

Regarding paper: it can be anything. Regular printer paper will also work. However, you should not draw on a whole sheet of paper - the smaller the drawing, the less detail you will need to add. In reality, my drawings are about 9 cm in height.

Soft pencils help make shadows darker, which cannot be said about hard pencils. Hard pencils are not as dark, even if you press hard on them!

1. DRAWING AN OAK

Step 1

The brain works in an unusual way: it first grasps the big picture and then pays attention to the details. Therefore, you should not start drawing with details - you will need to create a base first.

Draw the general shape of the tree with a few faint strokes and dots. To do this, use a hard (HB) pencil, do not press on it. These strokes will not be part of the finished image - they will not be visible in the finished drawing; The camera and scanner don't recognize them (I used Photoshop so you can see them!).

Step 2

Draw the trunk. Don't forget - the lower part should expand downwards. The larger the tree, the shorter and thicker its trunk.

Step 3

Draw the branches at the top of the trunk.

Continue drawing the branches, gradually lowering the line as they lengthen.

Step 4

Add other branches to each branch (the longer, the lower they go). The strokes should be light.

Step 5

Using short, sharp strokes, draw the shape of the tree's crown. It doesn't have to be smooth and neat.

Step 6

Using the same method, draw small “clouds” of leaves inside the crown. Leave some areas empty so that parts of the branches are visible - this structure looks more interesting.

Step 7

Add thickness to the branches in places where they are not covered by leaves.

Step 8

Before you start applying shadows, determine which parts of the tree will be bright and which parts will have shadows. You can identify them by simple shading.

Step 9

Take a soft (2B) pencil (make sure it's sharp) and create texture on the trunk. Remember to also leave white areas - this is important for texture.

Step 10

Take soft pencils (2B and 5B) and darken the barrel according to the original light distribution plan. Don't be afraid to press down on the soft pencil to get the shadow you want, but don't overdo it either! The fewer black areas in the picture, the more impressive it looks.

Step 11

Take a hard pencil and sketch out the outlines of the leaves. Draw them in relaxed circles, quickly, with sharp movements.

Step 12

Each branch also has its own small crown (these are the “clouds” that you drew). They need to be shaded in the same way as if they were separate trees.

First, use a soft (2B) pencil to draw darker circles on the dark side. Don't press too hard at first so you can correct any mistakes.

Once you're sure you've got the dark sides right, add shadows and depth to them, and add some transition between the light and dark parts.

Step 13

Use a soft (2B) pencil to add some stray leaves throughout the crown and "little crowns." This will create the effect of additional, barely visible branches.

Step 14

Take the softest pencil and add some dark accents in the darkest places. The crown will be more contrasting. Also make sure that all leaves are darker than the “sky” background - leaves cannot be transparent! You can go over the lightest areas again with a hard pencil.

1. DRAWING A PINE

Step 1

Again, we start drawing with the general outline of the tree. Take a hard pencil and draw light lines.

Step 2

Draw the branches. Don't try to get them exactly right, just sketch them out.

Step 3

As with the oak tree, draw “clouds” on the branches. This time they should be narrower and even more uneven. Leave plenty of free space between them.

Step 4

Draw the outline of the trunk - long and narrow.

Step 5

Use a soft (2B) pencil to darken the barrel...

...and then a softer pencil to highlight the darkest side.

Step 6

This time there is no need to fill in the “clouds” with circles; fill them instead with sharp and chaotic strokes.

Step 7

Use a soft (2B) pencil to draw needles along the outline of the clouds. They should be thin and sharp.

Step 8

Draw the branches and darken them with two soft pencils.

Step 9

Draw even more needles inside the “clouds” with a soft (2B) pencil).

Step 10

Use the softest pencil to darken the clouds. If you want, you can simply darken them completely - evergreen trees are usually dark themselves.

Step 11

Finally, use your softest pencil to draw in the completely dark “clouds” between the branches.

1. DRAWING A WEEPING WILLOW

Step 1

We will draw according to the same scheme. Let's draw a general outline of the willow - something like a fountain.

Step 2

Draw the outline of the trunk.

Step 3

Draw the branches away from the trunk...

... descending with length.

Step 4

Draw the outlines of the “clouds”; this time they will look more like curtains.

Step 5

Fill in the trunk and branches with shading using a soft (2B) pencil.

Step 6

Darken the trunk and branches with the softest pencil.

Step 7

Take a soft (2B) pencil and draw ribbon-like lines along the “curtains”. They should form an arc at the very beginning.

Step 8

Darken the "curtains" with darker and wider curling lines in the spaces.

Step 9

Use your softest pencil to draw dark “curtains” on the other, darkened side of the tree. You can also add leaves to the branches to make them more detailed.

Your trees are ready!

As you can see, draw trees- an easy task; you just need to convey their appearance, not their definition. However, this is just the beginning of learning - if you want to become a real professional in drawing trees, take a notepad with you on your walk. Observe the trees you pass by and try to make quick sketches of them. This way you can develop intuitive drawing. If you prefer to stay at home, look at photos of trees on the Internet.

Translation of an article from design.tutsplus.com.

There are more than 100,000 species of trees in the world, which means that one tree can be completely different from another. However, even trees of the same species can differ significantly. In this lesson we will look at the most common, “average” tree. However, the steps below are quite universal, so this tutorial will be useful whether you are drawing an ash, maple, pine or other tree.

Preparation: looking for a reference

Whatever you draw, it's best to always have an object to reference. If you want, look for photos on the Internet, if you want, take your own pictures, or just look at the trees on the street. Studying the object will help you quickly decide on an idea, as well as more accurately convey the details.

Now let's proceed directly to the pencil drawing.

Step 1.

Start by sketching out the trunk and lightly sketch out the branches growing from it. Please note that the branches grow to the sides and slightly upward. Imagine that they are reaching for the sun with all their might. Do not use a ruler under any circumstances: a living tree is knobby, uneven, and curved, so perfectly straight lines will only harm you.

Step 2.

Now lightly outline the outlines of the foliage. It's likely that this shape will change as you draw, but this sketch will help you always remember what exactly you want to draw. Just as the branches should not be even, the crown of the tree should not be symmetrical!

Step 3.

Shadows and highlights are what will give your work depth and dimension, but before you start breaking down your design into light and shadow, determine your tree's lighting source.

Step 4.

Once you've decided on the light, shade the main dark areas on your tree. It is convenient to do this with a soft pencil (for example, 6B) - this will create the illusion of more realistic foliage than when shading with a hard lead. The bottom of each "block" of leaves should be darker than the top.

Step 5.

Now let’s fill the entire crown with tone, not forgetting to leave the illuminated areas lighter than those in the shadows. However, even if you forget and darken some areas too much, you can always go over them lightly with an eraser (it’s best to do this with tapping movements so that the eraser picks up the pigment but doesn’t smudge the drawing).

Step 6.

Let's not forget about the trunk. If the light source is on the right, as in our example, of course, the left side of the trunk and the branches on it will be darker. However, at the very left border of the trunk you need to make a thin light stripe - a reflex formed due to the “girdling” of the trunk by the rays of the sun.

Step 7

During the shading process, your original outlines should merge with the shaded shapes - in real life, objects do not have outlines, which means they should not have them in a realistic drawing (of course, if you are drawing comics, this rule does not apply).

Step 8

Finally, draw the falling shadow. Of course, in the picture it should roughly follow the shape of the tree and fall in the opposite direction from the light source. The length of the shadow depends on the height of this source: the higher it is, the shorter the shadow. As you know, shadows disappear at noon :)

It is important to know that each tree, like a person, is special in its own way. They all differ in structure, trunk, leaves, and sometimes it seems that their mood is different. The mood of the whole picture can depend on the mood and character of the tree!

Would you like to draw an autumn tree? Then watch this video.

Later in this lesson we will look at oak and birch, their character, mood, and external differences. Subsequently, you will be able to explore other trees yourself. Go outside with a pencil and paper and boldly draw the trees that you see in front of you - this way you will become a real master! We will also try to invent and draw a fairy-tale tree that you will not find in any ordinary forest.

How to Draw an Oak Tree Step by Step

Oak is associated with a powerful, old and wise tree. Just as the lion is the lord of the jungle, the oak is the king of the forest. Oak is often mentioned in songs, fairy tales and poems. We can’t help but mention, let’s try to draw this tree.

Oak is special in that it has a not tall, but wide, powerful trunk and a lush crown. This distinguishes it from other trees.

1. First of all, let's think about placing the tree on the paper. Let us mark the extreme upper and lower points of the drawing and align them with the central line of the tree. It will help us maintain symmetry.

2.Now let’s get down to drawing the trunk. Remember that the oak trunk is wide and powerful. Its roots are also powerful. At this stage, draw the branches of the oak tree, but not completely, because the branches are almost invisible through the lush crown of the tree. To better understand where the branches end, use light pencil movements to roughly outline the crown of the tree.

3. When the trunk is ready, draw the crown. To make it look realistic, draw it in the form of planes that look like clouds. They will indicate heterogeneous clusters of leaves. Here and there between these valleys you can identify several small branches that are visible through the leaves.

4. Done! All that remains is to add bright colors to the picture using paints or pencils.

How to draw a birch tree step by step

If an oak tree is associated with a strong, wise, gray-haired gentleman, then a birch tree invariably evokes associations of a fragile girl. Its trunk is thin, like a girl’s figure, and its branches fall down like a girl’s braids. Let's try to draw a birch tree?

1. First of all, let's think about placing the tree on the paper. Let us mark the extreme upper and lower points of the drawing and align them with the central line of the tree. Let's make it a little curved so that the trunk is slightly inclined.

2.Now you can draw the trunk. It is wide from below, and the further up, the more narrowed it is. Starting approximately from the middle, drooping branches extend from the sides of the trunk. They are thicker at the beginning and taper to thin lines at the ends. It is also worth noting that the lower branches are longer than the upper ones.

3. Let's move on to drawing leaves. Every birch branch is covered with them. We will also mark the characteristic dark spots on the trunk.

4. Everything is ready! All that remains is to add color to the picture using paints or pencils.

How to draw a tree from a fairy tale step by step

A fairytale tree is a flight of fancy. It can be crooked, curly, thin, thick, with fantastic branches, leaves, flowers and even fruits. Let's try to imagine?

1. First of all, let's think about placing the tree on the paper. Let us mark the extreme upper and lower points of the drawing and align them with the central line of the tree.

2. Draw a chaotic-shaped trunk and branches twisted into spirals. You can draw a tree of a completely different shape, the main thing is that it is unusual, as if from a magical land. For now, you can repeat after me, and only then try to come up with your own fairy-tale tree.

3. To the fabulous branches we add equally fabulous leaves and flowers of various shapes and sizes. You can add more fabulous birds or butterflies, etc. Imagine!

4. Hurray! Our tree is ready! All that remains is to make it colored using pencils or paints, or draw it with a black pen using interesting lines and shading, like I did.

Success in creative work!

We present to you another interesting step-by-step lesson on drawing with pencils. Today we will show you how to draw a tree with pencils. Prepare all the materials necessary for drawing:

• a sheet of white paper in A5 or A4 format;
• colour pencils;
• simple pencil HB;
• eraser.

We start by sketching the tree trunk.

Then we move on to drawing the crown. We apply the sketch easily, without pressing too hard on the pencil and without drawing any details.

Now let's return to creating the trunk. We outline its outline with a brown pencil.

Gradually giving it contrast and brightness.

The crown of the tree should be green. To do this, take a pencil of any green tone and begin to draw each piece of the crown.

Don't press too hard on the pencil so that you end up with a translucent shade like this.

Now we begin to draw in small strokes the unpainted areas of the crown.

To do this, you can use a different shade of green pencil that is darker or more saturated. You can also draw with one green pencil, just change the pressure on it.

Using a burgundy pencil we create bright accents on the trunk of our tree.

We outline the outline of the trunk, easily draw the middle and side parts of the branches.

To create contrast and draw the shadows of the trunk, we use a black pencil.

Now we create these small leaves along the contour of the crown.

The petals should have a richer tone and stand out a little from the background of the main part of the crown.

And then we outline the outline of the miniature leaves with a yellow pencil.

We create crown contrast with a burgundy or brown tone. Fill the dark areas of the foliage with any of these two shades.

In the background of the picture we will create a wooden fence of a translucent color. We will also draw a small area of ​​green grass under the tree.

That's it, the work is ready!

Drawing trees is always very interesting and quite simple. The main thing is to know some rules and be observant. How to draw a tree? First of all, you need to know what kind of species or breed this is? How do the branches grow - straight, to the sides, down to the ground? What kind of crown does the plant have - lush, small, round, dense, triangular? The birch has its own crown silhouette, the pine has its own. In this lesson we will try to draw a tree step by step. You will understand how to correctly depict thick foliage, bark, and roots of a tree. This knowledge will be useful to you when you go plein air or want to draw something of your own.

1. Take a thick sheet of watercolor paper, a simple pencil, and an eraser. If you want to draw a tree using the “wet” technique, then lightly moisten the sheet with water. This can be done with a wide soft brush or sponge. This technique will produce very beautiful stains and gradients. First, let's outline our tree with a pencil. Let's draw it with a lush green crown. In summer and spring, the trees are especially beautiful, the sun reflects from each leaf and they seem to glow. Let's draw the earth in a semicircle. Let us depict the tree itself with small roots. The tree is far away from the viewer, so the roots will appear small. We make the thickness of the branches such that the approximate sum of their thicknesses is equal to the trunk of our tree. The higher the branches are, the thinner they become. At the top of the crown the branches are the thinnest and youngest. We draw the crown of the tree in general, with an uneven circle.

   

   
   
2. Now let’s designate the “floors” of the crown. If you look closely at any tree, each large branch creates a separate “tier”, a kind of mini-tree, and all together they form a lush crown. Each such “tier” has its own volume, they overlap each other, later we will denote this as a play of shadows and light.

   

   
   
3. To make the tree look more organic, we will add elements of the landscape - the sky, clouds, as well as the shadow of the tree. We’ll just outline the clouds lightly with a pencil, then we’ll simply outline these areas of white paper with blue paint, and add a light shadow for volume. To prevent the tree trunk from looking smooth and boring, let's draw it as if it consists of many large branches. The texture of the bark will not be visible, so we will paint the tree trunk with color shades, without drawing out small details.

   

   
   
4. Let's start painting with watercolors. We start with the crown of the tree and use transparent yellow-green paint to unevenly paint this area with a soft, wide brush. Here and there we leave white spots, somewhere we add thicker paint, but don’t overdo it. The grass on the ground will be cooler in shade, so add a little blue or blue. Let's outline the shadow of the tree. We paint the sky with a gradient of blue, the thickest shade at the top, gradually diluting the paint with water towards the horizon. We simply outline the clouds with a brush.

   

   
   
5. Drawing shadows. We take a green shade with the addition of blue and “sculpt” the crown with short strokes. On the lower “floor” the shadows will be larger and darker; towards the top the brush strokes will become shorter and lighter. Carefully outline a couple of branches in the middle. We add volume to the tree trunk. The shadows throughout the picture are on the left. Using different shades of brown (with the addition of ocher, blue and a little green) we paint the tree bark, leaving white spots of light here and there. We also make shadows on the clouds - we paint the lower part of each cloud with a gray-blue tint.

   

   
   
6. The most “delicious” stage is drawing the details. Now we need the thinnest brush. Go over all the shadows again and make them more saturated. The viewer's attention should be focused on the central part of the drawing; it must be drawn especially carefully to make it interesting to look at. Therefore, we add contrast to the branches, in the shadows on the crown and trunk of the tree. Using thin strokes we denote small branches deep in the crown. We draw the grass with light strokes (touch the paper with the brush and make a quick stroke with it moving away from you).