How To Draw a TREE Sketch Tutorial

What's up everyone and welcome to the club. In today's video I'll show you step by step on how to draw a tree. For today's lesson I'll be pulling out a sketchbook and a pencil. I'll start this drawing off with a 0.7 millimeter mechanical pencil with a 2B graphite stick. Let's begin today's lesson by establishing the size of our drawing. I'm going to come all the way down towards the bottom. Let's sketch a line going across from left to right and this will be the ground plane. This is where we'll set the tree along this line. Now for the purpose of symmetry and balance we're just going to sketch a line coming down the center. We'll start at the very top. It's going to lightly work our way down towards the bottom of our page. Now rather than drawing a tree standing straight up I want to give this a little bit more of a dynamic shape. So we set the base over on the left side. I'm going to add a curve. I'm going to curve this out bend this up. I'm going to bring this back in towards the center line and then out towards the right towards the top of our tree. Now all the other branches around the tree are going to evolve from that center line. So let's add some thickness. We'll start from the very top. I just want to taper this so it gets wider as it comes down coming in towards the center of our page. I just want to add some shape to the outside. I'm just going to bump out some areas going up all the way up towards the top. Let's do the same thing on the right just adding a little bit of a bump texture coming back down. Now I want to draw the roots digging into the ground. So from the side along the top I'm just going to bend this out and then down toward that bottom line. Now from here all we need to decide is how many branches we want sticking out and the shape. So let's start with the ones along the bottom. Let's start down here on the left. Go up and then bend that back up toward the top. Now over on the right side I'm just going to bend this up go across and bring that back in slightly. Let's add another branch in the center. So we'll start with a circle for the base. From the top we're going to go across bend this in. We're just going overlap the tree. Pull that up just taper that back down and in towards the bottom of that circle. Now we're going to do the same thing. We're going to add some thickness across these bottom branches. So start coming down go a little bit wider as you come back in towards the bottom. Let's add a few more across the top. We'll start from the base across and out bring that back in. Then another one over on the right side going out and up and tinker that back in. Let's add a small one on the left side just to help balance this out. Now along that main trunk we're going to add a couple circles. Let's start along the bottom up let's add one on the top right. Now with all the main branches in place we can add a second level of detail. Let's start along the bottom add a smaller branch going across. Now these branches get thicker as they come back in so you can place these anywhere we'd like. So I'm just going to go around and as we go out towards the tip we're going to go a little bit smaller with these branches and each of these sub branches will have smaller branches coming out of them. Now we're just going to work our way up toward the top. So just continue to add these smaller branches going around and these are all random. And along the top we're just going to feather this out by adding these smaller branches branching out from the center. Now with the rough sketch in place we're going to go back and just lightly erase that center line. Everything inside the branch overlapping. Now that we have a rough sketch in place we use this as a guide to help us layer on some more detail and refine the shape. Now let's add a layer of grass on top of the roots. We start on the left side I'm going to pull these coming up it's going on top of the roots. We're working our way out toward the side and you don't have to cover everything. I'm just going to fade this out toward the side and then over towards the right. I'm just adding that texture of grass going across the top. Then moving toward the left and right create some overlaps as well. And now we're going to work our way around the perimeter of the tree trunk just adding a little bit more shape and detail. You want to add some texture of bark just overlapping these lines. And I'm working my way in towards those secondary branches. I'm going to go back and just tuck the roots back down and in. And again just continue to add some more texture of bark going around. Add that knot and a bit of detail. I want to darken up the top just to resemble some shadow give it a little bit more weight. Add a split in the center and just a few rings on the inside. And then from there we're just going to work our way out. So break up the edge of the bark on the bottom. Extend the texture going up. So now these branches get a little bit darker as you go out towards the end. So you can go back and just darken them up if you'd like. I'm just keeping our sketch rough. You don't want to get too caught up in the details and we're just adding some more bark texture as we go. Also add a few more branches. So it's important at this stage just to focus on the basic shape and the textures inside the bark. We can bear on the details after and this drawing will also start to come alive once we start adding in our shadows. So okay so now that we finished tracing out our contours we want to add a layer of shadows. Now let's start by darkening up the bottom of the grass just going in behind going up the trunk. This area is going to be casting shadow. I'm just going to fade that up towards the top. This will help ground the tree and give it some weight. I'll also fade that shadow out on the bottom. Now if the sun's over towards the left side the shadow is going to cast over towards the right. I'll just extend that shadow down and out. Then we're going to be placing that shadow over on the right side of the tree. I'm just fading that out towards the left towards the highlight. I'm just going to darken up the side almost pushing this into a silhouette and then fade that over. All these little branches are going to get darker in the center as well. Now this branch in the center is going to cast a shadow down towards the right. I'm just going to angle this down and go across. Now I can go and just add some rough detail inside the shadows. So adding some darker pockets and just blending these into the bark. So start across the bottom and just work our way up. I'm really pushing this into the shadows on the right side. So now I can go and just add that fine detail inside. Work our way inside those highlights. I'm just working with the curve of the tree. I want to bring a little bit of life back into this tree. So we're going to add some leaves across some of these branches and just roughing this in. It doesn't have to be perfect. We're just scribbling these little blobs around those tiny branches. I just want to get the impression of the mass of leaves. We don't want to go in and start adding each individual one. So work on the shape and the volume. We're just going to get that tone first and come back in and add a little more detail on top. Now I'm going to add some detail along the underside of those leaf clusters. Just these little scribbles, these little swirls. I'm just picking up some of the shadows. And again we don't need to go over all these individual leaves. Now as we get closer to the end, we're just going to add a little bit more detail across the ground and always be sure to sign our artwork. And that's pretty much it. There's a sketch illustration of a tree. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson. If you did, please make sure you subscribe because I'm posting new lessons every single day. I want to thank you for watching and I'll see you again soon.