How to Draw Trees - Lessons from a Jungle

 

On this trip to the Udawalawe national park, I decided to observe the jungle and draw the "Soul of the Jungle" back home. To say that this jungle was "dense" is an understatement. How on Earth do big animals like elephants even move in such a dense place?  Maybe this is why they come so often to the open road, despite people and their troublesome vehicles. You can almost feel that these animals find us repulsive. But still they keep coming to the road, because they really like open spaces. Human elephant conflict is a terrible problem. There were some wildlife enthusiasts in the vehicle so I put this question to them. If we clear open spaces in the jungle and dig small ponds near it so water would collect would elephants even bother to come and trouble people? They thought it was not “practical” and was too “simplistic”. They thought it was more to do with “loss of habitat” and “looking for food”. Maybe they were right, after all they were the experts. But I think they thought I was an idiot to come up with such a strange idea, though they were too kind to say it. So my mind wandered towards the only thing I kind of knew about – Art.

Speaking of art, trees it seems are an astonishingly difficult thing to paint and draw. Clearly you can't draw all the individual leaves one by one, but except at very long distances you can't ignore them either. What you should try to do is draw an approximate, representational shape and this differs from one kind of tree to another. Even in the same kind of tree it changes depending on the distance you are from it. This is why even expert artists who can draw the human face perfectly get a tree wrong so many times. When drawing branches many artists draw it like they are at either side of the trunk. But some branches kind of come towards you while others move backwards away from you at strange angles. Given below are two drawings I did using this method. 

Art Lessons from the Southern Expressway

 

Not long after we entered the Southern Expressway from Colombo, I wondered what I would learn if I observed it through the eyes of an artist. To be honest I am not really an artist, but more an art enthusiast if there is such a thing. Colours and lines have always fascinated me, and I once had an illusion of writing an art book called “How to make a paper interesting by using just oil pastel” so I feel I have a fair understanding of what I’m writing about.  

The first thing that struck me was how green everything was. Everything that was below the skyline that was not man made was actually green. I expected the earth to show in many places and rocks to be seen, but this seemed rarely the case. Trees, shrubs, bushes and grass covered everything. I expected the trunks and branches of trees and twigs to be a different colour, but these seemed to hide behind an army of green. Green itself is a confusing colour for me and many other artists. I usually hide my confusion by painting almost everything in sap green with a touch of viridian. But the truth is every species of tree has a different green. Grass normally has a brighter, lighter yellowish green than leaves of a tree. No matter how much you try to memorise the colours it kind of doesn’t register. Some trees have a weirdly artificial looking bluish green. To make matters worse when the sun shines upon it some greens become luminous and some remain the same. But the strangest things is the most luminous and beautiful green you are likely to see anywhere is found in paddy fields. 

Giving up I looked up at the sky. Skies are another thing most amateur artist get wrong. To begin with what colour is the sky in Sri Lanka on a sunny afternoon. Is it cyan, is it Prussian blue or ultramarine.  The truth is I can’t decide. But I think it is safe to say that in a clear blue sky devoid of any clouds the colour is more positive blue at the top of the picture - the portion which we have to raise our eyes in nature - than it is directly above the horizon which is lighter. As for clouds isolated white clouds will have a clearer definition at the top than underneath. The lightest portion is also at the top, while at the bottom they are darker more indistinct in outline. Sometimes during the evening, parts of the cloud attain a slightly fleshy (crimson) appearance, but as the light fades they suddenly attain a uniform grey colour, when this happens it looks like the cloud has suddenly died. Other parts of the sky may still be colourful though the clouds themselves seem dead. But the good thing is when the sun shines the next day, everything will be colourful again. Every dark cloud really has a silver lining.

Oil Pastel drawing with Poem

 

Oil Pastel