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Drawing Trees Week 3: The Struggle for Life

March 9, 2022

Willows: coppiced or lopped then left to grow, their trunks
becoming twisted and split as in the photo below.
Note the sense of movement in these forms.
Sketched by Jo near Flatford Mill on the Stour

Storms, Lopping and other Struggles for Survival

Very few trees reach their perfect natural form. They are either hemmed in by others, damaged by storms and animals and of course, lopped, pruned, and coppiced by people.

More Willows on the Stour
Part of the same walk as the sketch above
Photo by Jo
The same photo as above but in grayscale
Whether you are drawing or painting in colour, remember that the tones are vitally important to the composition. Note the palest and darkest parts of this image.
Stunted Hawthorn fighting its way out of the limestone
Photo by Jo
A Tangle of Roots
Ink and Watercolour
This is a tangle of overgrown ivy roots rather than the aftermath of a storm uprooting a tree. The challenge of depicting overlapping is much the same though.

Project : Draw a tree that has been caused to struggle for survival by; a challenging environment, lopping, a harsh prevailing wind, lightning damage, being uprooted etc.

Trees stuck by lightning can literally be torn apart but wind damage can be just as severe and result in the tree being uprooted and the tangle of roots made visible. Like branches these root tangles overlap and thread through each other even more so than branches above ground.If a tree near you has come down do get out with your sketchbook and a camera. Make sketches and/or photograph from several viewpoints before homing in on a composition for your final drawing.

The drawing may be a whole or part of a tree but should tell something of its history; probably a whole tree where it has grown with a distinct list to one side because of a prevailing high wind, but in the case of a fallen tree, perhaps just the exposed roots. Either way try to make an interesting composition.

Other suitable subjects would be stunted trees growing out of stoney ground, or choked by Ivy.

Your drawings:

After the Storm
by Virginia
Growing in the Wind
by Kate
Pollarded Poplars
by Mali
Growing through the Railings
Pencil by Sarah
Cut Down
Pencil and Watercolour by Heather
Bonsai
Pencil by Ann
Urban Cedar, Windsor
by Maricarmen
Feaver Tree Roots;
Seen by a dry river bed, Umfolsoi Game Reserve, South Africa
by Maryon
Soft charcoal, graphite sticks and embossing tool
Struggling Out and Up
pencil by Anne C
Stressed
by Liz
Shaped by the Wind
by Anne H
Lakeside Tree
by Anne H

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