How to Draw a Detailed Tree

The tree is one of the harder items to draw, due to its special organic structure. Graphic designers and professional artists use diverse methods to represent a tree on paper. If you want to create your own, use these steps to draw your tree in detail from the ground up.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Study and draw the root structure. Try to get a good idea of where to draw roots from their tendrils up to the stem of the trunk. This can be a little difficult. You need a certain amount of asymmetry, which goes against some design principles. It may take a little trial and error to get something you like.

2. Add the trunk, leaving appropriate space for limbs. Get an idea of where limbs would start branching realistically depending on the type of tree you are drawing.

3. Draw limbs. Again, you'll need to be adept at blending symmetry with asymmetry. Although a completely symmetrical tree is not realistic, the shape of the limbs does have an overall organic symmetry. Take your time until you get it right.

4. Create leaves. It's not feasible to draw in every single leaf, but you'll need a detailed way to represent leaf patterns. Lots of designers use grouping techniques to draw the shape of a collection of leaves from a certain vantage point. You can elaborate with tiny dots in the leaf space to represent some individual leaves.

5. Scale your surrounding objects. You'll want to make sure your trees are realistically sized in relation to what surrounds them. Try a general mock-up before starting in order to get the scaling right.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a good combination of real-world study and on-the-page design to get your tree-drawing skills up. It's great to study the natural world, the source of your inspiration, but you don't want to neglect a scale drawing and technique study before embarking on your projects.