How to Draw a Weeping Willow Tree

Video Transcript

"Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. Today, we're going to draw a weeping willow tree. First thing you want to think about is the shape of this tree. Now, it's like any other tree. It has a trunk, and it's kind of a twisting trunk. So I'd start with the trunk first and kind of branch out with the branches as they come out further and further. Okay? So that gives you kind of a skeleton to work from on this tree...on our tree here. All right? Now, a weeping willow tree is very unique in that it looks kind of like a tree that's almost having a...maybe a Rastafarian tree or a tree having a bad hair day. So you start from the bottom and kind of bring these leaves down, which kind of fall down deep into the...almost to the ground. And you just kind of build it up and you'll find that even the leaves at the top of one of these trees sometimes reach all the way to the ground. But they are in layers. You can tell on a lot of these trees that the...there's differing...different layers, and you need to differentiate between the layers of the leaves. So once we have our base and construction lines, and then you...and I am drawing construction lines in a pencil so I can come back later after I get my tree the way I like it and I can erase these lines. So I come back, I get my marker and pick the lines that I want to keep. And here's the marker when we're starting with our lines. We're starting from the bottom and kind of working our way up. And like I said, it's kind of like all this Rastafarian tree with dreadlocks almost. All right. And as you get farther into the drawing, you can come back and erase your construction lines so you can kind of get an idea because you've drawn so many lines by now that you can't really get an idea of the shape until you get rid of your construction lines. And once you get rid of your construction lines, you can come back, maybe give it a little shadow deep within the tree. Maybe you can give it some texture. Like that. All right? And that's how you draw a weeping willow tree."