shadow of shaded tree drawing
Today's post is byLori Woodward, regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. Lori is a member of the Putney Painters, an internationally known group of a dozen artists who paint under the direction of Richard Schmid. She has held workshops at Scottsdale Artist School, and has been represented by galleries throughout New England. Lori spoke on art marketing for the Oil Painters of America National Show and convention in 2012. As a writer, she has authored more than 60 articles for American Artist Publications, and she is a co-author of "Watercolor, Step by Step", a Walter Foster Publication.
When I first moved to New England from Tucson, in the mid-1990s, I had little understanding of how trees in the northeast grow and look, and I had much difficulty painting and drawing them. As an artist who enjoys research and practice, I decided to study trees by looking at them in real life, studying paintings by past masters of the 19th century, and, on occasion, copying some of those past masterpieces. Today, I enjoy painting and drawing trees. It's gotten a lot easier, especially now that I have a better understanding of how they grow and what they look like. As I said, practicing drawing and painting them leads to quick improvement.
The main thing to remember, for trees, and every other subject that you depict, is that shadow areas are relatively flat and colorless, while areas in light have volume and a higher saturation of color. Without light, we just can't see much - no shape, no color. There is less light in the shadow, so we see fewer detail and color in those shadows.
When it comes to trees, the shadows are flatter and silhouetted, while the lighted areas contain ample color, volume and definition. Let's take a look at some visual examples:
The image below shows the lace-like silhouette shapes of the fir needles in the shadow (they look blue-gray). Although there is some indication of texture in the shadow, if you squint at the photo, that texture disappears, but the branches in the light have 3D volume.
Squint at the image below. Again, the areas in shadow are flatter, colorless and "lace-like", as opposed to the lighted branches with have more 3D volume and and stronger color. In both these examples the sky holes appear in the shadow areas. That's because the foliage that's in the light is coming towards the viewer and blocks sky holes.
Below: Although much of this tree was in shadow (I was painting from life on an overcast day) note that some of its foliage comes towards the viewer and has dimension and a bit more yellow/green color, while the shadow areas are flatter, lack color and contain the sky holes.
Detail: The Garden Shed, Oil on linen, By Lori Woodward
Below is a tree that I copied from a Thomas Whittredge Painting. I often copy so that I train my brain to see nature correctly and learn good design at the same time. Again, the sky holes show up mostly in the shadow areas, which are flatter and the foliage that catches the light blocks sky holes and is more spherical and has volume. I'm humbled by Whittredge's trees, and if I show you the painting I copied this from, my tree might look pitiful - but then again, I'm just practicing.
Acrylic on Canson Oil Paper
Below is a detail of a Thomas Whittredge painting that shows foliage in light and shadow. The areas that are in complete shadow are "lace-like" and flat. The tree in the middle ground is in the light for the most part and shows a definite green color and volume in the foliage mass.
Although these principles seem simple, I included them here, because in our busy lives, we don't get time to observe these things. Next time you're outdoors, squint at the trees - see if you note the differences between areas of light and shadow.
Source: https://fineartviews.com/blog/66096/painting-tree-foliage-light-and-shadow
0 Response to "shadow of shaded tree drawing"
Post a Comment