Claudia Nice - Drawing & Painting Trees in the Landscape

To every thing there is a season and the seasons are reflected most vividly in the branches of the deciduous trees. Spring brings swelling buds, tender leaves, and blossoms that vibrate with the hum of insects. The beauty of renewed life beckons us out of doors. Some of us are clutching cameras and sketching tools. As spring slips into summer, the deciduous trees sheathe themselves in foliage cloaks.

The variety of leafy hues is almost endless. On our painting palette, yellows, blues and flecks of red are swirled together to produce olive green, chartreuse, emerald, viridian, and most everything in between. But alas, summer is fleeting and before the oil paint is fully dry on our pastoral treescape, the fruit is ripening in the orchard and the squirrels are gathering nuts.

Autumn arrives with fire in her hair. The trees reflect the radiant hues and excite our senses with burning color. Eagerly we dab and swish into our favorite painting medium, striving valiantly to capture the splendor of the fall scene. Subtly, leaf by leaf, the glory in the crown of the trees drifts to the ground.

Winter glides in on a crystal snowflake and the deciduous trees bow before her unadorned. Each defect, twisted limb and textured length of bark is displayed for us to contemplate and set down in detail. Pencil and pen move deliberately over the paper to suggest wood grains and knotholes. When our senses weary of grays and browns, the evergreen trees come to the rescue. This is their season of grandeur. They stand like noblemen, richly-clad green boughs stretched above the sleeping earth. They add life to our drawings and paintings as we work near the warmth of the hearth, whether in home or studio, and look forward to the coming of spring.

This book is about trees and how they relate to the landscape in all seasons. Its a guide, intended to help you get better acquainted with trees artistically, so you can relax and have fun as you sketch and paint them.

Just as the seasons change, so do the moods and colors of the trees. There is not one perfect medium or painting style with which to depict them. Therefore, within the pages of this book, youll find leaf, limb and bark techniques in a variety of mediums and styles. Choose your favorite or broaden your horizons and try them all. If finding the perfect foliage and bark hue has caused you anxiety in the past, the simplified color mixing charts included in each chapter and alongside each project will show you how to master the creation of color.

Ive heard it said that sometimes you cant see the forest for the trees, but by increasing your observation skills and simplifying what you see, you can learn to see both tree and forest clearly and paint them as well. I invite you to walk with me down the wooded path, through the seasons, and well share the adventure of drawing and painting trees.