Practice: Tree

material: pencil on paper, A5,
time: about 2 hours

During the first 45 minutes I sketched the tree while sitting on a bench outside. When I had the propotions and basic shadows done, I returned home and finished the rest of the drawing, which took me a little more than an hour. This is the first time I really made use of all the different graphite pencils I had and also the first time I completed drawing using life-reference (or whatever you call it).

In this drawing, I tried to apply my new knowledge about the composition of an artwork. Using the motive and the displayed window, I tried to balance the diagonal (lower left to upper right) with the counter diagonals and the horizontal and vertical lines. I also tried approximating the golden mean (stem of the tree and lowest horizontal branch).


The whole composition theories are new to me and I can´t wait to lean more!