Nature on the net and in my sketchbook

Horse chestnut

European larch

If it isn’t obvious from the page of trees in pen and ink that I love trees, my tree sketchbook will leave you in no doubt. I have one sketchbook devoted just to sketching trees in pen and ink, mostly using a fountain pen with black or grey permanent ink, and occasionally Copic fineliners, or with a bit of colour added from India ink brush pens. I enjoy the process of finding the shapes and forms of different species, experimenting with ways of reproducing all the different types of bark texture, practicing rendering leaf-clumps to see what works best for and honing my observation skills. Every species is different and feels like a new experience, so I never get bored of rendering trees.

Since I live in the subtropics, there isn’t an abundance of deciduous trees, which are among my favourite, so I have to rely on photographs for practice. If I ever want to draw a eucalyptus or paper bark, I need only look out my living room window, or walk a few minutes to the nearby park and creek. Here there are koalas, though they’re difficult to spot let alone draw from nature, bearded dragons, which rarely stay still long enough to sketch, turtles, flying foxes and all manner of birds. But, being that it it’s now winter, it’s cool and windy and the ground is wet from a recent shower, so today I’ll stay at my desk and find nature on the net.