This page is dedicated to the drawing and paintings of leaves and trees.
​
Tips and techniques for how to draw and paint botanically correct trees and leaves.
Drawing and watercolour painting instruction includes step by step demonstrations, videos and books.
Botanical Art TIPS & INSTRUCTION - LEAVES
  • Leaf Shapes, Veination and Arrangement
  • ​Leaf colour and mixing greens
  • Botanical Art Instruction Books with good content about Leaves
  • ​Video Instruction - drawing and painting leaves
  • Botanical Artist/Tutors specialising in leaves
Artists who paint leaves
  • The Very Best Painters of Leaves - past and present
  • Videos of grasses and leaves in art history

Botanical Art TIPS & INSTRUCTION - TREES
  • How to draw and paint Trees
  • Bark
  • Twigs and Buds - in Winter and Spring
Artists who paint Trees
  • The Very Best Botanical Painters of Trees

​​This is a huge area of study which must be tackled by all those who aspire to excellence in their botanical art

This page will develop further over time. If you want to keep in touch with the latest developments I suggest you bookmark it.

"I've just found this amazing site all about greens and drawing and painting leaves. This site has so much information it's incredible..."
A Botanical Art Beginner
Video TIPS - Drawing and Painting Leaves - watch while others show you how to paint leaves

Do you have a tip?

If you have created a tip and/or a video and/or an article or book which focuses on drawing and/or painting leaves which deserves to be on this page please contact me with the details - via the form at the bottom of this page
Banner Image: crop of a watercolour painting of Paphiopedilim javanicum var. virens (1983) by Pandora Sellars - regarded as a strong early example of the use of leaves to provide a backdrop
Picture
Masumi Yamanaka with her painting of the Stone Pine in Kew Gardens - planted in 1846. Since she painted it, the tree has lost three major branches in a big storm in 2013 - proving the worth of painting the tree.

Botanical Art Tips - How to Draw and Paint Leaves
​

If you can paint one leaf you can paint the world  
​John Ruskin (1819-1900)
For many botanical artists, creating realism in leaves may be daunting. Some dread painting leaves so much that they will always compromise compositions by reducing the numbers to be painted. You can break through this pain barrier and reduce the panic by adopting a more systematic approach.
Elaine Searle
Below you will find sections covering:
  • Botanical artists / tutors who specialise in leaf painting
  • links to VIDEO instruction for leaf painting​
PLUS instruction books with a particular focus on leaves
​PLUS Tips in sections about:
  • leaf shapes
  • ​leaf veination
  • leaf arrangement - phyllotaxis
  • leaf colour, colour cards and mixing greens
  • colour cards for identifying greens
  • how to paint leaves in watercolour
If you want to learn how to draw and paint leaves here are some TIPS ​
  • OBSERVE trees and leaves through the seasons
  • LEARN about the different leaf shapes, veination, and edges (margins)
  • DRAW and paint single leaves to appreciate the huge range of leaf shapes
  • CREATE colour charts for different types of green. 
  • STUDY PAINTINGS of leaves by past and present artists 
  • THINK about how you are going to paint a leaf befpre you start. There are different approaches = but you need to know which one you will use!
REFERENCE: Checklist of Leaf Characteristics
The following link to Wikipedia pages which explain the terms:
Picture
Diagram of a Simple Leaf: 1. Apex 2. Midvein (Primary vein) 3. Secondary vein. 4. Lamina. 5. Leaf margin 6. Petiole 7. Bud 8. Stem
REFERENCE: Articles about Leaves
  • Leaves By Dick Rauh (Originally appeared in The Botanical Artist, Number 35)
  • More Leaves By Dick Rauh Originally appeared in The Botanical Artist, Number 36

The Very Best Botanical Painters of Leaves
​

This is a new section in which I aim to list all the very best leaf painters.

It was prompted by the death of Pandora Sellars who has been characterised as "the best leaf painter ever".  ​
I have always been interested in how an artist paints leaves. When I started judging botanical art in the mid 1990s I was surprised by how many novice painters gave them very superficial treatment – the flower was paramount. However I follow Ruskin who expressed it, perhaps too optimistically, 'if you can paint one leaf you can paint the world'.
Dr Shirley Sherwood (2012)

Past Masters
​

The very best contemporary leaf painters ever include:
  • Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) - excelled at painting tropical leaves and those of orchids and using leaves as an important part of the design and composition of a painting.
  • Rory McEwen (1932-1982) - produced a series of paintings of leaves on vellum - associated with specific places - which are much admired
Her paintings have an immediately recognisable stamp and probably her leaves are amongst the most beautiful and yet accurate that have ever been painted
Dr Shirley Sherwood - botanical art collector, author and philanthropist (from "A Passion for Plants") speaking about Pandora Sellars
Picture
Orchids by Pandora Sellars at the Natural History Museum

Contemporary Living Artists
​

Contemporary living artists who have excelled at painting leaves include:
  • Kimiyo Maruyama GM (RHS 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2015) ​- who creates outstanding paintings of evergreen trees in Japan. She is revered in Japan as a master of her specialised form of botanical illustration
  • Richard (Dick) Rauh GM (2006) is one of the most knowledgeable botanical painters of leaves. ​He came to botanical art in retirement and then earned a doctorate in plant sciences in 2001 from the City University of New York. Do read his articles!
  • Julia Trickey who has won two RHS Gold Medals for paintings of leaves:  ‘Leaf Portraits’ (2006) and ‘Leaves - Celebrating Imperfection’ (2008)
  • Roger Reynolds won an RHS Gold Medal in 2016 for his display about "The Tip of the Branch"
  • Jessica Shepherd who had a very successful solo exhibition in London of 30+ paintings of ONLY leaves called Leafscape and published a book in association with the exhibition in 2017.
If you have a suggestion about a botanical painter who excels or excelled at painting leaves please contact me.
Picture
Leafscape Paintings by Jessica Shepherd
​The video below is about Jessica Shepherd's project to paint leaves - and produce enormous paintings of leaves and her exhibition called Leafscape in 2017 at Abbott and Holder, London (16th – 26th February 2017).

Botanical Artists and Tutors - with a focus on painting leaves

Although every botanical artist will paint leaves, not every artist specialises in teaching how to paint leaves, buds and trees.

Below I've highlighted a number of artists who have focused on leaves as part of their portfolio of artwork and/or teaching.
If you plan to enter a painting for a juried exhibition, bear in mind that judges are drawn to leaves like radar!...... they will notice poorly executed leaves or those treated as an afterthought.
Dianne Sutherland in Painting Leaves: Colour Mixing

UK Artists
​

Lizzie Harper (Lizzie Harper Illustration)
writes natural history and botanical articles and produces illustrations for the Field Studies Council. She has also provided a number of articles about sketching and painting leaves. She also has examples of 303 different leaves on her website. Plus this is an example of one of her leaf painting workshops.
Rosie Sanders GM 
​Provides short courses, includes ones on painting leaves. She also has a DVD about painting leaves (see Video Tips below)
Jessica Shepherd
Developed a project of 30 paintings just about leaves.  See Leafscape. She provides periodic workshops of the topic - by invitation e.g. workshop in Transylvania in 2021
Dianne Sutherland
Julia Trickey GM 
Likes leaves - particularly those which are less than perfect.
​She has developed a number of articles, a book (see below),  resources and videos about painting leaves.  
Picture
Julia Trickey SBA with "Leaves from Bath Botanical Gardens" - exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists in 2013 and at the American Society of Botanical Artists in 2016 - where it received an award.

Botanical Art Instruction Books  - LEAVES AND TREES
​

The book that needs to be written!
​

Undoubtedly the book that is MISSING on the bookshelves of botanical art students is one which SOLELY focuses on "how to draw and paint leaves".

That's because it doesn't exist.

​That's a hint for any existing or budding authors out there!

It's worth taking a look at Walter Hood Fitch's advice on Botanical Drawing - particularly in relation to leaves (see Scientific Botanical Illustration for a summary)
This page contains
  • various references to various books for botanical artists and
  • a commentary on how they tackle trees and leaves - (with page numbers!).
The books vary in content depending on whether they are written from a botanical or painting perspective.

​References to books with sections on drawing and painting leaves are in a call-out box like this one.
Understanding the Flowering Plants: a practical guide for botanical illustrators 
by Anne Bebington
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The book is written for everyone - even those with very little botanical knowledge. 
This book is the botany course you wish you could take. It will pull you through it's pages, and you will never look at plants again in the same way. Review
Extremely useful in general and particularly helpful for the botanical illustrator where it deals with the preparation of the plant specimen for microscopic detail. Review
Anne Bebbington has a 23 page Chapter on Leaves (pages 59-82) in her book Understanding the Flowering Plants. It has lots of photos and diagrams to accompany the text. 

​It's written very much from a botanical perspective and aims to develop understanding of various leaf characteristics. It  covers:
  • the structure and orientation of a leaf and its stalk
  • shape and proportions of a lead blade and margins
  • patterns of leaf veination
  • colours, texture and variegated leaves
  • hairs and glands
  • highlights differences between simple and compound leaves
  • reviews methods of leaf attachment and arrangement
  • considers special adaptations
​Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd
Publication date: 1 September 2014
Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK: 5.0 based on 13 customer reviews
  • in USA: 5.0 based on 2 customer reviews​​

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Leaves - observations in watercolour 
by Julia Trickey 
RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS: This is not the book that needs to be written. However it covers the basics and is a great starter for those new to painting leaves and/or those who regularly have trouble painting convincing leaves. Julia provides precise and cogent instructions of how to achieve specific painting effects required for different types of leaves.

Read my blog post Book Review: Leaves by Julia Trickey
Covers various watercolour painting techniques for painting a variety of leaves as notes (i.e. NOT a step by step). Plus summaries about 
  • looking at leaves and identifying charcateristics
  • mixing greens
  • watercolour techniques for painting leaves
  • a very useful OVERVIEW of Key points for painting leaves.
This is a small paperback which has been well produced and has good quality colours.
OTHER INSTRUCTION BOOKS ABOUT TREES AND LEAVES

Listed below - with specific commentary on their relevance to trees and leaves - are as follows.
(Links in the title are to a dedicated page containing an in-depth review of the book as a whole)
​
  • Botanical Drawing using graphite and coloured pencils by Sue Vize - a 20 page section on leaves
  • Handbook of Plant Forms for Botanical Artists By Margaret Stevens (Author), Ernest E. Clark (Author) - covers various leaf forms for a number of families
  • The Art of Botanical Painting - a section on foliage colour covering both coloured pencils and watercolour. 
  • The Botanical Palette - a very short section on the colour green 
  • The Botanical Illustrator's Handbook (2016) by Sally Pinhey - a 12 page chapter on "the trouble with greens"
  • Botanical Illustration by Valerie Oxley - 7 pages on leaves

OTHER BOOKS ABOUT DRAWING AND PAINTING TREES
  • Treasured Trees Paintings by by Masumi Yamanaka | Text by Christina Harrison and  Martyn Rix
  • ​The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century by Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet - the entire book is about drawing tress in pen and ink

PLUS See the section below commenting on how various books cover mixing green as a colour

Video Instruction - drawing and painting leaves
​

On my painting courses, 'How do you paint leaves?' is the one question I get asked the most".
Rosie Sanders
​If you ignore all the "speed painting" and "easy ways to paint leaves" and "impressionistic blobby leaf painting" videos which litter YouTube you'll find those by competent botanical artists.

A good query to search for videos online is "botanical illustration leaves".

Botanical artists with digital instruction (online or via a DVD) about painting leaves includes:​
​See also Video Tips: Painting Leaves
Video - Leaves in Art History
​
You can also get instruction in leaf painting by looking at paintings by past masters - sych as The Great Piece of Turf by Albrecht Durer. This video comes with expert commentary by two art historians who comment on how the painting is constructed and painted.

Botanical Art Tips - Leaf Shapes, Veination and Arrangement

Leaf shape
​

The size, shape, veination and margins of leaves all serve to distinguish one from another. 
​Leaves also don't exist without a twig or stem. It's important therefore to important to recognise what you are drawing and painting if you want to be botanically accurate.
  • Botanical Illustration: Tips on leaf shapes One of the main aspects to consider is the leaf of the plant. Lizzie Harper recommends that the first thing to do is to figure out if you're drawing a dicot or a monocot.
  • Leaf shapes | Plant Life blog - The overall shapes of leaves and leaflets are often characteristic of individual species of plants and, together with reproductive features, are used in plant identification.
  • Leaf lobing and division | Plant Life blog - The pattern of leaf lobes (projections) or divisions, leaf arrangement, the number, and the shape of leaflets composing compound leaves are often useful characteristics for identification of plants.
REFERENCE: INSTRUCTION: ​BOOKS:
  • The Art of Botanical Painting has a two page short section on the anatomy of leaves (page 20-21)

Leaf veination
​

Why do leaves have veins?
  • The veins in a leaf transport water and nutrients  from the roots via the stem to all parts of the leaf.  
  • They also move the sap and carbohydrates out of the leaf.
  • Veins also provide structural support for the part of the leaf inbetween the veins.
REFERENCE:
A vein is made up of a vascular bundle. At the core of each bundle are clusters of two distinct types of conducting cells: Xylem: cells that bring water and minerals from the roots into the leaf. Phloem: cells that usually move sap, with dissolved sucrose, produced by photosynthesis in the leaf, out of the leaf.
Leaf | Wikipedia 
Picture
Vein skeleton of a leaf
TIPS about Leaf Veins
  • Veins are often very delicate - don't overwork the veins
  • You MUST study the structure and shapes of the veination of individual leaves - it varies from leaf to leaf. Veination is a distinguishing characteristic of a leaf. If you get the venation wrong then the leaf is NOT botanically accurate.
  • If you apply a light wash first - for the underlying green of the vein - you can then negative paint the areas inbetween - being careful to reflect the tonal variances caused by the direction of light
  • you can mask veins using masking fluid. You need a fine brush or a masking pen to apply this
  • you can lift out veins while paint is still wet.
  • Painting a leaf which has become skeletal can be fun. A miniature brush is recommended for the fine lines.
Picture
The vasculature of a bramble leaf. Image captured with a polarised light backlight through a cross-polarised filter to give a bright dark background.
Leaf Rubbing

This video by Elaine Searle (Paint Botanical) demonstrates how to take a leaf rubbing using tracing paper and a soft pencil - so you can study the veination in different leaves.
Botanical Drawing using graphite and coloured pencils
by Sue Vize
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
​This is a book which is very accessible - simple to read - and yet packed full of technical content.  It's unsurprising therefore that it has a lot of happy readers who use or want to use graphite and/or coloured pencils

I'm a fan of books by The Crowood Press - they're always solid on the technical but also have a strong emphasis on being accessible and well produced.
This book contains a whole section on leaves covering 20 pages. The book has a nice mix of
  • what to note and pay attention to in terms of observing the plant
  • plus instructions on how to display the leaf, ways of gaining a better understanding of margins and veination, outline drawings, how to shade / portray shine / display variegation / draw silver or furry leaves 
  • tips for drawing leaves
  • includes two demonstrations of a step by step
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd
First published: 15 Jun. 2016

Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK: 4.9 (based on 26 customer reviews)
  • in USA: 4.7 based on 12 customer reviews​

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Leaf arrangement (Phyllotaxis or Phyllotaxy)
​

The technical term for leaf arrangement - Phyllotaxis - comes from two words from Ancient Greece, namely 
  • phýllon "leaf" and 
  • táxis "arrangement"
The nature of leaf arrangement is one of the key differentiating characteristics of vascular plants.
There are three basic types of arrangements of leaves on a stem in flowering plants (angiosperms) include:
  • opposite - two leaves spring from the same node on opposite sides of the stem. Successive leaf pairs which occur 90 degrees apart is a pattern descrived as decussate.  (This is where I get to include one of my drawings of a Buddha's Temple (part of the Crassula family)
  • alternate spiral - one leaf at each successive node. There are various descriptions for the different ways this can happen.  This can involve a spiral and it may include Fibonacci patterns. 
  • whorled - more than two leaves at each node. Generally all the leaves are attached at the base of the shoot. These can create a rosette.
​
From the artist's perspective it's essential to inspect the nature of the leaf arrangement and the number and angles involved.
REFERENCE
Picture
Crassula Buddha's Temple by Katherine Tyrrell
Handbook of Plant Forms for Botanical Artists
By Margaret Stevens (Author), Ernest E. Clark (Author)
​Less a "how to paint" and more  a "what to paint" book.

​Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Batsford Ltd;
Reprint edition: 22 April 2013
SUITABLE FOR INTERMEDIATE & EXPERIENCED FLOWER PAINTERS AND BOTANICAL ARTISTS
​- and particularly those aspiring botanical artists who are following the Society of Botanical Artist's Diploma Course!

Margaret Stevens's 4th Botanical Art Book - written while Course Director for the Diploma Course offered by the Society of Botanical Artists - is very different from her previous books. This time it is a completely revised and expanded version of an old book. This book might appear to disappoint on first look as it's so very different from the previous three books. However, keep reading - this one is much more focused on developing the botanical knowledge of plant forms that all excellent botanical artists need to have.

In addition to the leaves of various flowers, it also covers
  • Leaf Forms - in outline
  • Sycamore Acer pseudo-platanus
  • Japanese Maple Acer palmatum var. dissectum
  • Holly Ilex Aquifolium plus variants 'Ferox Argentea' and 'Bacciflava'
  • Common Ivy Hedera helix
  • Red Cabbage Brassica oleracea
  • Brussels Sprouts Gemnifera group
  • Hedge Bindweed Calystegia sepium
  • White Bryony Bryonia dioica
  • Vegetable Marrow  Curcubita pepo ovifera
  • Black Bryony Tamus communis
  • Oak Quercus robus, 
  • Horse Chestnut Aesculus hipposcastanum
  • Laurel Prunus laurocersasus
  • Mistletoe viscum album
  • Australian broad-leaved Mistletoe Amyema miquelii
  • Privet Ligustrum vulgare + delavayanum
  • Ash Faxinus excelsior

Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK: 4.4 (based on 7 customer reviews)
  • ​in USA: 4.1 (based on 5 customer reviews)

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Leaf Colour and Mixing Greens

Not all leaves are green and not all greens are the same
Julia Trickey
Picture
From " Simple Steps to choosing a palette" - On the left is Janene Walky's basic color chart which she takes into the field or uses to narrow the possibilities before she gets out her pigment card file with mixes for that particular pigment and color notes. Janene also puts samples of mixes on the back too.
Green Colour Swatches and Colour Cards
  • Janene Walky has an excellent tip about creating pigment based colour cards to use when in the field and you need to record a colour - see her blog post Simple Steps to choosing a palette
  • Watercolour Comparison 5 - Greens - Jane Blundell looks at a range of single pigment greens, convenience green mixtures and wonderful special effect greens
  • Green Watercolour Swatches - Jane Blundell displays charts of different green colours and identifies each (you need to place your cursor over the individual colour to see the paint name and brand)
Mixing Greens 
Desert Plants
  • Color Curriculum - tips of mixing greens for desert plants by Carolyn Payzant (This is part of a series of posts that Carolyn did for the Journal of the American Society of Botanical Artists)
Bloom
  • Bloom and Leaves - Shevaun Doherty comments on the issues associated with achieving the blue, grey greens associated with bloom and the underneath of leaves
Bloom is also notoriously difficult to depict in watercolours, particularly when the use of white is so frowned upon. I know that some artists paint bloom by mixing a tiny bit of cobalt with white gouache and drybrush it on afterwards, but most (myself included) carefully paint the bloom first and build up the darker colours around it.
Shevaun Doherty

Botanical Art Books - and mixing/painting greens
​

When examining various text books, advice and information on painting leaves is nowhere near as expansive as that provided for painting flowers!  This is doubtless one of the reasons why so many budding botanical artists want help with painting leaves and mixing greens!

​Links in the titles of the books below are to in-depth reviews on other pages of this website.
​
The Art of Botanical Painting - has a section on foliage colour covering both coloured pencils and watercolour.  Practical examples are given - with images of leaves - and the different mixes used. Plus a four page step by step of a painting of two varieties of Hedera

The section is mostly images. Most of the text is concerned with specifying colour mixes.
The Botanical Palette - has a very short section on the colour green plus page 120 covers  colour testing colours - and comments on colours with green in their title. ​The book was written at a time when nearly every botanical artist used Winsor & Newton for watercolours. However this has changed since W&N's base for manufacturing left the UK and changes in colours started to be noticed e.g. colour variations depending on when the paint was manufactured or after pigment recipies were changed. It should also be noted that colours with the same name from different manufacturers may not be same colour. ​
The Botanical Illustrator's Handbook (2016)
by Sally Pinhey
The Botanical Illustrators Handbook has a 12 page chapter called The Trouble with Greens. ​Its content includes:
  • examples of different colour mixes of blue and yellow
  • how to cope with mixing greens
  • the challenges of too much green or boring greens

Rated an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars by 17 customer reviews
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd (4 April 2014)

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Botanical Art Tips - How to Paint Leaves in Watercolour
​

​These are articles about how to paint leaves in watercolour
See also Video Tips - Painting Leaves
Botanical Illustration
by Valerie Oxley
​RECOMMENDED re content. An excellent manual for anybody who wants to learn more about botanical illustration with a strong botanical perspective. Valerie Oxley provides a 7 page section on 'how to paint leaves' in her book Botanical Illustration. While she covers structural and physiological aspects of leaves, her primary focus is on the process for painting leaves.

She provides practical tips on:
  • things to check before starting to paint
  • checking the paint colour you have have mixed prior to application
  • how to build watercolour washes
  • how to paint up to leaf margins
  • how to tackle painting lots of leaves 
  • the best way to paint a vaiegated leaf
  • how to create patterns and blotches on leaves
  • how to create highlights on shiny of glossy leaves
  • how to tackle silver or grey leaves
  • how to paint the veination to best effect and different approaches for painting veins
  • making leaves look more realistic
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd First Edition 18 Sept. 2008

​UK: Rated an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars by 33 customer reviews (includes 1* review but no explanation. Spoiler / pagination issue?)

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Botanical Illustration from Amazon.co.uk
​USA: Rated an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars by 29 customer reviews. (1 star ratings relate to poor pagination by US publisher - not content)

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Botanical Illustration from Amazon.com

Botanical Art Tips - Stems
​

Stems, or any cylindrical portions of plants, should be treated as in the instance in the foregoing cut— a reflected light should be left on the shaded side; this will suggest that a section would be circular, but were the shading deepest near the outline of the stem, it would appear compressed, and a section would be oval.

I have heard it remarked that reflected lights are an artistic refinement in botanical drawings for scientific purposes, but as it is certainly effective and natural an artist may safely give the paper on which he draws some credit for reflection.        
Walter Hood Fitch
Picture
Different types of Stems

Botanical Art Tips - How to draw and paint Trees
​

a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species
​Tree | Wikipedia
Picture
Queen Elizabeth Oak by Mark Frith (Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery 2018)
It's very difficult to find anybody teaching "how to draw trees" - and yet trees are much more than their leaf shapes and the flowers, fruit and berries they bear.
THE OTHER BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BE WRITTEN!
We also need a good book written by an experienced botanical artist about how to draw trees.

At the moment there's a few books around which purport to show you how to draw trees. The words "simple steps" often crop up. They seem to me to be aimed more at the landscape painter than the botanical artist. I'm generally not impressed

ARTISTS WHO DRAW AND PAINT TREES
Rather than show you show you information about books about how to paint trees and leaves, it's actually much easier to show you
  • images of people who have done this; or
  • books about people who have drawn and painted trees
However I am trying hard to track down information which is available online or you can buy.....
Picture
"The 4,000 year old Cypress of Abaruh, Sarv-e Abarkuh, Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis" by Sandra Doyle won the People's Choice Award at the SBA's 2017 Annual Exhibition.
REFERENCE (blog posts on this website): ​

TIPS for Drawing Trees

If you want to learn how to draw and paint trees here are some TIPS BEFORE YOU START

DISTINGUISH:
  • Between Native and Non-Native trees - this is often botanically significant

OBSERVE & STUDY:
  • the tree in different seasons and how it changes over time (Is it deciduous or evergreen?)
  • the habit of the tree - is it woody or herbaceous? (For those with a woody habit is it a tree or a shrub?) 
  • Does it tend to grow alone or in groups? (this affects the shape of the tree)
  • the tree in winter to understand the its structure and the patterns of branches. What shapes does the tree adopt?
  • the shape of the tree in summer to see the shape of the tree in leaf
  • the buds, fruits, berries and nuts and how they grow and change over time.
  • the prickles, spines and thorns present on some trees and large shrubs
Picture
Trees and shrubs by Pamela Taylor Bsc PhD SBA - exhibited at the SBA Annual Exhibition 2016. They include a Walnut, Crack Willow, Wych Elm, Stinking hellebore and a Mahonia
Picture
"The Tip of the Branch" An RHS Gold Medal was awarded to Roger Reynolds for his exhibit "The Tip of the Branch" - which showed the characteristics of different trees through the seasons
MEASURE:
  • the size of: buds, twigs, typical branches, immature leaf, mature leaf, a mature tree (you may need to approximate for the latter - so look for proxy vertical and horizontal measures)
RECORD:
  • patterns and different colours present in the bark 
  • How the green of the leaf changes over time

IDENTIFY:
  • characteristic 'negative' shapes of spaces inbetween branches, twigs and leaves (negative space is also important for conveying accuracy)

TIPS when planning to paint a tree

Think about:
  • Scale. Trees are big. How will you adjust scale so you can draw/paint a complete tree?
  • Size and shape (format) of the paper you will use: How will you fit your subject matter to your paper
  • Composition: If including specific aspects of the tree in the drawing/painting
    • how will you design a composition which is pleasing to the eye.
    • What specific aspects of the tree will you include.
    • Will you include a painting of the entire tree?
  • Detail - think about the balance between the whole tree and the detail. You have to sacrifice some detail if drawing the whole tree
CASE STUDY:  See Hye Woo Shin's botanical illustrations at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2013 (below) - where she won a Gold Medal and best Exhibit Award for some excellent examples of contemporary botanical illustration of trees. In this instance her paintings were of Lauraceae in Korea.
TUTORIALS
WEBSITE REFERENCES

Certain websites provide a lot of useful information about individual trees
Picture
My 'on the spot' sketch of the trees around the lake in St James Park following the workshop at the National Gallery with Sarah Simblet. I was focusing on capturing scale, shapes and relationships and exploring a panoramic format rather than trying to record detail.

The Very Best Painters of Trees
​

Botanical Artists in History
​

  • Georg Dionysius Ehret painted a number of outstanding trees - working from those growing in the gardens he knew
  • Marianne North made a point of portraying trees on her travels across different continents

(to be developed further)
Plantae Selectae - Drawing of a Cedar Tree by Georg Ehret - probably from the specimens grown in the Chelsea Physic Garden
Plantae Selectae - Drawing of a Cedar Tree by Georg Ehret - probably from the specimens grown in the Chelsea Physic Garden

Contemporary Botanical Artists & Illustrators - drawing and painting trees
​

The best best painters of trees in terms of contemporary artists and illustrators include:
See also my blog post about Recording Ancient and Heritage Trees for comments on major contemporary projects by Masumi Yamanaka and Mark Frith
Picture
The first time Hye Woo Shin (South Korea) exhibited at the RHS Botanical Art Show, she won an RHS Gold Medal AND the 'Best Exhibit" prize for her paintings of trees in the Lauracea (Laurel Family) in Korea
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Mark Frith with the first of his graphite drawings of ancient oaks for Felix Dennis to be exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery
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Mark Frith's 20 highly intricate, large-scale graphite drawings which depict Britain’s most characterful veteran oaks, many of which are more than 1,000 years old - exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew.
A Legacy of Ancient Oaks by Mark Frith with text by Emma Crichton-Miller
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front cover and spine of "A Legacy of Ancient Oaks"
The book accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens, from 6 October 2018 – March 2019.

​A gazeteer is provided at the end of the book with the locations of each tree.

​It's proved extremely popular with the public visiting Kew Gardens.
Format: Hardback (112 pages with 51 monochrome illustrations)
Dimensions: 230 x 290 mm. 
ISBN 978 1 84246 667 4
Publisher: ​Kew Publishing
Publication date: 15 October 2018

Rated an average of 4.6 out of 5 on Amazon but sold extremely fast at Kew

​BUY THE BOOK
  • at Kew Gardens - in person at the Gallery or in the Shop
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Kew's Heritage Trees by Masumi Yamanaka
Treasured Trees 
Paintings by by Masumi Yamanaka | Text by Christina Harrison and  Martyn Rix
This catalogue produced in association with the exhibition of  Kew's Heritage Trees - paintings by Masumi Yamanaka at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew in 2015
This exhibition focused on what are known as the Heritage Trees and include paintings of the trees known as the "Old Lions" which have been living at Kew for over 250 years.

READ MY Review: Kew's Heritage Trees - paintings by Masumi Yamanaka​

VIEW a slideshow of images of Kew's Heritage Trees | The Telegraph 
​Hardcover: 120 pages
Publisher: Kew Publishing
Publication date: 1 Mar. 2015
​Rated an average of 5 out of 5 stars by 2 customer reviews on Amazon

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Treasured Trees from Amazon UK
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Treasured Trees from Amazon.com
The New Sylva

One of the biggest projects in recent years has been the drawing of all the forest and orchard trees in the UK by Sarah Simblet
​The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century
by co-authors: Gabriel Hemery (text) and Sarah Simblet (illustrations)
This detailed celebration of Britain's trees & forest is a contemporary version of the original, by silvologist Gabriel Hemery and artist Sarah Simblet

John Evelyn's Sylva, published by the Royal Society in 1664, was the world's first comprehensive study of trees and inspired this publication.

The book is illustrated with over 200 detailed contemporary drawings by Sarah Simblet of trees in the UK. The New Sylva describes the tree species that play a significant role in today's society, and offers a deep and enriching understanding of our orchards and forests.
​
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 10 April 2014

Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars by 57 customer reviews

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REFERENCE:

Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions by the English writer John Evelyn was recognised as one of the most influential texts on forestry ever published.

You can read a digital version of one of the later editions (Sylva: Or, a Discourse of Forest Trees by John Evelyn, John Nisbet - Published 1908)

​Botanical Art Tips - Bark
​

Careful observation of how bark varies is essential when drawing or painting a tree. 

​Bark tissue has a number of different components and varies significantly from tree to tree.

Rachel Munn has made a number of wonderful studies of bark
REFERENCE
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White Poplar - Populus alba - has diamond shaped markings on the bark of the trunk
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Chinese Red Birch - Betula Albosinensis (in a botanic garden in the UK)

How to paint Twigs and Buds - in Winter and Spring
​

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Display of twigs and buds by Sarah Morrish at RHS Botanical Art Show 2016.
BACK: Tips and Techniques
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    CONTACT ME
    if you have a relevant new online tip or video about drawing & painting trees or leaves (state URL)