Don't Make This Mistake Drawing Trees - Here's a Better Way 

In all the world people ask to buy their course and there you giving your knowledge for free , i appreciate your hard work and willingness to teach, thanks you sir ..... Respect

I do a lot of these things when I draw trees, but you gave me more to think about (like drawing the depth of the tree by recognizing that sometimes you're drawing the other side of it, or drawing through it). Mostly I LOVE how you address the problem of "you SEE too much" which leads to "you want to draw the impossible"--maybe that's what's been keeping me back from tackling scenery. Thank you for this! :)

One of the most useful tricks I've discovered recently to avoid "knowing too much" about what I'm drawing; is to turn the canvas and reference image upside down. Particularly when I do portraits and difficult details such as the nose and mouth which has lots and lots of unintuitive shadows it makes it so much easier to actually see the shapes and forms rather than than the "symbol" of a nose or the "symbol" of a mouth.

Hands down the best guide on drawing trees I've watched or read. Thank you

After watching a bunch of your video’s I can confidently say you are the best drawing teacher here on RU-vid!! Thank you so much for taking your time and putting in a lot of effort to make these video’s for the benefit of other artists!

You continue to amaze me. It is so helpful to see through your eyes and words. Thank you for making these videos and sharing your work.

I'm impressed you actually drew out all those leaves for the initial demo!!!! Didn't you go nuts?!? How TEDIOUS! 😂 Thanks for the info.

Actually by far the best explanation of easy interpretation of drawing trees. Also great to have for making and sharing the works

Thank you. Drawing a tree and moving hand fingers was my hardest thing to draw and it took me many unsuccessful tries so that I gave up.

You're by far the most mature person I've ever seen in art industry. You've enlightened me, you made me realise that sometimes less details are more. We can convey messages by reducing or increasing the amount of detail. Magnificent. Please keep making content like this sir

I've learnt more in two weeks watching your video than in the past 5 months. Being colour blind was proving very difficult to use watercolour effectively. But going to detailed sketches has proved fruitful. Now trees seem within reach

i only draw trees, and have always resented the “leaves stage.” thanks for offering me a new perspective :) i will try it out next time i draw

One of your videos appeared seemingly unbidden on my whatever it is on youtube, and I've been feasting on them ever since. Living in Perth I was particularly glad to hear your Australian voice in the familiar idiosyncrasies of the Sydney accent which triggered an almost melancholy nostalgia for one who'd spent her childhood and youth on the northern beaches. Having watched perhaps hundreds of videos of artists sharing their advice (in various accents not Australian) I conclude yours (advice, that is) is the most useful.

3:52 you nailed it. This is so true! Sometimes knowledge drags us down.

This is one of those youtube tidbits that others have probably heard only while sitting in a college lecture hall; love love love it

The note regarding the lighter touch as you get closer to the light direction/peak due to density was an extremely useful tip. It makes perfect sense, but as I rarely do any pen work it's something I hadn't quite pieced together for some reason for the medium. Much appreciated!

Excellent video. Not only do I love your drawings, but you have an exceptional ability to put into words what you draw making it so understandable for me to improve my tree drawings as I tend to get lost in the details. Will definitely employ your technique when I try to draw trees. Thanks so much!

Very easy to understand how draw. I loose a lot of steel wool and I get vivid trees. I really appreciate you.

I'm just getting into drawing as of two days ago. So watching this is really funny because you draw this stunning amazing tree and I think "Wow, that's so good" and then immediately afterwards it's "well, it is recognizable as a tree but it's not the best." I have so much to learn!

This video is a huge help for me. I have struggled with clumpy, flat-looking trees; I look forward to trying this method later today. Cheers!

You're teaching me a whole new world of art that I've been looking for for so long- thank you for introducing me to this line of thinking :)

This is the most helpful tree drawing lesson I have ever seen. Thank you

This channel is AMAZING. I'm a concept artist in the videogame industry, and I like sketching, but I definitely want to improve in sketching from real life and this channel is a golden mine of USEFUL information and lessons. Thank you so much for putting this content out, it's all very well explained and showcased.

Thanks for this tutorial that has uplifted my skills!❤

Just found your channel and you are such a beam of sunshine! Great information, thank you so much!

Once, at the end of a plein-air week, one of the staff told me he liked my trees. "Thanks; what about them", I asked? He was looking at a little river scene of a bridge. He said, 'I can tell what everything is in your painting. I see oak trees and maples, and all that stuff around the river. I don't know what those plants are called, but I recognize them.' This was a totally unexpected observation for me. He'd observed that artists in the show treated trees as "foliage" without giving all that greenery the extra level of recognition. I like this video, because it addresses something very important that too many landscape artists don't pay enough attention to.

Phenomenal. The way you explain & demonstrate art actually makes it look approachable. If there's one small suggestion, It would've been nice to see the outline sketch (the "clumps" of the canopy represented as bubbles) side-by-side with the final product, just to further convey how one leads to the other. It's easy to screen-cap them for comparison, so it's by no means a big deal, but quickly comparing them in the video might've been helpful for those who wouldn't think to go the extra step.

Thank you for sharing this. I haven't done any drawing at all for quite a few years, and want to start again. I'm sure this sort of tutorial will get me back into it. Clear and concise!

Thank you for this great tutorial. 😊 At 75yrs I'm just starting to understand that maybe..just maybe..I may learn how to draw.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the video. I felt like I was watching "BOB ROSS"..... (That's an enormous compliment) Please continue to make them.

Stumbling across your video couldn't have come at a better time. I'm in the middle of painting an Australian scene with river red gums in acrylics - and the leaves have been a constant challenge, turning it into an exhausting and demotivating task. Now you have given me a way to visualise it that will help simplify it. Thank you very much for your lovely assistance.

I actually quite like the abstract look of the pebble tree drawing. Great video, has helped me a good bit. Thanks 😊 👍

Thank you for this video. I am going to give your technique a try, right after I watch the video on shadow and shade!

It is quite motivating and I love you teaching us how to “see” differently. That has always been my biggest challenge. Thank you for your lessons

Fascinating tutorial! Thank you for sharing this with the world!!

Really excellent lesson… thank you.. i’ll now observe differently when i draw a tree (shapes & shadows).

I’ve recently started to follow your channel ans I wanted to thank you for the profusion of practical, but not only, tips and suggestions. Thanks!

I found your channel today and my god I never subscribed so fast. I swear you every video I watch is the thing I needed and I mean EVERYONE... I can never thank you enough. Keep up the awesome work.

Thank you for all your drawing videos. It's refreshing to have a skilled artist break down their creative process in such a practical and approachable manner. Your comment about starting to draw before really observing our subject really rang true for me.

Terrific lesson., Thank you ! One never stops learning ... In this case, how to view things by first deleting preconceptions.

Wonderful lesson,thank you for sharing. ❤️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Excellent instruction!

Many thanks Stephen. This is a great lesson.

Excellent tutorial. New way of thinking when drawing trees. Thank you very much.

Extremely helpful video!! Thank you! ❤

This is a very good lesson. There seems to be another problem with the way the trunk is drawn. The trunk appears to be thicker at the point where the branches converge. A trunk never increases in diameter greater than the trunk below.

This was terrific. Thank you for your time and excellent explanations. I will go out today and draw some trees which I've been struggling with --i.e., too much detail!

Wow! What a mind blowing technique 🎉. Fascinating process! Thanks for sharing your experience with an easy to follow “recipe”.

Thanks for the algorithm taking me here. I learnt a lot, it was really well explained and I wouldn't mind having a go at drawing a tree

This is a good lesson for many things, we first learn to draw by using lines, and I think that's a mistake, it's light that we see. Cameras don't caputure lines.

Great tutorials, your skills are amazing. Shapes of masses over conceptualization! 🙏🏻

Wow, using this method in digital art would be very effective, it's so good, thank you very much!!

Breeding your own competition ? Very clever !

I liked drawing like a kid because it was one of things without rules. You can draw what you want, how you want it and use any color. When drawing have rules, it is not fun anymore. Drawing according manual is like some annoying work you need to do.

Wow! Who knew? So interesting to draw shadows instead of leaves. Thank you so much from Canada.

Very well demonstrated!

wow, this is special, what an incredible difference. THANK YOU

Thankyou for sharing this technique 🌟

Thank you so much for your videos Stephen, they are really helpful!

Beautifully done video. Thank you so much for this.

I just discovered your channel and I'm already freaking excited to dive into your other videos also 😮😊 I'm strugglin with making plain and boring trees (my medium is watercolor), but this may help me get them more interesting! 😊

This actually helped me in a way not even mentioned in the video---- draw the leaves first! I've tried numerous methods of drawing trees. I can draw the leaves fairly fine, but I can never make the canopy look right. And it's because I'm trying to draw the trunk first, and then think about how the branches all connect into all the different clumps of leaves. It's not necessarily that I'm drawing the trunk first that's the problem, it's that I'm trying to connect the branches into imaginary leaves that I must try to draw after the fact. I might continue to block out the trunk first, but I'm definitely going to be attempting to get the leaves figured out before I do the finer details and branches. I imagine it would be fun to draw a tree without a reference, and let the shape be dictated by how the weight of the trunk/branches would react to where I've placed clumps of leaves. Very excited to try this out.

Absolutely brilliant

Lovely thanks. The idea that some bits if the tree are further away is really helpful! I could use some further comment on the nature of the marks you used and the thought behind how you vary them. It's deft for you, but not working out when I try it. Looks to be squiggles which are longer on the outside silhouettes. None of them seemed to closed loops that indicate single leaves. With a tree closer to the viewer would you indicate individual leaves?

Thank you very much Stephen, this has been very informative for me.

Thanks for a great tutorial

Really good. Trees are tricky. I'm going to try this today.

very enlightening - thanks Stephen

Oh this is soooooo good! Thank you for telling how to do this❤

Thank you!

Excellent tip. Thanks, mate!😊

The fact that you done the inefficient way of drawing a tree for the sake of example and explanation amazes me. *As a person who has an extremely hard time drawing trees and, if in your shoes, would be skipping to my idea of an effective way.

Amazing! Thank you!

Merci, ce fut très instructif !

It was amazing master, thanks for sharing your experience with us, I learned a lot, greetings from Bogotá Colombia

This was absolutely wonderful ❤❤❤

excellent. Helps tremendously.. thankyou

this was really good. thankyou for the tips. subbed.

Thank you for the video :) I definitely have to work on my trees and stop drawing every... single... leaf :D

Thanks for your help.

Best Tree Tutorial for making it more 3 Dimensional.

It’s fascinating I recently started to paint with oil and with oil you actually think I can’t draw all the details I only want the light and shadows and when drawing with pen I want to draw all details which is impossible, starting to paint helped me a lot to understand how to draw with a pen. Actually I think you shouldn’t wait to long until starting to paint, I see some people saying learn draw first then paint I don’t think this is true.

This video is extremely helpful in learning how to SEE, as trees can be intimidating because of all the detail. I am grateful for your videos because the books I have gotten leave out details. Anyway thank you for the best tutorials I have found so far. I always try to figure out how the branches relate to the clumps, and sometimes you cannot see what is going on underneath. I see you drawing from one clump of the tree rather that lightly sketching out the whole thing in pencil first? If I did that it might end up going off the page. I will have to draw a few trees with circles first to really begin to see all the clumps and learn to simplify a bit so the sketch doesnʼt appear too labored and has a nice composition. Takes lots of practice.

Hi, Stephen nice to see your tutorial about how to avoid mistakes about tree drawing. Your explanation is a key to many people who don’t know how to handle the leaves when drawing a tree. I am one of them,😂. Having watched this video , i am convinced that with the correct method , the job can be done easily. One question , when you hatch the dark area , you use vertical lines but you did not hatch it heavily to create the deep black colour like the photo, right ? Thanks !

Very informative. Thank you.

Obrigada, aprendi muito! Thank you, it’s really helpfull!!

Thank You Stephen, a Aha moment for me with my attempts at trees. Looking forward to test your method.

Awesome tutorial. Perfect in line with Alphonso Dunn tutorials.

love your work

Thank you Stephen you help me a lot ! I will follow you from now on to learn more. 👴

thanks Stephen

The wonderful gate & royal gate.

Hi Stephen thanks so much for this video. I love, drawing trees but find they can turn out flat without being able to catch their essence. I try to draw too many leaves. I'm going to try and see them differently. I believe if we see and spend time looking we can see so much more. 😊Thanks so much for your informative videos.

Thanks, great vid. My low self esteem prevents me from being creative. I can't find a reason to do anything anymore. Why bother when others are already way better than I am. What could I possibly achieve when there are others way better out there. I wish I could get rid of these feelings but I just can't.

Thanks, again, amazing

Your awesome-Thankyou

What an awesome and supportive video!

Sehr instruktiv erklärt. Danke

Wonderful