Trees: Larger observational study of an individual tree

For this exercise I went for a walk around Fleet Pond, looking for a tree that would inspire me, and found one I really liked.

I love this tree - an old Silver birch with a variety of very distinctive and beautiful patterns. It had a very old trunk and also a newer one, which gave the impression it was two different trees joined together. I took some notes on the direction of the light and the weather at the time, and several pictures so I could work at home as it was too cold to sit there and sketch in plein air.

My notes say - “It’s 11:30 am. and the sun is shining from the right, creating interesting light and shadow on the texture of the two trunks. However the surrounding trees are blocking some of the light so there isn’t a high contrast between the light and shadow”.

Things that went well -

I think I portrayed the difference in bark texture very well and I like the fact it looks somewhat surrealist.

Things that went badly -

I think it’s a bit over worked at the bottom of the tree - I kept adding more and more detail and found it difficult to stop. Also, the exercise was to draw a tree so I left out the surrounding background, which was more trees and foliage, and without that background the composition looks somehow incomplete.