Outdoor Sketching (1 of 3): Drawing Green Spaces (Patreon)

Outdoor sketching is an excellent way to practise drawing and get a chance to enjoy the sunshine at the same time. In this short series, we will be looking at drawing different outdoor spaces; often when people think of outdraw drawing, they imagine rolling landscapes, but there is a diverse range of subjects to find interest in.

We will be starting  with a look at drawing green spaces, places filled with plants and trees. Drawing from life is especially productive as it can sometimes be difficult to see natural textures and depth clearly in photos or on screens.

Main Image: Landscape with Heron 

Drawing Greenery

Plants come in a wide variety of shapes and forms. As they can add a great deal of complexity to a scene, it is helpful to have some understanding their structure through drawing.

Eugène Stanislas Alexandre Bléry - 'Tree and Rocks in the Forest of Fontainebleau'

Drawing trees could easily be an entire book of its own – of which there are multiple! - but there are a few things to keep in mind that will help with this complex subject.

First, check the proportions. How much space does the foliage take compared to the trunk? What is the width of the trunk versus its height? And how broad is the foliage compared to the rest of the tree? These proportions give a convincing foundation to build on.

One of the trickiest parts of drawing trees is dealing with the foliage. When doing this, I try to find the overall shape and break it into clumps, and look for rhythms. Different species of trees will vary in their foliage structure. Try to ignore individual leaves, and think of the foliage as a single object.

Rather than trying to draw every single leaf, look for places where the leafy texture is most prominent. This is likely to be around the edges of the foliage shape, and around any areas where shadow meets light. Use your marks to indicate the direction and shape of leaves.

As a general rule, when drawing plants, I try to work out from a simple structure. This helps with understanding what is going on, but also gives you the flexibility to take on different species.

Steps in drawing a snapdragon plant.

This involves starting with a rough idea of the stem structure and building on it. For bushier plants, I would take a similar approach to drawing a tree, by laying out the overall shape and breaking them down into clumps. From here I then define the overall shape of the plant.

The next step is to steadily break down the plant into smaller shapes. Often you can simplify things, by merging leafy areas into a single block (especially those in shadow). Drawing the negative space between the leaves can be a useful way of navigating through complex areas.

Steps in drawing large leaves.

Leaves can usually be treated as a thin structure, though they often are not flat, but bent or 'ruffled' in some way or another. Once the basic shape is found, try placing the midrib down the centre, and laying in the bigger veins. From here, we can work between the central and outer structures to tighten the drawing.

Often, we only need to draw detailed leaves for close up drawings, or for plants with exceptionally large leaf structures. Otherwise, they are too small to see clearly; a few indicators of the shape is all we need.

Scope and Space

One common pitfall to drawing outside is not thinking ahead about the scope of the scene. Often, it is tempting to try and capture the entire space around you, which can lead to weak composition, and rather overwhelming subject matter. It is good practise to be selective with your subject, and decide at he beginning of the drawing what you want to capture.

 Leonardo da Vinci – 'A Branch of a Blackberry'

At its simplest, this can be a study of a singular subject like a tree or plant. Often the only surrounding is the minimal required for context. These focused studies are good for understanding the structure of the subject in a bit more detail, but can also act as portraits of the plants as well.

View into a pond with newts and weeds.

An alternative focused study is to take a slice out of a scene. We can crop a scene wherever we want.  Think about what you want to focus on in your drawing, and in turn, what doesn't need to be included.

Henri-Edmond Cross (Henri-Edmond Delacroix) - 'Garden of the Painter at Saint Clair' 

As we pull back to the mid ground, we are looking a bit more at the space we are working in. This is still selected out from the wider scene, but there will likely be multiple elements in the composition. Try to decide on what your focal point – the most important subject – is, and use the rest of the composition to support it. 

A technique I picked up from my painting teacher, Tim Patrick, involves starting by drawing a frame, before filling it up – even if the frame takes up the whole page.

Some people like to use a viewfinder to select a part of the scene. Whilst I tend not to, this is an effective way of limiting your scope if you find it hard to scale your scene. Be mindful of the constant size of your viewfinder – if you want the effect of 'zooming' in and out, try moving your viewfinder further or closer to your eye. You can adjust the size and proportion by blocking part of it with scrap paper too.

More expansive scenes will include a larger space in the drawing. Perhaps we've gone from a plant, to a garden corner, and have now reached a field. Perspective starts to play a significant role as more distant objects diminish into tiny shapes. These large scenes can be a challenge because there is a lot of material for us to draw!

Piet Mondrian – 'Field with a Row of Trees on the Left' Here the shrinking of trees in perspective helps convey the scale of the space in the drawing.

Simplification will go a long way to help us process this. Look for places to group trees or bushes into large masses. As you get further from these, it is impossible to make out details like leaves. Instead, sketch out the overall shape of the foliage.

Levitan – 'By the Pool' Trees and bushes here are simplified by ensuring they have clear shapes, and by blocking the foliage in with directional pencil marks.

Consider the elements that are included in your composition as well. Plant life tends towards organic shapes, and is prone to looking homogeneous, especially if the scene focuses heavily on foliage. In wider scenes, consider including a variety of elements – human structures, more open space (such as grass and sky) or differently textured elements such as rock or wood – to generate more variety. Tonally, these elements can also create contrast against the greens.

Over to You

This time, the call to action is to get outside and start drawing green spaces, such as parkland, rural areas or gardens. 

Contour drawing of roses.

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This is the first in Lancelot's 'Outdoor Sketching' series, commissioned using money raised here on the Draw Patreon. 

Please do share your drawings with us, as we would love to see what everyone is up! Just tag us with @Draw_Brighton on social media or use the #LifeDrawingFromHome and #DrawBrighton hashtags. You can follow Lancelot on instagram here: @lancelotrichardson 

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