Tuesday 8 April 2008

Oak

Out in the corner of my big-sister's garden is a lovely old oak tree. It attracts nuthatches, bluetits, jays, woodpigeons, squirrels, local cats, and last winter a toad hibernated under it.

Mel asked me what is it with me and sketching trees. I love the silhouettes they make. Maybe I need new glasses but when I first see a tree, more often than not I see it as a paper cut out against the sky. Not until I walk around a tree do I get a feeling for the way it fills a three-dimensional space. And when I draw a tree I start at the bottom of the trunk and follow it as it grows up and out. If loose the line, I'll start back down at the bottom again.
This is the first charcoal drawing I did last night, and it's pretty tight compared to the ones I've been drawing this morning. I'm really falling in love with charcoal, and I think it's funky to draw a tree using something made out of a tree.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's Mel's tree Steph. That's Mel's tree!!!!

Yellow said...

Thanks Dad. I take it that you liked it then.

ilex said...

Another day, another lovely drawing of tree. It inspired me to see what Wiki had to say about trees, and I kept surfing 'til I got to tree worship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_worship
I especially love the last paragraph about disease and demons. Who knew?

Yellow said...

Clare, I deleted your post so that people couldn't access your email address. Hope that's okay. I've sent you an email about the moley exchange. Thanks for the kick up the derriere.

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