Pretty Trees ✨🌳 (Step-by-step guide - Week 40) (Patreon)

Hi!! 🤗

In this post I will talk you through the two steps of creating an illustration with brush pens & pencils based on this week's references 🥰

You will find my tips & instructions from base layer to final illustrations below, together with the materials I used!

Tips

Here are some tips for this month's references:

Draw your own version of the references: Use the reference as an idea, and create your own illustrations by adding an extra flowers, skipping a flower, adding an extra leaf, etc. Just play with it and have fun!

Use more colors than usual: Most of the time I try to draw with a limited color palette, but sometimes it's so much fun to use many colors in one illustration! It makes the illustration more whimsical as well 🥰

Keep the background soft: The grass, greenery or flowers in the background don't need details, keep them soft and blurry!

Create depth: When you think you are finished, look a second time at your illustration and see if there is enough depth in it. You can always add more by using Dark Indigo!

Enjoy the imperfections: Loose illustrations look more lively because they're not too perfect. Focus on capturing the feeling and the colors of the place rather than every tiny detail.

Acacia Tree

I used the following Brush pens as a base layer:

Tombow 126 (Light olive)

Tombow 133 (Chartreuse, Light green)

Tombow 912 (Pale Cherry)

Tombow 991 (Light Ocre)

Try to sketch quickly and capture the overall shape of the tree first.

For the second layer, I used the following colored pencils:

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 278 (Chrome Oxide Green)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

Faber-Castell 188 (Sanguine)

Faber-Castell 108 (Dark Cadmium Yellow)

Capture the leaves of the tree by adding scribbles, use Chrome Oxide green first, and highlight them a little bit with Sanguine to get an orange glow. You can also add a bit of Dark Cadmium yellow to get an orange/yellow glow over the leaves and the grass.

Draw the background by adding some dots, blobs and strokes of color.

The other tree

I used the following Brush pens as a base layer:

Tombow 126 (Light olive)

Tombow 133 (Chartreuse, Light green)

Ecoline 374 (Pink Beige)

Tombow 991 (Light Ocre)

Tombow 553 (Mist purple)

Start with blobs of light green to capture the leaves. You can use Burnt Siena (pencil) already to add the shape of the trunk & branches. Fill them with Pink Beige. Then add blobs of color around the tree to get the suggestion of bushes in different colors.

The background consists of a Light Ocre and Mist Purple.

For the second layer, I used the following colored pencils:

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 278 (Chrome Oxide Green)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

Faber-Castell 188 (Sanguine)

Start with the tree, again add leaves by adding scribbles. Do the same with the bushes. Add some sanguine in between to add a pop of color. Use Dark Indigo to create a shading to the hills in the background + some details.

Wishing you lots of fun with these references! 🥰

And as always, don't hesitate to ask me any questions or to show your illustrations in the group chat 🤗

Celyn 🌸