Portrait of Joel - Textures: Trees

The rough, gnarled tree required a loose and flamboyant treatment as far as pencil strokes are concerned. Scribbles, swirls and short, sharp flicks of the pencil help to create the craggy ridges of the bark. Often, it takes me a little while to get my rhythm with textures such as these. When I begin, I am too careful, focusing too much on detail and the result is somewhat plasticky. Gradually, I loosen up, feel the flow of the subject matter and my strokes become a lot more expressive. This is a fun process. To see an impression of the tree emerge from imprecise and fluid rendering is exciting as the end result is often a happy accident, and the freedom involved with such loose applications of colour can be quite liberating.

This is where I will leave the tree, at this stage. Though the bark appears a little red for my liking and the depth of colour needs to be intensified, I will move on to the concrete and the rest of the background. The reason for this is that I will be able to judge colour and tone more accurately when I can see the tree in the context of its background. Also, focusing on one area for long periods is not the best use of time. It generally results in going around in circles or over-doing a section. I find it is much quicker to touch up the entire portrait, near the end of the project, than to persevere in the pursuit of perfection as each section is completed.

Here is a close-up of the tree, so far. Seeing it on the computer, gives a different perspective than when I view it on my drawing table. I'm no longer too close to see the flaws and, already, I can see only too clearly what needs to be done in the way of shadows. Realism is improved enormously once the shadows are correctly rendered, so I will probably attend to that need before I do move on to the rest of the picture.