The Way To Draw Fantasy Trees From Real Life

I often go out on a nice sunny day or a terribly rainy day and just take photos of trees and get some great looking reference photos of trees to draw from (I may get some strange looks from people, but who cares?)

Trees and their winding, twisting branches with all that fine detail tree bark that is highly textured just makes me want to draw trees and branches all day long.

Like everything that could exist in a fantasy world it is quite often that what you draw is an exaggerated version of a real life scene or visual.

Look at the photos below and see some of the view points you could possibly draw your trees from. Taking photos really does help you with angles and composition and gives you a valid starting point to draw the trees.

When drawing a tree, the only thing you need to get right is the roots and main trunk of the tree, because once it looks balanced then you can begin to draw all the branches and then the leaves.

So once again the planning of the structure is of great importance.

See the next post on how to draw a tree based on some of these photos above tomorrow, until then take some photos of the things you see.

Tools And Materials For Creating Fantasy Art

When it comes to materials and art equipment it becomes a personal choice as to what you are comfortable with working with, the artists tools can come in all shapes and sizes and you'll find at first that you won't need a lot to start off, but your equipment will grow over the years and you'll eventually have use for quite a bit of kit as your experience improves.

Pencils - Using pencils become a habit when you learn to draw at every available moment, so the choice of pencil you choose to use are your own, but I would recommend the Staedtler range as these are professionally produced but saying this it's handy to get cheaper pencils and stock up too. So pencils are cheap if you get them from any other place than an art shop, in packs they are obviously more expensive if they are the quality ones, but as I said an artists choice of art equipment is a personal one.

See some of the best available pencils below.



Mechanical pencils are also worth a shot because of the fine lead and there is no need for sharpening, just remember to refill on the lead when it runs out.
Again the more time passes the bigger your toolbox(art materials that is!!)

Pens and markers - When the part of the drawing comes to inking you will need a range of markers and pens for this process, the part of pen and ink drawings demands the light and dark to be finalised at this stage so having a grasp on what pens and markers might do the job effectively here is the important thing.



For markers I use anything from bingo markers to permanent markers to black in large areas that need shadow and these are fairly cheap from the pound shop or dollar store. But I have invested in some magic markers as these are the industry standard, well, in comic book art anyway.(and if you have noticed my art style is comic book inspired!)

Fine liners and other specialist pens come later as your toolbox expands(steady now)

Lastly paper is a necessity when it comes to drawing obviously, so any types of good quality paper is a must, but personally mixing and matching quality with the cheap paper is a good practice to split between the sketching of draft drawings and superb masterpieces.

I recommend Strathmore sketch pads for their range of paper sizes alone and a couple of cheaper alternatives.

Creative Art Visualize Success!

Visualize creative art for success

To visualize something is the realisation of a thought, a single idea that could transcend your creative output and propel it to a higher level. To see the art you want to create is one thing but to become part of the visualization process is very intense as an artist, and it's this part of the creative ways we work that we may lose ourselves along the way.

If you can see the path ahead and you know where you are headed, then that's ok, but what of the unsure? The people who cannot realize their artistic visions as some sort of clear walkway ahead? It is time to think about your creative goals and really think about where you are headed, Do you want to just be an artist or do you want to visualize some success?

I'll tell you some of my story first and that the reasons I started this very blog.

First I came from a background were it was just normal to get a regular job and that was an existence, some way to say that you are in the gang, the supposedly normal people who have day jobs working for other people and do what they are told through an annoying "boss and menial worker relationship"

I soon realized I was worth more than this and came to the wonderful world of the internet and that was fine, but what could I do online that would fulfill my life without a boring day job to use up all of my valuable time offline?
I began to research the internet for opportunities, to see what I could do.

During my study phase I came across all manner of brilliant work from home resources that said you could earn up to $2000 in a day just like that and sometimes that amount of money within 30 minutes, well I sure was thrilled, so I began to look further into what would become an endless bore of ridiculous claims and scammy looking information sites that all looked the same, I soon became one of those people who got fed up with make money this and that and tried other options and in doing so I learned a lot about the scams and other things, but more importantly I learned one big lesson that struck me late one night whilst blogging on my many blogs I set up to try and earn some money.

And that was....I had a talent for drawing and I was not using it to my full potential, you see talents are one thing, but if you don't use them enough then what's the point having a so called talent? so I began to plan something out, I read more on being successful as a content writer and became more of a blogger than a writer, I consumed helpful blog articles from the likes of Steve Pavlina and his personal development blog, then I digested lots of blog posts and Darren Rowses Problogger articles then through the archives of many other useful blogs and just found lots of helpful advice about success and creating value for others.

It wasn't until after nearly 4 years that I realised my lifes purpose and that was to create and immerse myself in writing all about my passions of drawing fantasy art and other related comic book art concepts and visualization techniques as that is my number one passion.

To visualize success and understand how you get there is an important step and one that is your own personal path to follow, taking action to get there is the recommended course of well...action. Recent times of a bad economy may get you down, but on the positive side it is an excellent time to evaluate where you want to be in your own life and in the area of creative art, it is so specialized to each artist who needs to get noticed or needs some form of success whether that's writing an ebook, selling some of your art, or creating and maintaining a blog about your work.

5 Ways I Personally Visualize Success

1. I take a pen and paper and I just write goals for the week and I make damn sure by the end of the week that these goals are met, no matter how large or small, these goals could be written in the form of a simple to do list and you just follow it as a daily task.


2. I think and plan ahead....alot! this helps you to overcome potential obstacles before they arise, any decent working business does this in the form of a cashflow forecast or a business strategy and by planning things well ahead you keep ahead of others who are trying something similar to you an you can keep them in check by rising well above them.


3. I look up to others who are successful and invigorate myself with their inspiring and thoughtful content, I'm always interested by other peoples stories and how they became successful, this is like reading case studies of the most successful people in your industry and taking their lead.


4. Constantly learning, always finding new stuff about your area of expertise is always something of high importance and relating that information to others creates value and success in your own eyes and in others, this is where networking comes in handy to find out and learn new things and also share your knowledge with others too.


5. NEVER DOUBT YOURSELF!!!! By being of a positive mind you can achieve more than being either negative or on the fence not doing anything, in my case I look to my to do list and keep active, I create new ideas and concepts, sketches and written notes and I act upon them, usually taking action means it's in the bag and you can move on to new projects that bit more quicker.

So what have we learned here? My guess is you already know where you are going, or you may be unsure, either way visualizing success comes down to one of two things:

The vision to succeed

And the desire to succeed

Be an entrepreneur about visual art and be your creative self at all times and you'll be amazed at the results you can generate.

See also How To Create Value

Drawing As A Relaxing Therapy

Today I got to thinking, that to draw is an amazing thing and one that is totally relaxing for anyone, even if they cannot draw, you can find the time to draw and relax whilst doing it.

Maybe it's the sketching rhythm you build up or the fact that you are sat down the whole time you are in your own comfort zone, drawing what you love to draw that you become relaxed.
Drawing and relaxing go quite well together. Your heart beats at a steady pace whilst quietly thinking in a creative way, much like writing it becomes quite calming and soothing that you begin to draw to see how long you can draw in one sitting.

A nice bit of relaxation is something we all need from time to time and this is especially true with the life styles that we may lead.

I'm sure alot of the great artists had some time to relax and draw and paint what they had to or just wanted to draw in their spare time, drawing lowers the heart rate and is something so personal that it becomes a great hobby for most who take it up.

Also by drawing the things we like to draw or draw best can help you relax to as if you are confident about drawing what you draw then the more relaxed you will feel.
Drawing shouldn't be frustrating it should be fun and one that should be theraputic, filled with purpose and intent.

Got some anger going on?

Then thrash it out on a piece of paper, draw hard lines and sketch what you feel, this can be hard to do but often it lets something out as you transfer pencil to paper, much the same way as you punch a punch bag to relieve the stress of something, drawing has that therapy quality that helps you through, for me it's the sight of my hand drawing and a combination of me sitting down relaxed whilst drawing, the sounds of the pencil scratching the papers surface as you draw, that helps me be relaxed as does other factors like listening to music.

So just sit, relax and draw long into the night!

Other Articles about drawing to relax and bust stress

Drawing To Relax Stress Busting!

Drafting The Ideas And Concepts

Drawing is all about drafting and the drafting end result is a drawing that shows your immortalized idea or concept and imprints it on your mind and on paper, keeping a record for you and serves as the idea to be used for further projects ever after.

Visualize your end results by drafting more than one idea on top of the other. More ideas make more options to draw from, so always try to draw variations of one theme and keep drawing until you have exhausted your current ideas for that particular drawing you want to achieve.

Keep written notes together with your collection of sketches to add further details about your ideas, because if you're like me then you forget a lot,so writing notes helps you relate your art to your notes and keep the ideas alive.

To be an artist does require you to conceptualise 90% of the time and then complete pieces of art the other 10%, taking on board new ways of organizing your time, help effectively create new concepts and ideas and help you to focus too.

Small memo pads are very useful and can fit in your pocket, even a small digital camera can be placed in your pocket to capture scenes whilst out and about on a walk about, this contributes to your ideas and the creative process of drawing.

Simplifying Your Art To Draw More Ideas

The act of simple knows best wins the race with art, the process of drawing quick to capture ideas is essential in the fantasy art industry and simplifying your art in this process helps you along.

Reducing the quantity of lines and shading can make your drawings appear empty, but most of the times this is the desired effect you want to achieve, because all you should really care about are new ideas and concepts you can build on.

By simplifying your art along the way you allow for quicker and faster quality results to emerge in your own art style and drawing more ideas helps you create more possibilities.

An example that best fits what I am talking about is if you look at a cartoonists work, now I don't know if you have ever seen a cartoonist draw, either up close or on television, but they often just start to draw with marker pens and just sketch spontaneously and just seem to know what they are drawing before they have finished drawing it, characters just seem to trip off the pen and faces and expressions and all that quick drawing of lines relates to simple but professional looking work.

3 Tips for making your drawings simple, but effective:

Draw fast and sketch quicker - Knowing what you want to draw is the key, then next you can draw fast to capture it and often the quicker you draw the more energy your art will have, useful for drawing characters in motion or action.

Lose the detail, details are only for your finished drawings, detail just gets in the way at this point and it can distract from your main goal or purpose when focusing on your drawing.

Always have a couple of sheets of paper to sketch ideas out before hand, test the quick sketch method on these sheets and see what ideas you can speed draw...oh and time yourself too, this is all about making your time more effective and useful.

Remember if you always plan to draw quickly, then you will become a better artist at planning other aspects of the art creative process and you'll certainly be a better artist because of it.