Step By Step: Drawing A Wooded Area With Pen And Ink

[rahul_jain]

As a composition theme, wooded areas are great to draw with pen and ink. Texture of trees and foliage is ideal for rendering with pen and ink and by using simple techniques, a wooded area can be easily drawn if you can draw a tree trunk and foliage. There are limitless variations in wooded areas and I cover a lot of them in vol.5 of my pen and ink drawing workbooks. Here I will show how a simple wooded area can be drawn in simple step by step manner, even by absolute beginners. Give it a try.

Step 1: Draw the foreground trunks.

It is always helpful to draw foreground first (objects that are in front) followed by objects behind them as there is no 'erasure' in pen and ink drawing. Start by drawing the foreground trunks. Give them interesting tapered shape with overlaps. This is discussed in detail in vol. 5 of my pen and ink drawing workbooks.

Step 2: Texture the trunks.

Use 'bark stroke' and '2 tone technique' to texture the trunks. This is discussed in detail in this FREE Tutorial and also in vol 1-2 of my drawing workbooks.

Step 3: Add more Visible Trunks and Branches

A defining characteristics of a wooded area is dense foliage with trunks and branches visible through it. Add more visible trunks and branches per your liking. By using different density and layout of such visible trunks and branches, you can give very different feel to your wooded areas.

Step 4: Texture the Added Trunk and Branches

Texture them as before. Notice how I have used 'discontinuity' in the trunks and branches to add depth to my drawing. In next step, foliage is drawn in the white areas between trunks/branches to add perception of wooded area and depth.

Step 5: Add Foliage in White Space

To bring out the feel of wooded area, add foliage in the white space between trunks and branches. Add more trunks and branches, especially smaller ones at the top if desired. Play with the addition of foliage and trunks/branches to give the wooded area desired feel. Make sure to also vary the intensity of foliage to give it more depth. This is discussed in detail in vol. 5 of my pen and ink drawing workbooks.

Step 6: Finish with Additional Foreground Elements

More foreground elements can be added to create additional visual interest. Here I added some stones and a path leading into the wooded areas to add visual interest. This completes this drawing.

Hope you found the instructions helpful and informative. Wooded areas with many different feel can be drawn using this technique. If you want to learn drawing pleasing pen and ink landscapes, then check out my workbooks and FREE Tutorials.

Feel free to share this in your social media and with others.

Happy Drawing,

Rahul

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