Drawing: Trees with William F. Powell

Drawing: Trees with William F. Powell is a tutorial art guide aimed at advanced beginners or intermediate artists for drawing trees alone and in landscape. Released 7th May 2019 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 40 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.

A short general introduction (10%) covers tools and materials including pencils, paper, blending tools, etc. The intro is followed by a group of non-specific tutorials on graphite techniques, shading, light, shapes, tonal values, texture, and perspective. The following tutorial chapters are specific for different parts of trees, such as general shapes, foliage, root and growth patterns, etc. The tutorials move on with full species specific studies.

It's worth noting that the ebook version of the eARC includes a very handy interactive table of contents. I really liked that. Each of the tutorials include 4-6 steps start to finish.

I like these tutorial booklets, they're inexpensive and full of useful info for artists looking for improvement in their own work. Whilst not a beginner specific book, there are lessons to be had here for artists of all levels.

Five stars - for what it covers and for a very short tutorial guide, it does the job admirably well.

Disclosure: I received an early eARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Drawing Trees is a excellent book for beginners or a art class. It offers great advice and techniques. Easy to follow instructions and a short book.

This is a good introduction to learning to draw trees. The book is short, and the instructions have just enough steps to allow you to complete a good likeness. There are a variety of trees to choose from and different features of trees are explored. It is a great book for an initial study. Easy to follow and understood and just enough text. Thank you

I like to draw webcomics, yet I hate drawing scenery. This makes for boring comics.

I requested this book on NetGalley to see if I could really get some tips and tricks on drawing trees, and the artist definitely produced some good ways to handle drawing different types of trees and branches. This might be geared towards the physical artist with a pencil, but someone who is digitally learning how to draw can also utilize the steps in this book to create better looking scenes.

"Drawing: Trees" is a short art book providing tips on how to draw trees with graphite pencils. The author spent a few pages discussing tools, materials, and basic graphite techniques, then he briefly covered shading, values, perspective, composition, and the basic shapes that make up trees. These may provide some new tips for beginners but aren't detailed enough to teach drawing to a complete beginner.

The finished trees were often more like sketches than highly detailed graphite drawings. The basic technique was to rough in the basic shapes, refine those shapes, then add shading and some texture. He gave examples of the basic shapes and finished look for several different kinds of trees. There were step-by-step drawings (with 2 to 6 steps) showing how to draw tree trunks, branches, the base of the tree, foliage around the base, and a fallen tree. There were 3 landscape projects that focused on: a large oak, a pine, and a sycamore.

This is an excellent guide for drawing trees of all types, with quite detailed instructions and lots of helpful tips. The author also includes illustrations of some leaves and talks about topics like shadows, shading, foliage, root patterns and more. Some basic drawing skills will be helpful but this gives you a great idea on how to draw all kinds of trees, from oaks to palm trees, and the other elements that may be in the picture with them.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

"Drawing: Trees" by William F. Powell is an informative, educational step-by-step guide to drawing all kinds of trees of every type and size. Starting at the basics with the tools and basic drawing techniques like shading, Powell takes the artist from the simplest, most basic concepts of drawing, like creating the surface and texture to value, which is the relative lightness or darkness.

Powell also covers nuances such as perspective and composition and the basic shape of the trees you are sketching. He then moves on to tree trunks, branches and foliage. As you go further, it is somewhat surprising all the unique features of drawing a tree there are that you may not have seen or realized before attempting to sketch one.

With all the unique shapes and features of the varied species of trees, Powell does a wonderful job of breaking down each part of the tree and each type of tree to simpler bits that can be tackled little by little. There is so much content here, you could spend a good deal of time working through the many examples and growing steadily in your mastery of drawing trees.

Powell is a master artist with decades of experience drawing and coloring in a host of different formats. He lends his exquisite talents to the beginning artist in a way that is accessible and beneficial for any student of art no matter their former training. It is a great volume to have in your art library to refer to over and over. I loved this book!

I received this eBook free of charge from Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

Intermediate level how to book. Appropriately topic specific (pretty clear from the title that you’ll be learning to draw trees). I love how this entire line of books has an in-depth explanation of materials, etc., making them all great reference guides for beginners with any interests. Basically, it gives someone a chance to grow their skill set nicely.

Powell is great at the breakdown of nature drawings, which is not always easy to do (many of us struggle when we try to recreate living yet relatively inanimate objects like trees, flowers, etc). Definitely would buy for someone interested in starting drawing or for someone still at an intermediate level.

This book covers a wide range of details that will improve an artist's ability to draw trees. It begins with a quick overview of materials and general technique, like shading and texture, but this guide will mostly benefit someone who has at least the basics of drawing and wants to improve or learn specifics such as leaf shapes, branch angles and so forth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love trees, through all the seasons, the way complex root systems can be woven up onto ground level to compete for attention with the majestic swaying of brightly coloured spring leaves or buds promising blossom to come in summer and forward to autumn and winter where only the branches remain. Now thanks to this book I can try my hand at drawing them too; I can't wait.

This is a short book but I don't have a problem with that because everything I wanted was covered. The chapters covers different parts of the tree and I liked that the pages covering what equipment was needed also had hand drawn pictures.

I was able to read a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone wanting to draw trees for relaxation.

Good instructions for beginners. Lovely illustrations. Easy step by step sketches to follow. A good variation of trees. Would recommend.

Thank you, NetGalley for the preview of this eBook.

Drawing: Trees with William F. Powell is another step by step drawing book which is perhaps going to be one of my favorites among the series. There is something so soothing about drawing trees and I am going to have fun recreating some of the illustrations.