Tree of life drawing with pencil, paints easy and beautiful

Content

The tree of life is usually called a family tree, where family members are depicted up to the 4th generation. The genealogical sequence can depict all relatives, as well as those whom the descendants did not have time to see during their lifetime.

This symbol is most often performed by children in elementary school, when they have an idea about grandparents. The drawing can be done using pencil or paint..

What you need for drawing

The tree of life (the drawing can be drawn using different techniques) is done both in pencil and with different paints.

Tree of life drawing with pencil, easy paints — Tree of Life: Pencil Drawing

To do this you will need the following tools:

Paper for working with a slate pencil - dense non-uniform paper, with a density of up to 220 g/m².
Paper for acrylic paints or gouache - density up to 200 g/m².
Watercolor paper – density up to 340 g/m².
Soft or medium hard pencil, brushes with natural bristles (squirrel), acrylic paints, gouache and watercolors.
Paper can be purchased separately in sheets., or buy an easel to place your brushes on while painting.
Black pen or liner may be needed for drawing small details.
The eraser is soft, which does not leave streaks on paper.
Rags for blotting brushes and removing excess moisture.
Water container and palette for mixing shades of paint.

The arsenal can be supplemented with colored pencils, watercolors, if the child does not yet know how to work with paint. The easiest way to start getting acquainted with gouache or acrylic, and also initially to place the hand during drawing with the help of simple pencils on the basis of a lead.

Master classes

To draw a tree of life, it is enough to have an idea of what nature looks like, and a tree in particular. The main center of the composition will not be the trunk, but the crown, where the main branches will be located - the family tree. From these branches, you need to select several small branches, symbolizing children and future generations.

The tree of life (the drawing can be supplemented with photographs) is no different in the scheme of displaying the crown and trunk, but the perspective of the drawing should be taken into account - in the foreground there will be branches that are usually hidden in the shadow of the foliage.

The main trunk should be made small and inconspicuous, since its symbolism, identified with the house, can be interpreted as the father's house. This opinion is becoming less common, since from generation to generation children change their place of residence and residence in general.

In pencil technique

To create a tree of life, you need to think in advance about how many relatives will be located.

The more of them there are, the larger the tree crown will be.

First, you need to draw a schematic circle. It should take up most of the art sheet.
The women and men who are the closest relatives to the child should be placed in squares and circles inside this circle. These are parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters.
Once the rough relationship diagram has been drawn up, you can connect the circles with the squares to indicate the degree of relationship.
In the center, almost at the very top of the tree crown, there should be a child - from him, along the descending branches, lines will diverge to the parents, then to the parents of the parents.
If you have relatives (sisters, brothers, grandmothers, grandfathers), you can use square and round frames in gray.
If desired, you can use a black pencil to highlight the main family members. The liner mentioned in the list of tools will also come in handy.
If the child wants to color the picture, you can choose shades of light and dark colors to highlight the frames.
The tree crown can be painted light green, and the branches can be drawn with a black pencil.

The tree of life can be supplemented with your own photos so that the drawing is complete and full. Under each frame, you should write the person's last name and first name, and indicate their relationship to the child.

For example, grandmother or grandfather's sister, cousin or other. You can also indicate the year of birth or period of life. Such a drawing will serve as a start for supplementing the family lineage with different

Pastel

Drawing with pastels is more related to the pencil technique, but since there are additional nuances when working with it, all types and techniques for creating drawings using such pencils can be taken out separately.

A small difficulty is that the finished works need to be covered with a fixative so that the paint layer does not break down when touched. Also, almost all paintings fade and crumble, so it is impossible to do without the processing stage.

It is quite easy to paint with pastels due to their dense texture and thick layer when applying the coloring material to the canvas. Sometimes beautiful textures remain that you do not want to lose after finishing the work. Choosing the right material for creating a tree of life is the key to an elegant work.

But pastels come in several types:

Pastel - types	Feature of use
Dry	It has different softness. Hard pastel in the form of thin sticks and pencils, very soft - in the form of bars and thick sticks. Medium softness is always produced in the form of round sticks. Hard pastel has more binding substance, so there is less pigment there. However, it does not crumble so much, holds well on the canvas. Soft pastel due to the absence of solid components paints better, since the % of pigment content is several times higher. Dry pastel is best suited for drawing and shading.
In pencils	Unlike hard pastels, pencils have the properties of a graphite pencil, although in terms of hardness they have the same qualities as hard pastels. Suitable for drawing fine lines.
Oily	Contains linseed oil, wax is less often present in the composition. The less oil, the more fragile the pastel will be. Used in educational materials together with oil, acrylic, watercolor paints; does not break, but is inferior in properties to dry pastel.
Wax	The high wax content provides hardness and plasticity of the pastel. It is used in art studios, and can be used for amateur but not professional work.
Watercolor	Created on the basis of wax pastel containing water-soluble components. Suitable for creating gradients with precise blurring of the drawing. With its help, you can give the picture splendor and lightness.

To draw a tree of life with pastels, you need to choose a pigmented paper that would hold the paint on the surface. Sandpaper, velour or abrasive types of paper are usually used. Cardboard, kraft paper or watercolor album sheets will also work.

However, the consumption of chalk may increase depending on the porosity and texture of the coating.

Since the paper already contains pigment, it is necessary to provide an additional background for the drawing. You can use dry pastel to shade a small amount of paint.
Using hard pastels, you need to draw the outline of the tree, crown, and foliage.
A kneaded eraser is used to erase individual elements, such as clouds or gaps in the depths of a tree's crown.
You can use rubber or paper material to blend the edges of the leaves.
The foliage should be drawn with a back and forth motion to create a "skirt" on the paper. This can be blended with a bristle brush.
You need to draw the tree branches with black chalk; you can do this with hard pastel, sharpening the tip with sandpaper.
Using a different shade of green, repeat the crown again, going over the black lines. This will help to achieve depth in the drawing.
The lower part of the crown can be shaded in green-blue, mixing the strokes.

If desired, you can cover the tree of life with glass without touching the drawing. The finished work should be covered with a fixative with a diffuser, aerosol or spray. Any varnish in the composition of these substances is suitable for pastel drawing.

With acrylic paints

Acrylic paints, like gouache, are considered the most "convenient" for children of all ages when you need to paint a large picture and do it very carefully. The advantage of acrylic paints is that they dry quickly, gouache - in the ease of application of the material and the ability to mix colors to get complex shades.

When working with paints, you need to determine what type of family tree you will be working with:

Descending – when the family descends from the most distant known relative. This must be a man; his relatives are indicated next to him. The connection between generations will be carried out in a horizontal type.
Ascending - in rare cases, such a tree is created when there are only a few closest relatives - the first and second generation. On the tree of life, they can be arranged in a vertical sequence from the roots to the crown.

It is best to draw a large tree of life on an A3 or A2 sheet of paper (Whatman paper).

First, you need to determine the boundaries of the crown and arrange all close and distant relatives schematically.
Family members - parents and siblings - should be located on one line.
Below will be located the parents of the father and mother, their siblings (great-uncles and great-grandmothers).
If the father and mother have sisters and brothers, their families can be indicated - wives, husbands and children.
The bottom line may contain great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers and their families. The more relatives there are, the easier it is to place them lower down the level, indicating the merging of families with lines. As a rule, the lower branches of large trees are drawn as the largest and most lush, wide and dense. The crowns always thin out towards the top.
Next, you need to create a background using light shading of light blue paint. Use a brush to apply acrylic paint and distribute it over the entire canvas, creating a gradient of light and shadow from the edges of the sheet to the center.
You can use green paint to outline the tree's crown, and then highlight it with black strokes using a thin brush.
The tree trunk needs to be drawn in brown and also drawn with thin black lines randomly to imitate the bark.
The edges of the foliage need to be darkened - take a thick brush with dark green paint and dot the tint on the crown.
You can use yellow-green paint to draw small outlines of leaves in the middle of the crown.
Using dark brown paint, draw the outlines of the branches that will connect the family members together. This can be done using a thin brush.
You can shade the drawn lines using light brown paint on one side of the branches.
If you plan to create a photo collage, you can label the locations of the photographs with the name of a relative.

The tree of life (the drawing can be supplemented with captions), painted with acrylic paints, can be covered with a thin layer of PVA glue so that the surface does not deteriorate or fade.

If all or several photos are missing, you can leave only the name of the relative in the frame or add the years of his life. Gouache dries as quickly as acrylic paint, but does not have a shine. Therefore, in craft stores you can find and buy a special varnish for paper so that the coating lasts as long as possible.

Watercolor

Watercolor looks incredibly beautiful in landscapes and still lifes. And the tree of life is nature, which absorbs the life history of one family.

Therefore, when choosing a watercolor painting technique, it is worth paying attention to the complexity and simultaneous harmony of the drawings:

To help your child draw a tree in watercolor, you can use watercolor pencils. This is the easiest and most convenient way. The finished drawing can be gradually moistened with water using a brush to create the effect of painting a picture.
The "wet on wet" technique involves painting on a wet canvas. This is convenient in cases where a landscape can be created quickly with several colors.
The dry-on-dry technique involves painting on a dry canvas using more paint, but with varying amounts of time until the previous layer dries.
The combined technique is convenient because you can color the adjacent diagonal sections drawn with pencil and watercolor pencils.

Since you can later glue photos of your family onto the drawing, it is acceptable to draw the tree of life as a background image.

For this, watercolor will be the most suitable material:

On a canvas of high density watercolor paper, you need to paint a translucent background from the center of the canvas in the upper half, reaching to the edges of the entire canvas.
In the center, you need to draw the outline of the tree, its crown and foliage. It is acceptable to wet the brush with a large amount of water to combine 1-2 shades of paint.
The resulting gradient must dry so that the color tones are as realistic as possible. The wider and stronger the brush stroke, the better the detail will be drawn. The paint is distributed unevenly, so the natural effect of creating halftones will be achieved with this technique.
The effect of a large amount of foliage can be achieved by using a foam sponge - you need to dip it in paint and make 2-3 test presses on the palette. Apply several dotted strokes over the green crown to achieve this effect.
If the family is large, you can draw many thick branches and small ramifications - each cell of society will be located on a separately growing branch.
To illustrate relatives, you can paint a circle green, setting the background for a future signature or photograph.
Huge crowns with 50+ relatives should not only be the center of attention. Often it is not possible to place photos, so only written names remain. Therefore, such a tree of life can be supplemented with growing grass and a swing.
Using black paint, draw two vertical lines, connecting them with a horizontal line at the bottom to imitate a seat.
Grass should be painted with a hard synthetic brush, turning its edge towards the canvas - thin elongated lines will leave different shades of green, imitating the depth of color and fullness of grassy weeds.

The tree of life (the drawing can be created using the monotype technique, wetting the leaf and drying it before the first brush stroke) with watercolor paints will look good on a large canvas with many signatures. Watercolor sets both the background and the mood of the drawing. The denser the paint is applied, the brighter the accent will be.

Therefore, in some areas of the landscape, you can make repeated strokes, emphasizing the density of the foliage. You can use an eraser to erase small areas of paint to give the atmosphere a "cold" feeling of the season.

A tree of life in any technique will look great in a child's room. The child can additionally decorate the drawing with paper pockets with transparent windows to change the photos as he or she grows up.

Simple pockets can be made from fabric, or you can use the papertole technique, increasing the imagery of the design and imitating its continuation on the disguised pocket.

Video about drawing

Online drawing school "Malevashki": how to draw a family tree:

Tree of life drawing with pencil, easy paints