Trees (Drawings, Illustrations & Other Artwork)

I love the fractal nature of trees, they're super-fun to draw in all kinds of styles and mediums.

"Kidney shaped tree" Fractal illustration

I created this tree using an online Recursive Drawing tool that's so fun to play with.

Read my article on recursive drawing for more information.

"Pixel tree fractal" Photoshop illustration

Fractal tree — Artist

Matthew James Taylor

Medium

Charcoal, white charcoal on tan paper

Software

Adobe Photoshop

Date

2 Feb 2011

This illustration came from an idea to draw a picture in layers of increasing detail like a fractal - I've been quite obsessed with fractals and recursive behavior lately.

I starting in Photoshop with a very small image (16 x 16 pixels), and drew the tree trunk with a one-pixel brush.

I then doubled the size of the image with resampling set to 'nearest neighbor' so the colors stayed sharp. Using the same one-pixel brush (now only a quarter of the size) I drew the next set of branches in a different color.

I repeated the 'doubling then drawing' process five times, until I reached the tiny leaves. This last layer took a long time because there were so many leaves on the tree!

Finally I drew the owl in the same colours and pixel dimensions as the tree and sat him on one of the branches.

See more of my fractal art.

"Tree growing in rocks" Charcoal drawing

I found this really interesting tree to draw at the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. It was growing out of the cracks between some huge sandstone blocks and above that there was a man made retaining wall of smaller blocks. It made for some really interesting shapes. I had to climb half way up a cliff to get to it.

"Red tree" Red chalk drawing on manila paper

I went to see an exhibition on French drawing at the Art Gallery of NSW and I was so inspired that I had to draw something. I had no-one to model for me so instead I sat in the park across the road from my house and drew this tree.

"Frangipani" Black and white pencil study

This is a close-up of a beautiful frangipanni tree from my neighbour's front yard.

"Stylized tree" Mixed media drawing

Just a quick picture of a tree. I painted the first part with ink then finished it off with coloured pencil.

"2 trees" Oil painting

Just a simple oil painting of some weird trees that are quite fractal-like.

See my other oil paintings.

"Tree of color" Colored pencil doodle

I often draw trees just for something to do.

See more of my doodles.

"Bushland trees" Pencil illustration

This is a detailed section of my two-page graphic novel, Soul Search.

“I've been creating art all my life and running this website since 1997! During this time I've found many amazing tools and services that I cannot live without.”
— Matthew James Taylor