I love to draw vegetation. I draw vegetation one and off often to study. I draw the leaves, flowers, the fruits, and the tree to understand the species better. While doing so I had figured out that to get the character of the tree, the branching system, leaf size and shape and leaf placement pattern are important.

The first sketch I did, followed the same understanding. With familiar medium of pen and graphite pencil. With the change in medium, came new realisations about form of the tree, form of the foliage, the height of the trunk with respect to the foliage.

With new material (ink and brush) I started exploring with the texture of the foliage – How soft, rough, wavy, thorny, etc. the foliage seemed? The first few times, it was fun exploring the technique. It looked like a tree. But I couldn’t identify the tree.

Tried drawing all sizes of the plant (from single leaf to a small plant to a full-grown tree) with the same medium. Tried different techniques of drawing the same leaf with the same medium. Then tried adding new medium.

In that very process I realised that the character of the tree is very important. It comes in with the density of the foliage along with the branching system, leaf size and shape and leaf placement pattern.