Habits of branching

Here are two wildly different sorts of trees . I am sure you know that's an oak on the left and birch on the right. There are many different trees out there, where you live (particularly you guys in Malaysia and Australia) have a whole different set than we do here in New England. I am no expert on botany, although I know what most of the trees I see are, I observe their differences as an artist at a level useful to me. I am pointing out things to look for that are hopefully common to wherever you are working.



















Different trees throw their branches at their own preferred angle. The oak, for instance on the left, above, sends its branches out at a right angle to the trunk, the oak is a hardwood and extremely stout and strong. Look at this close up of the branch leaving its trunk.

Those enormous branches are cantilevered out into space, there is also a buttress on the trunk, a swelling beneath the branch to help carry its massive weight. The smaller limbs and even the twigs of the tree look to some extent like this too. It is sort of that trees personal "style" or habit. Below is a close up of the branches of a birch.

This is a different habit, The branches fork. They do it at pretty much the same angle, but it is a different angle than the oak. Again that angle is repeated all over the tree from its largest branches to the smallest and into the twigs.

So there is a formula, a mathematical angle that a tree will usually install into its branches. That angle which the tree prefers, differs from specie to specie but each sort of tree has one. Below is an old maple that has a different sort of habit.

This maple likes to send its branches out in a rounded elbow shape. They come out from the trunk and then turn upwards in a gradual curve. To draw these trees it is good to observe how they hold their branches and then characterize it a little. Show that you know it, and then express it to the viewer. Just a little, don't lecture, but show em how your tree works.

Favored and unsuccessful buds

Branches don't grow straight like broom sticks, at least most don't. but they don't wander like errant snakes either. There's a system! Here's a quick idea of how that system works. Now I am not a botanist, and you don't need to be either, so this is a simplified look at what goes on with branching.

A branch starts out as a twig of course, in the spring that growing twig develops buds, they are arranged in different manners according to the specie of the tree. As the season goes on not all of the buds grow equally, some thrive, some are minimal and some die. For instance at the top of arrow 1 is a place where there were two buds, the one that was favored became the continuing branch and the other became a lesser branch. At the fork, marked 2, the right hand bud was so favored that the left hand bud died. At the fork 3 the lower bud grew, and was favored and the upper bud was relegated to secondary status.

As the tree ages these branches grow thicker and become limbs, you can look at the limbs of a tree and see the history of success or failure of different buds preserved there. Some sorts of trees throw buds in groups of three and some in spirals around a stem, and others on alternate sides of a running stem. But in all of those, the turns and elbows of the branches are a record of the success and failure of individual buds in the first season of the twigs growth. Watching for and being aware of that will help make some sense out of the branching and forking of tree branches.

Here is a birch doing the same thing. At 1 the bud that runs horizontally has been favored over the one that runs vertically, usually that happens because the favored branch has a better and less obstructed path to the light. The branches seek to unfurl their leaves in the sun. At 2 the same triage has happened initially both buds formed twigs the same size and as time went by, the more successful of the two was favored. Sometimes a bud will survive as minor branch or twig, and sometimes it will die but each of those events determines the course of the branch.

Telescoping branches

Here's a painting of a tree I made this fall for a show at Old Lyme. This is a studio version of one I made outside. It is an 18 by 24. I thought as long as I was blogging about trees I should show a few of my own paintings of trees. Tonight I want to talk a little more about constant taper. Although trees have constant taper on a macro scale, on a micro scale there is another thing going on, telescoping. Here is another tree below and then a detail of the same tree.

Below is the detail.

Notice that the branch doesn't actually decrease much in size until it hits a joint where another branch leaves it, it THEN continues on, a little reduced in diameter. So it is like a telescope, formed of cylinders of decreasing size not an extremely elongated cone. In other words the branch grows along as a nearly uniformly diametered section almost like a section of pipe, until another branch leaves it, then it continues on in a reduced diameter like a second piece of pipe.

This is part of the reason why most trees have an angularity to their construction, this, section, joint, section construction effects the look of some species more than others, but most have some degree of it.

Tomorrow I will begin to describe branching behavior.There is a lot to this so I am paying it out one concept at a time. Its a little like math, each of these concepts is built upon the back of the last one. So if you don't understand it, read it again before you go on. If I haven't explained it well enough let me know in the comments.

Constant taper, in women and trees

I think how the tree series is going to go, is I will post one small fact, idea or lesson a day for a while. There is so much to say and that seems to be an orderly way to do it.

Here is a masterpiece by Corot. This painting is a near perfect design and the sparkling accents and silvery and olive tones give it an enchanting feeling. I chose this painting because it illustrates a concept that is important in drawing trees, constant taper.

You may have read Victorian writers who praised a woman's pale complexion (that was thought highly desirable) and her TAPERING limbs. The ideal figure of the 19th century would often have a wider middle, or a more hour glass sort of silhouette than might be popular today. But they also prized very small hands and feet. The idea was that her arms and legs tapered in a smooth and continual decrease. Here is an Ingres that does that.

Look at the left leg or the arm of this painting and see what I mean.

Trees do the same thing, each section of the tree as it grows further from the ground, decreases in size. The trunk is the thickest part and the large branches leaving the trunk are the next largest, from that arise smaller and smaller branches and twigs, growing ever thinner still. This gives a grace and an essential logic to the appearance of a tree.

So when representing trees, look for the constant reduction or taper as each structure grows further from the root. If you ignore this you will get a clumsy unnatural look. HOWEVER there are a couple of complicating factors. The reducing size of the trees limbs behave in a slightly different manner than the limbs of the comely maidens of La Belle Epoche. Tomorrow I will build on the principle of continual taper.