Sketching of a tree using graphite pencil by Manju Panchal

Graphite sketching on Fabriano Academia paper

For long I had it in mind to use simple graphite pencil for sketching on Fabriano Academia paper. The pencil which I planned to use was 10B Camel accompanied by a normal HB graphite pencil. Subject chosen was a tree as I am still doing the series on different types of trees.

Instead of using my regular holiday snaps, this time, I went ahead and photographed a tree in the vicinity of my house and later edited it using Aviary App. Taking it as reference I created this tree sketch as shown below. Every tree has its distinct features, the barks, the textures, the twisting branches, different shapes of leaves etc. Sketching two trees can never be the same experience. Therefore the excitement continues. If it were the same kind, after a while it would lead to boredom and loss of interest.

Reaching high

Graphite sketching of a tree on Fabriano Academia paper ( 120gsm )

Everytime I travel these days, I look at trees with great interest, trying to identify the shapes of the entire foilage around the branches, the darkness created by the shadows and sometimes I actually begin to mentally paint the entire image in my mind. All the observation that we do in our day today life , I believe, does help somewhere in the long run. It helps us to see better, feel better and paint better.