My Obsession with Trees

Let's talk about pen and ink trees.  I've done a few...dozen of them.  I can draw other things, but I don't want to.  This used to bother me.  I used to get very down on myself for not having an interest in drawing something other than trees.  Then I started looking at the artist I was following on Instagram.  Everyone's got a thing.  Some of them are all about faces, then there are the flower artists, and let's not forget the watercolor landscapers.  It finally dawned on me there is literally nothing wrong with always drawing trees!

When did this start? Probably about 2014 when I tried to get into the art of Zentangle. I honestly never did really get the hang of Zentangle, but I enjoyed drawing with microns. I started creating letters that had some sort of floral element to them and it kind of blossomed from there.

I created watercolor background and drew trees over top of them. I started creating different trees based on the seasons and some letter trees for friends. I have created a few large pieces that were 9 x 12, but I most enjoy creating in the 5 x 8 size range.

There's something very relaxing about getting lost in the details of adding limbs and leaves to a tree. I work mostly with micron pens and use a number of different nib sizes to create all of the details. I've added swings to a few of my trees and given all of them some sort of unique shape, including letters and even a heart.

It's been a while since I created a few trees. Lately, I've been pondering about creating a line of cards or small art pieces of pen and ink trees. I might have to start exploring that.