On Drawing Trees & Nature - Tree Post IV

The Infinity Tree continues!
{Review the dialogue for Tree Post I, II, and III here...}

"Harding...fervently believed that nature's beauties are unendingly abundant and infinitely various", writes a contemporary critic - George Landow - of the master and drawing companion to John Ruskin, J. D. Harding.

He passionately advocated for the truth in representational, 'high' art of the natural world, through as unburdened an observation as possible.

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Harding instructs us to "produce as near a likeness to Nature, in every respect, as the instrument, or material employed, will admit of; not so much by bona fide imitation, as by reviving in the mind those ideas which are awakened by a contemplation of Nature.... The renewal of those feelings constitutes the true purpose of Art".

And so I begin the toned ground and under-drawing search for inner form structure of "The Infinity Tree", keeping the goal of believable representation balanced with evocative breathability of being within my mind's eye...

His protégé John Ruskin established clearer guidance on the same philosophy, observing "nature contrives never to repeat herself", perceiving that "there is indeed in nature variety in all things", declaring that:

"The truths of nature are one eternal change — one infinite variety...there is not one of her [Nature's] shadows, tints, or lines that is not in a state of perpetual variation: I do not mean in time, but in space. There is not a leaf in the world which has the same color visible over its whole surface". 

"Nothing can be natural which is monotonous; nothing true which tells only one story...", says Ruskin.

Which of course leads us to mark-making variation and the variety imbued to the subjects of the image.

Keep building and finding growth patterns in varied iterations:

And do not forget the rules of trees, integral to creating a believable tree-being instead of an oddly wonky figure that defies natural tree growth and all the laws of physics.

Trees are fractal in nature, so that patterns of form growth in the larger parts of the tree will be repeated and extended into the smaller scale parts of the tree.

Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Renaissance man the Arts reference so frequently, explained this aspect of tree rule as "all the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk".

The rule for tree growth is explained by both hydrological and structural theories, meaning that the forces for efficient sap flow and design for stress resistance and integrity define the tree's growth.

Form follows function.

Here's a comparison between before and after preliminary rendering on a few root structures:

the larger forms put down provisionally...

finding the finer forms within the larger forms to further define the roots...

End of part IV.

Part V will continue this drawing stage breakdown with further examination of the art world's wisdom for trees, visual truth, fantastical philosophy, and technical execution, with the final "Infinity Tree" drawing reveal.

-Mairin-Taj

"Scrap Sneaks" - The Infinity Tree

In the middle of chipping away at the involving, consuming, slightly perplexing concept for an upcoming painting aiming at a conference cross country (more to come on that), I felt a tug in a playful segue, and started sketching down a fat tree trunk in my sketchbook...

I was working off of the serendipitous key words, "Yggdrasil", and "tree bridge".

I know, it sounds random. But anything rooted in mythos is fuel, for me...pun intended.

*On a side note, I've been gently annoyed with myself for the past several months at how much I do not have trees in my developing new work, or much in my old work, either. I'd like to remedy that gross oversight, on my part, by factoring in the very inspiring, diverse, and important icon of the tree into what is coming. So it felt freeing and very much heading in the right direction to lay down marks reminiscent of tree anatomy again.

The following evolved swiftly, with little formula, and through a few light layers of mixed media - I've got graphite (my favorite), colored pencil, matte medium, acrylic paint, and gold leaf, here.

This might be a more clear vantage point - 2015

Working title jotted at the top, I intend for a larger, more mature and evolved direction for this idea, but I simply wanted to get the idea down in an experimental fashion before I mused on the future applications of the concept.

Sometimes it can be drastically dangerous to young ideas to think on them too long. It may be an obvious thing to say, to write down so definitely here, but I wouldn't be surprised if we all needed such simple reminders on a regular basis.
For my part, I can overanalyze before I put enough work into a piece, and I'm actively, consciously working on amending that for myself.

It's going well!

Back to the sketch - I found myself, in the fluid process of drawing on the page, working in an infinity figure eight into the trunk of the tree as gently as possible, while trying to maintain a plausible growth direction for the limbs, and such.

Merging water and the ether sky, this vertical "bridge" is a concept I'm going to be revisiting again, as other projects allow.

-Mairin-Taj