Colourful & Curious Sketchbook Trees
A colour-full, pattern-full mixed media sketchbook class
A joyful one-hour sketchbook class for making colourful, patterned, imagined trees with mixed media.
Set aside an afternoon, gather a few materials, and fill some sketchbook pages with colour, pattern and playful tree shapes.
An afternoon of colour, pattern and playful making
Wonky and Wonderful Trees is a relaxed, one-hour sketchbook class made up of short, bite-size chapters, so you can sit down with a few materials and spend a lovely afternoon filling your sketchbook with strange, colourful, patterned trees.
We’ll use trees as our starting point, but this isn’t about drawing realistic trees or getting the proportions right. It’s about having a subject to hold onto while you play with colour, pattern, shape, marks and mixed media.
A colourful sketchbook pick and mix
We’ll use a variety of art supplies to explore colour, pattern, shape and mixed media, trying different ways to create interesting, colourful and pattern-filled trees in our sketchbooks.
It’s very much a pick and mix class.
You can try one idea, try several, work through them in order, or jump straight to the one that you fancy.
I’ll demonstrate each idea clearly, but you don’t need to make your trees look like mine. The class gives you starting points, materials and prompts, then leaves room for your own decisions.
You can make a whole afternoon of it, or just try one small tree when you want a manageable way back into your sketchbook.
What you’ll make
By the end of the class, you’ll have a small collection of sketchbook pages exploring tree shapes, colour, pattern, resist techniques, mixing media and drawing over paint and collage.
Some pages may feel finished. Some may become useful starting points for later. Some may simply show you a colour combination, material or shape you want to try again.
All of that is useful sketchbook work.
Why trees?
Trees are one of the first things many of us drew as children, which I think makes them a lovely subject to return to as adults.
They are familiar enough that we don’t have to spend the whole time worrying about what a tree is supposed to look like, but they are also full of possibility.
Roots, trunks, branches, leaves, seed pods, bark, shadows, seasons, growth, change, shelter, wonkiness, age, weather, odd little shapes.
A tree gives us a structure to begin with, but it doesn’t have to become a sensible tree.
It can be tall and spindly, round and full, patterned all over, covered in dots, built from collage, drawn over paint, made from strange colours, or full of interesting marks.
Trees as a subject are great because they give us enough structure to begin, and enough freedom to take it lots of unique directions.
This class is for you if:
You’d love a colourful afternoon in your sketchbook
You want to play with mixed media without overthinking it
You like the idea of having a subject to begin with, without having to draw it realistically
You enjoy colour, pattern, little details and slightly peculiar trees
You want clear video guidance, but still want room to make your own decisions
You’re curious about developing more of your own visual language
You’d like a small, manageable class you can start straight away
You don’t need to be able to draw trees.
You don’t need a perfect sketchbook.
You don’t need specialist materials or lots of experience.
Use what you have, follow what interests you, and let your trees be as wonky and wonderful as they want to be.
