Traditional-Drawing Tutorial: Draw A Surrealistic Piet Mondrian Style Tree

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw and color a surreal tree scene based on the works of Piet Mondrian. You can draw this on paper, but also in any digital application.

End result:

Author:

Views: 10155

Score: 9.03 / 10

Author earned: $10

Practice tutorial

Tags:mondrianpiettree

Step 1

First of all you'll need some simple basic art materials :

1. A plain white paper (preferably of A4 size)
2. A 2B or 3B pencil.
3. A good eraser
4. Coloring pencils. Preferably of various colors that go well together and the color Black is a must. I used Faber Castell water color crayons in this one. And I highly recommend this brand or any other brand of water color pencils the colors look much more beautiful if water is added to it.
5. Water (optional)

Step 1 : Drawing the Tree

Now let's get started. Hold gently your 2B or 3B pencil and start drawing soft, pale lines in subtle slightly curved shapes to create a very simple diagram (see figure below) that will represent our main tree. Make it as soft as possible and when the lines form the desired shape, start pressing a little harder with your pencil to create more definite lines. Don't worry if some of the lines overlap the main figure as we are going to color the lines black later.

Step 2

It should look like something like that:

Step 3

Step 2 : Adding leaves

Now we will add some leaves to the tree. Remember that this is a surreal work, so, the leaves should be drawn in different sizes and in a rather grotesque form. To draw the leaves, you hold your pencil the same way you did for the tree and start drawing some (3 or 4) ( light and elegant curves coming out from the bark and join the lines together to form leaves of different shapes. You can also draw some single curvy lines representing vines and add simple little untextured leaves to them. Take a look at the figure below to get some ideas.

Step 4

It should look like something similar to that:

Step 5

Step 3 : Creating the "Grid"

Piet Mondrian liked creating irregular mosaic like grids to add a more surreal touch to his works. That's what we are going to do.

Start creating lots of random lines coming out from almost everywhere in your drawing : between the stems of the tree, in the leaves, around the leaves, lines that are linking some leaves, etc. . When you are done, your the line you have created should be in intersection between the tree, leaves and lines and they should look like the are linked together but still have their distinct forms. Also, the lines can't be isolated and they should form a closed shape when in conjunction with the other lines, the tree or leaves, whether the shape created is small or big. Take a look at the figure below which is showing how to draw the lines.

Step 6

Your final drawing should look like this and it would be even better if you can draw more detailed shapes and lines; but this is going to take much more time to color later.

Step 7

Step 4 : Darkening lines and Coloring

Now this is one of our most important steps as we will start coloring our work. First of all you should choose an interesting color combination of 3 or 4 colors . Here are some examples :

1. Black, Grey, White
2. Pale green, Teal and Blue
3. Red, Yellow, Orange (That's the one I chose)
4. Blue, Green, Grey
5. Gold, Silver, White
6. Purple, Violet and Dark Pink

Now before proceeding with the colors, I would highly recommend you to add a little more detail to our drawing by dividing the big shapes into smaller ones. You can also add more leaves.

Now, let's start by using our Black pencil to darken the lines we made with the normal 2B pencil. You can darken all the lines in the drawing at once but it would be much much better if you do it little by little, using the intervals to color the shapes

When you have finished blackening a specific area's lines, you could color it before proceeding to the other lines. Start by using only two colors for that area.

Continue like this and start using your other colors when you judge is O.K to start using them.

Step 8

Step 5 : Continuing the Coloring

I have already explained the main points now. Now you can go your own way or you can continue looking at my tutorial till the end. The figure below shows the four different colors I used and It also shows how I darkened only the lines whose shapes I was going to paint. That's it.

Step 9

Here I continued the coloring. Make sure you color the shapes which are next to each other in different colors as far as possible Close shapes should have different colors.

Step 10

Here is the completely colored tree. It was colored using only two of the four colors so as it can detach itself from the dark red and purple background. Keep in mind that if you use four colors (which I highly recommend), use the two darkest of them for the background and the two lightest ones for the foreground so as to create contrast in our drawing.

Step 11

We're almost done with the drawing now. Continue to make sure that the close shapes are of different colors and I would recommend you to use water to improve your drawing if you used Water Color pencils.

Step 12

Here is our final image. Water was added to it so as to give it a more painted look. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and you can email me your works at lamantine@live.com if you did so. Good luck !

31 Comments:

lchappell says:

Very nicely done. Good technique!

(1 year and 179 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thank you

(1 year and 179 days ago)

erathion says:

Very nice detailed work. Keep going author...

(1 year and 179 days ago)

nasirkhan says:

Nice tutorial and good result.

(1 year and 179 days ago)

Disco says:

Very clearly written and easy to understand. Well done!

(1 year and 179 days ago)

EmiK says:

Good job Lamantine, well explained, and nice ending results = )

(1 year and 179 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Oh Wow ! Thank you so much !

(1 year and 179 days ago)

George55 says:

Hi, my friend.... Your writing skills are good and clear. You really did a wonderful job on your tutorial. Welcome to the "Tutorials Writing Club" (Kidding) just wanted to tell you, that this drawing tutorial will teach some of us new tricks in the Art department. Good luck in life and thank you.

(1 year and 179 days ago)

MnMCarta says:

This is so clear I think I could even do it! Might even try it!

(1 year and 179 days ago)

arca says:

Very clear and precise. Cover everything needed to create the image. Wonderful work!

(1 year and 179 days ago)

dekwid says:

good,....good,.....you are talented..!

(1 year and 179 days ago)

hereisanoop says:

good tutorial.., good luck

(1 year and 179 days ago)

ushurani says:

Well written/explained. Good luck.

(1 year and 179 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thank you everyone

(1 year and 179 days ago)

niks1351 says:

thats a good one

(1 year and 179 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thanks niks

(1 year and 179 days ago)

dinomario10 says:

Awesome tutorial Lamantine, good luck with the approval :P

(1 year and 178 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thank you Bobic

(1 year and 177 days ago)

erikuri says:

Very beautiful! I remember I did something like that when I was in secondary school. Mosaics are always eye-catching works, and the colors you used on this one are nice.

(1 year and 177 days ago)

nishagandhi says:

nicely written my friend!! love the colors!

(1 year and 177 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thanks !

(1 year and 177 days ago)

CorneliaMladenova says:

Beautiful colors! Thank you very much for the tut!

(1 year and 176 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thank you for commenting, Cornelia Youre Welcome.

(1 year and 176 days ago)

artgirl1935 says:

Good job, Aquil, I think this would be a very inspiring tut for many who haven't yet tried this type of drawing. Thanks so much, and good luck on getting approved!!!

(1 year and 176 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thanks Lois

(1 year and 175 days ago)

Geexman says:

Fantastic drawing and tut lil buddy.... I may just follow it step by step and send you the result when I get time Well Done!

(1 year and 175 days ago)

Lamantine says:

Thanks a lot Gino

(1 year and 175 days ago)

George55 says:

As I told you before.... "Welcome to the Tutorials Writers Club"!.... Congratulations in getting your tutorial approved. This should make an input on you to continue writing tuts, and making your work better. "This is only the beginning, my friend".

(1 year and 174 days ago)

Brett Widmann says:

This is a cool tutorial! Thanks for sharing.

(1 year and 86 days ago)

Edith says:

Hi,I need to know how to draw a tree but with out leaves.I have to make a family tree.They have about 500 people.A mom and dad,14 adults. They have 11 adults that has kids,and some them have kids.Two is not marry,and no kidsThis family is very big.I do cross stitching,that is needl point.Please write back to me.Thank you.My e-mail is mommykisses63@yahoo.com

(277 days ago)

Guest says:

That helped me

(85 days ago)

Leave a Comment

Name:

Comment:

submit