Illustrations of Trees

all images, c. Kevin SproulsSeveral years ago, I was hired to create a series of five very detailed illustrations of trees. People say that hands or ears are very difficult to draw, but I find that trees are a particular challenge.Nonetheless, I threw myself into this project. As I recall, this campaign was for a financial services company, and the illustrations served as allegorical visual statements to bolster the underlying concepts of the text. I have two of the original illustrations handy, so let's start with them. As the others surface, I will surely return to this topic...Here is a rough sketch I created to get approval from the client. It's a bit more primitive than I usually provide, but like I said, trees are tough!The client gave me the green light to proceed, and this is what I created for them:The idea here is a multiplicity of fruits --- various kinds of benefits or profits. On this tree, apples, oranges, and pears. The other piece I did for this client played on the concept of not seeing the forest for the trees...In this illustration, I was mainly concerned with keeping the light source in full play. Lots of shadow interplay!After it was all finished, I decided to apply color to one the drawings, for my own uses. The result was this image:I hope you've enjoyed my arborial adventure. More next week!