Tree drawings by real artists
There's no one right way to draw a tree. Here are 25 ways artists on Magma drew theirs, and how you can learn from them.
The painted way
Look at a real tree, or a photo of one, and paint big shapes of light and shadow instead of single leaves.
Clumps, with sky between them
The leaves in (#20) are four or five separate clumps with blue sky showing between them, each lighter on top. The pale, leaning trunk runs through them and ties them together.
A pine is layers
The pine (#2) is stacked, sideways strokes of green, short at the top and wider toward the bottom. The pink and blue of the sky show through the gaps.
One dark shape at dusk
Against a pink evening sky, the trees in (#21) are almost one dark mass. There are no leaves to see, only the outline of the treetops and a thin warm line on one trunk.
The study way
Quick studies, many trees, one at a time. Use them to learn how trunks split, how crowns are built and how a brush can make bark and leaves.
Let the brush do the bark
In (#4) the twisting trunk and the crown are made of streaky strokes on a golden background. The artist's own caption: "Understanding Rake Brush Strokes Through Tree Studies... I Think?"
Every tree has its own outline
The ink studies (#119) are labeled: old-growth western redcedar, red spruce and bigleaf maple. The spruce is a narrow spire, the maple a wide, lumpy crown, and both are mostly hatching.
A quick study in blues
The blue tree (#136) is a pale, twisting trunk with thin branches like veins, under dabs of turquoise on a dark background. It was made in an Art Jam with 37 other artists.
#136
The seasons way
The same tree changes all year. Pick a season and let its colors, or its bare branches, carry the drawing.
Three autumn colors on one hill
In (#8) a red-orange tree, a group of yellow birches and a green tree share one hill, with red and yellow leaves falling. The artist added tiny faces to the crowns.
Snow only on top
The bare tree (#102) has white only along the top edge of each branch and on the ground. The branches get thinner every time they split.
Hanging blooms
The wisteria (#6) is a dark, twisted trunk under curtains of purple flowers that hang straight down, with small touches of yellow. The palette is still on the canvas next to it.
The simple and stylized way
A trunk, a crown and a few flat colors. Simplify the shapes and a tree still reads as a tree.
Light on top, dark below
The crown of (#79) is flat layers of green: the lightest on top, darker underneath and toward the trunk. A rock and a few flowers sit at its roots.
A tree from a palette
(#70) was drawn for a color palette challenge: round clumps of mint and blue leaves, a purple trunk and a swing hanging from one branch.
Chunky strokes
The tree in (#25) is short, blocky strokes of green and brown, cut off by the edge of the picture. The artist's title: "a onenote drawing of a tree".
The fantasy way
Turn a tree into a place or a character. Keep the trunk, the roots and the branches, and build the story on top of them.
A house inside the trunk
In (#111) a little house with a door and a window is built into a hollow trunk, with steps winding up the outside and light falling through a green forest.
Same tree, at night
The same artist made a night version (#83): dark blue, rain and glowing fireflies. Their caption: "I made a night version of the tree house painting because I thought it would look cool".
Branches become arms
The tree spirit (#24) has a wide, rooted trunk, two branches held out like arms, a crown of purple flowers and one eye in the bark.
How to draw a tree: learn it with others
The fastest way to get better at trees is to draw them next to other people, in Art Jams: shared canvases where everyone draws at the same time. The blue tree study on this page was made in one, "just draw", which 38 artists joined.
Join a nature or landscape jam, watch how others handle the trunk, the branches and the leaves, and ask them how they did it. Or host your own: put one tree photo on a canvas, share the link, and compare what everyone makes of it.
Drawing trees on Magma right now
No tree jam is live at the moment. Browse the open Art Jams, or start your own and share the link.
Prefer steps? A quick guide
The basic shapes behind a tree. Once they're down, pick a way from above and make it yours.
- Trunk and rootsTwo slightly bent lines, wider at the bottom, spreading into a few short roots at the ground.
- Split into branchesA 'Y' at the top, then split each branch again. Every new branch is thinner than the one it came from.
- One big crown shapeA loose cloud around the branches for an oak or maple, a tall triangle for a pine. Let a few branches poke out.
- Break it into clumpsThree to seven overlapping clumps of leaves with bumpy edges. Don't draw single leaves.
- Bark and sky holesA few long lines up the trunk, following its curve, and some small gaps in the crown where the sky shows through.
- Light and shadowLightest on the tops of the clumps, darker underneath and inside the crown, and a shadow on the ground below.
Trees on Magma
Counts from Magma's public Art Jams and posts, September 2026.
Draw your tree now
Open a free canvas in your browser. Nothing to install, and it works on Chromebooks too. Post it when you're done, and it could end up on this page.
Draw a tree nowQuestions
How do you draw a tree?
There's no single right way. Start with simple shapes (a trunk that's wider at the bottom, branches that split and get thinner, one big crown shape broken into clumps of leaves), then pick a style: painted, a quick study, a season, simple and stylized, or fantasy. The easiest way to improve is to draw alongside others in an Art Jam and see how they do it.
How do I draw an easy tree?
Draw a brown trunk with a 'Y' of branches at the top and a round green cloud around them. Add a darker green under the cloud and a few gaps for the sky. The flat, layered tree on the hill on this page is a good example.
How do you draw leaves on a tree?
Draw clumps, not single leaves. Give each clump a bumpy edge, a light top and a darker underside, and leave a few holes where the sky shows through, like the painted trees on this page.
Can my tree drawing be on this page?
Draw it on Magma and post it to your public feed. We pick drawings for this page from public posts, and every one is credited to its artist.
More drawing guides
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