With the hard pencil lightly sketch in the trunk and the beginning of the main branches.

Outline the outside of the leaves of the tree.

Draw “V” shapes where you want to separate the trunk or add branches.

Add more branches peeking out of the tree leaves.

Loosely draw in leaves above and below the branches. This is where the leaves cover the branches.

Trees are layered with different bunches or areas of leaves that receive different amounts of light. To shade this tree, start by dividing the layers into separate areas. To do this, it helps to look at a real tree or a photo of a tree. Break it up with lighter areas where the sun is hitting it and darker areas where the leaves are in more shadow. Follow the leaf lines that you drew above and below the branches as well.

Shade the branches and trunk. Turn the paper, if you need to.

Use hatching to shade in the darkest layered areas.

Scribble hatch over the top of the darkest areas to create leaf texture and more value.

Scribble hatch in the other layered areas leaving lighter areas lighter and other areas medium value. Try to alternate the areas between light, medium, dark, and extra-dark values. Avoid making your scribble hatching too regular and patterned.

Add a horizon line and some loosely scribbled grass.

Erase any lines you don’t need and make final changes to your drawing.