How To Draw A Tree

 First, plant a tree...

I was not thrilled with this prompt. It is like asking me to draw an acorn or a leaf. However, instead of just picking out a few drawings from hundreds (actually little over a thousand is not an exaggeration) of tree drawings, I actually drew the image below for Illustration Friday's prompt!

TREE

This is Bojak Patikingkuting. He works at the abattoir at night and at the plant nursery in the morning. He sleeps in the evening. He likes to smoke marijuana and drink whiskey. Sometimes he gets confused. One night he went to the nursery to plant a tree... 8"x10" Pigment pen and ink drawing on 9"x12" Bristol Board. The term "bojak" is an aiming position in the game of marbles. As a kid, I was a "bojak" and "strike" expert. Below: Family trees:

Ten years ago, today, my beloved mother passed away. She died in my arms and my sister Freah's. We went home to the Philippines to take care of her for a month. All of my brothers and sisters went home and stayed with her for several weeks. That day, she was supposed to go home.  My sisters and brothers loved my mother but just as we thought no one else could love her more, our father did. It was so obvious my parents loved each other very much.

I never failed to kiss my mother goodbye every time I walked out of the house. One day I was so angry. I walked out of the house without kissing her. From the kitchen, she saw and bade me a safe trip to my high school and a good day. I ignored her. I kept walking. The walk from my home to my school took about fifteen minutes. My classes started at 8:00AM. When I reached the school, I felt so awful that I ran back home. I saw my mother doing laundry and I told her that I came back to give her a kiss and I started crying as I apologized. I am sure she told me something very wise but all I can remember is the pain in my throat. I never left the house again in a bad mood.  I think I managed to instill that to my children. While they are American teenagers and quite different, they are very tender and loving, not because I tell them to be. When they were growing up, my husband and I continually told them stories of us growing up and mostly how wonderful their grandparents were as parents. Sometimes I feel so incompetent, especially when I compare myself to my mother. I console myself that American teenagers are the most challenging subjects. :)

My mother never saw an oil painting of mine. She saw my watercolor paintings and drawings. She used to scold me a lot because I drew all the time. She said I was so lazy and all I did was draw and play. She was worried that I drew a lot of house floor plans, hundreds, thousands of them! She was very worried :)

L to R: Basswood at the Blue Ridge Mountains, The Dell in England, Little Dot.

If my mother was here today, she would ask me why I am drawing pictures of ugly looking men like the one above. I did not mean to draw an ugly man. I don't know why I kept thinking of the city abattoir when I was drawing that man. I was also thinking of smoking marijuana, not me, but the legalization of marijuana smoking in two states. Okay, so I was thinking of a lot of things, plus I was doing laundry and I also baked two chicken pot pies. I was also craving for doughnuts so after months and months of talking about wanting to eat doughnuts, my husband and I went out and bought doughnuts. I woke up at five this morning hoping to eat left over doughnuts with my coffee while I worked on our project implementation, but my doughnuts were gone! Ooooh I was very upset but I had to work, so my husband said he will go out and get more doughnuts. He did. Yum!!! Thank you, honey. Tsup!

 How to draw a tree...

 

Trees Project on Behance

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