Black Locust Redux

1/4/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Kuretake Bimoji brush pen, watercolor, Canson Montval 140 lb. paper

I’m the first to admit that I don’t know a thing about trees. So after sketching this black locust in my neighborhood that I had sketched once before in September, I did a quick Wikipedia search to learn a little about Robinia pseudoacacia. What made me curious is that although it’s obviously deciduous, it still has a bunch of brownish “stuff” all over it – not leaves, exactly, since those have all fallen off, but the limbs are definitely not completely bare. I’m guessing that the stuff is “winter buds,” as described by Wikipedia: “Minute, naked, three or four together, protected in a depression by a scale-like covering lined on the inner surface with a thick coat of tomentum and opening in early spring; when forming are covered by the swollen base of the petiole.”

Ummm, OK. Anyway, I misjudged the tree’s proportions and had to chop off the beautifully rounded top. I’ll sketch it again soon and make sure I get the full tree this time.

(Yes, that is a blue sky behind that tree! It’s chilly out there, but it’s great to see the sun after days of sullen grayness.)