Monkey Tree

1/22/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Kuretake Bimoji brush pen, watercolor, Canson
XL 140 lb. paper

Yesterday it was a monkey teapot; today a monkey tree. Several of these humongous, majestic trees are in my neighborhood, but many of them are situated in ways that make them awkward to sketch (at least from a car): standing behind tall houses or on busy streets where I can’t park. I found this one on a short, quiet street – ideal for sketching.

I don’t know much about Araucaria araucana (also called monkey puzzle trees and monkey tail trees), but I’ve seen some with huge pod-like cones at certain times of the year. This one didn’t have any, but instead it had small yellow clusters at the ends of its multitude of “tails.” Since it was my first monkey tree sketch, I used a Kuretake Bimoji brush pen to become familiar with the shape of the branches – curved and fun to make – before painting them. But next time I think I’ll go in directly with watercolor.