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| 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.
What an unusual tree!!! I love those branches. I checked out a little about the tree on google and it said it was so named because someone from Britain said the branches would even puzzle a monkey to climb it. lol Nice work!!!
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