Forests and Trees

My latest fascination/obsession/time-waster is drawing trees. Trees in the distance, trees on the horizon, trees in the middle ground, trees up close. Drawing trees is vastly different from painting them. In a painting, they are not typically the center of interest and are suggested rather than featured, although Constable did some fine tree 'portraits'. Trees are more easily suggested in color than in line: Block in a vaguely tree-like shape in a mid-value hue (probably green) add darker, usually cooler, shadow areas, lighter and usually warmer light areas and highlights. That's the basic 'tree' algorithm. The goals are similar in a drawing. Again, the tree is not usually the center of interest, so it has to be suggested rather than explicitly delineated. And that's where it gets tricky. Just as you can't paint every leaf, neither can you draw every leaf. Soooo, what, then, do you draw? I find that I have to make more decisions in drawing than in painting. Or at least it seems like there are more to be made, possibly because this is only lightly explored territory for me. I have no memorized map, no starting algorithm, no very accurate compass. Maybe people who draw but don't paint consider that all the color decisions made in a painting are much more complex than drawing. After all, anything that's not routine is complex. Anything new is difficult. But anything new is also fascinating. And I have become fascinated with those trees. How to simplify one of the most visually complex things in nature is an engaging task to undertake, a great game to play and I think I'm becoming addicted. What fun!