A Stand of Trees

About this work

You see a small group of trees standing on a hill, drawn with fine lines and soft shading. The trunks lean slightly, and the branches are bare, sketched in brown and gray ink over a pale pencil base. The sky is left open, with only a few marks suggesting wind or light. The artist used stumping, a method where pencil or graphite is rubbed into the paper with a tool to create smooth, dark areas. This gives the tree shadows depth without solid black. The fine lines around the roots and ground were made with cross-hatching—overlapping lines that build tone and texture. Look next at the technique: cross-hatching.