Rococo bonsai. If you decide to try your hand at drawing bonsai, my guess is that the results won’t look a lot like this. We’ve featured this illustration by Ruben Roig at least twice (here and here), but it’s been a long time and Ruben’s skills are exceptional, so it’s worth another look.
Consider this post an encouragement for you to try your hand at drawing bonsai (that’s three in row for those of you who love the English language). Or lacking that, you can simply enjoy these illustrations by people who excel at the art of drawing bonsai.
There are at least two overlapping motivations for drawing bonsai. One is for the pure pleasure of drawing (drawing bonsai as an art in itself) and the other is to explore what a bonsai might look like before you start styling. This second motivation doesn’t require much skill, just a pencil and paper, and a desire to improve your eye for bonsai design.
Elegance in sepia tones. This, and three other illustrations in this post are by Rudi Julianto. We’ve featured at least one of Rudi’s drawings here on bark (#4) and I just rediscovered him on facebook (where else?) and was struck by his subtle feel for the art of drawing bonsai. As you might expect, Rudi is also an accomplished bonsai artist.
Elegance in black and white by Rudi Julianto. It’s a simple drawing until you take a second look and notice just how much detail there is.
A little more elaborate. Also by Rudi.
Another excellent drawing by Rudi Julianto, but is it just me, or is this tree is going to tip over?
These two drawings are from John Naka’s Sketchbook. Mr. Naka, was widely recognized (even revered) as the Dean of American Bonsai. He traveled and taught tirelessly and probably did more for bonsai in the West than anyone else. He also regularly used drawings as teaching tools and if you happened to have studied with him and to have received a drawing of what your bonsai could become, then you were lucky indeed.
John Naka’s famous sketchbook. It’s on special at Stone Lantern with an additional 25% off for our current book sale.
The last 2 pics by Rudi remind me of Dr Seuss styles (‘One tree, two trees, red tree, blue trees…’)
I have some drawings of how some of my trees could look like in the future – done by Dan Barton and Peter Adams. They are much treasured even though the trees are no longer in my collection.