Bark, Branching, and Massing Foliage in Painting
Trunk moss and leaf distribution, and painting plants as one tone against the sky
The chapter on trees continues with observations on their structure: the trunks of old plants in damp, shady places are clothed in green moss, young trees have cleaner bark than old, and upper and outer branches carry more leaves than lower and inner ones, while the densest forests have the least grass on their floor. A separate precept teaches how to compose the ground-color of plants seen against the sky in painting: render them as they look at night by faint light, as a single dark mass perforated by the sky's brightness, so their simple silhouette reads clearly. A further precept describes the pointed or rounded forms of branching and how the thickest branch-tips bear the largest leaves and fill first.
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Moss on old trunks, cleaner young bark, and leaf distribution (a, b, c, d)
a. The trunks of old plants born in damp, shady places are always clothed with green moss. b. The younger tree has cleaner bark than the old. c. The upper branches of a plant, and the outer parts of a forest, carry more leaves than the lower and inner ones. d. The floor of a forest is less grassy where the trees are denser.
Paint massed foliage as one dark tone against the sky
To compose the ground-color of plants set against the air, make them as you see them at night by a little light, when they appear all of one dark color, perforated by the brightness of the sky. In this way you grasp their simple silhouette clearly, without the impediment of the various lights and darks of green.
Branching shapes; thick tips bear and fill with leaves first (f, g, h)
f. Of the ramifications of plants, some are pointed and some rounded. g. The thicker tips of a tree's ramifications put out larger leaves, or a greater quantity, than any other branch-end, and they are always the first to fill with leaves. h. The thicker branch-tips are always the master branches of the greater limbs.