the most honest thing | fine art by Jon Cooper

the most honest thing | fine art by Jon Cooper

Trees

"I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the branches swayed and groped without any wind." Merry Brandybuck

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Jon Cooper
Nov 02, 2025
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“Trees don’t look like trees.” I can’t recall where I first read that, but I’ve seen it plenty of times since, especially in books about landscape drawing. And it’s true. Try to draw or paint a tree such that it looks like a tree, and, at best, you’ll get something like this.

tree

…

Ok, that looks pretty good, if a tad too symmetrical. Let me try again:

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