For my introduction to drawing class, our homework for class next Tuesday is 5 sustained gesture drawings of trees.

I still don't quite get gesture drawings. We learned using mass and line gestures. It's not too hard to draw the stump and branches and stuff, but the leaves part is really difficult for me.

Could anyone give me any advice on how I would go about portraying a tree? Some example images would be great.

How specific do you have to be with the leaves? One good way (and most used, I believe) is simply to draw the IDEA of leaves! :D I'm not sure how novice you are with these, but I started with the basic. If you have make very clear pics (let's say that you have to zoom one pic to only one branch), then I suggest that you start with the lines, add some leaves (tip bending down) until you're happy with the amount and then just go wild with the shading! Eh, not sure if you got me so I just add a proper guide here.
How To Draw Trees - Quickly & Easily
It has it all, but the pictures are the ones I would check out.

You don't have to literally draw leaves, just the idea of leaves. Because you don't see each idividual leaf on a tree, just a mass of them. What leaves look from a distance.With the shape the tree is outside line and bushy, showing more detail on the shape of the leaves.
Like if it's a fir, make it spikey with ridges round it. If it is a maple, do vague, tiny maple like patterns with the outside rounded and pointy spikes.

I don't draw trees, at all, personally. But that technique works.

This is probably too late, but just in case someone else comes here looking for the same advice, I'll put my 2 cents in.

First off, a gesture drawing is like a light sketch of the idea of your subject. It isn't supposed to look good or be very detailed. The best tip I can give for gesture drawing is to do it quickly. Spend no more than 3-5 minutes on it. It sounds crazy, but it will really help you do things better and more accurately if you don't spend a long time on it. You usually just end up messing yourself up if you do that.

Second, hold the pencil from the end and draw with your arm. I'm sure you've learned about that. I don't like doing this when I'm drawing regularly, but for gesture drawings it really helps.

Third, just focus on the shapes you see in the subject. If it is a bottle, draw out the individual shapes that make it up. the shoulders of the bottle are usually circular, so you can draw the circular shape for it. In your case, for the leaves, study them and try to imagine the different shapes inside of the leaf.

Oh yeah, DRAW LIGHTLY !

Another big tip is to really make sure that everything is accurate in proportion. That's probably the biggest thing about doing a gesture drawing. You want everything to be the right size and have the right distance between objects so that you can go back and draw over it with all the details and not have to worry much about size.

good luck! I hope what I said helps. I'm an art student now, so i have to do this a lot too.

a gesture drawing is 30 sec-10 min. drawings. It's not suppose to be perfect with detail. It can be even 30 sec. Just look at a tree outside and draw it for 1 minute. or imagine a tree and draw it or you can find pictures on DA stock images.

Every one has given the best info about gestures already. The only thing I guess I can add is that you should observe your subject before starting your gesture; just take in all your observations and such. Try squinting or taking off your glasses (if you wear them) from time to time, so you don't end up working too much on the details. Also, blurring your vision forces you to see only what is necessary (shapes, value shift, etc).