LESSON I - Part 5: Five Watercolor Techniques for Trees

There are almost as many ways to paint trees, as there are artists to paint them.

Here are 5 different tree studies, with a variety of approaches you might try . . . 

1.  BASIC TREE STUDY -- 

Sketch a tree in pencil, and then lay in the foliage and grass, with a light mingling of yellows and greens (I used Quinacridone Gold and Sap Green.) . . . 

Wet each shape again, and add some darker/cooler greens and blues (Quinacridone Burnt Orange/ Sap Green, and Sap Green/Cobalt Blue), to suggest volume.  Keep the first light/warm wash visible at the top of the clumps . . . 

When this has dried, paint the trunk, branches, and a simple cast shadow (using Quin. Burnt Orange, Perylene Maroon, and French Ultramarine, or something similar).  Add a few dark marks for emphasis in the leaves . . . 

2.  UNDERPAINTING/SALT/NEGATIVE PAINTING -- Tree in Autumn

Do a wet-in-wet mingling of warm colors.  When the wash has just a sheen to it, sprinkle on some salt, and let it dry completely . . . 

After this is dry, brush off the salt, and draw a simple tree and grassy foreground line.  Paint the negative shapes only, with a mingling of colors (golds, oranges, reds, and a bit of green.)

3.  SPATTERING/MISTING -- Flowering Tree in the Spring

Draw a tree, lightly, in pencil.  Paint the trunk and branches first . . . 

Loosely cover up the areas that you don't want spattered, and mist the exposed area with clear water . . . 

While these drops are wet, spatter some pinks and reds and magentas, and a little green.  Use a brush for this, tapping your finger to spatter the paint.  Then, spatter on some clear water, and then touch some of these drops with a brush loaded with the paint (pink, red, or magenta).  Let your brush "dance" across the paper, dropping in paint in a "lacy" way . . . 

4.  MASKING & MINGLING -- Palm Trees

Draw a palm tree, or two, in pencil.  Then, paint a wet-in-wet underpainting, with Quinacridone Gold, Cobalt Blue, and Quinacridone Rose . . . 

Using watered-down masking fluid and a quill pen, apply the mask to the negative shapes (everything other than the palm trees).   Apply the masking fluid with a Q-tip in the big shapes.

When the masking is completely dry, mist your paper with clear water, and mingle and spatter your  colors (the gold, burnt orange or burnt sienna, and sap green, for the mingling; and cadmium red and cerulean blue, for the spattering) --

Let all this dry completely, and then remove all the masking (with a rubber cement eraser, or your fingers) . . . 

5.  RAINBOW OF BACKGROUND COLORS -- Stylized Trees

In pencil, draw a group of stylized trees -- with interweaving trunks and branches, but no leaves.  Take them right off the top and sides of your paper.  Then, draw a few wavy, horizontal lines, behind the trees . . . 

Leave the trees white, and paint the background shapes, in a rainbow of colors.  When the background is dry, erase all the pencil lines . . .