Transcripts
1. Autumn tree intro: Hello, everyone, and welcome
to this painting lesson. This is a beginner friendly
class where I will show you an easy three part
method for painting four ground trees in
a realistic style. It can be a little bit tricky
to give the illusion of detail in a highly
textured subject like trees and foliage. So in this lesson, I will show you my technique
on achieving this. This particular tree we are
painting is an autumnal tree, but this method will work
on really any kind of tree, bush, or other similar things. The style of class is going to be a follow along tutorial, where you can see my painting
method in real time, and I will share my thoughts
and explanations that will hopefully help you understand
the method and process. I have attached my
reference photos in the resources section if you would like to have a go at this particular painting
and paint along with me, but also feel free to use your own photos if
you would prefer.
2. Autumn Tree Part 1 : Hello, everyone. Welcome
to this tutorial. In the cessa we're
going to be doing a small landscape painting, and we're going to be focusing
on doing an autumn tree. So there's going to be a lot of reds and yellows and oranges, a lot of warm, earthy tones shown through the leaves here. So this is quite a
simple painting. There aren't many
components to it. It's more just a
study of how to paint foreground trees
and how to build up the levels of depth and
detail within the leaves. So if I'm looking at
the reference photo, I'm actually going to simplify this image a little bit more. So I'm going to leave out the distant hill and just focus on doing the foreground
hill with the tree. So I always like to start my paintings by painting
whatever is furthest away first and then gradually coming forward to
the foreground. So in this case, that's
going to be the sky. So let's start mixing
a few sky colors. So on the palette, I've
got titanium white, ultramarine blue, palo
blue, burn tumba, nacronu magenta, familiar red, cadmium yellow pale, yellow
ochre, and sap green. And this over here
is liquid original, which is going to thin the paint and help it spread a
little bit easier. So I'm going to start by
taking some palo blue. Put that in the middle.
So I can see that the sky is quite a
vivid sort of blue. So Pato blue is a
very powerful color, it will certainly help
give it saturation, but it is slightly
on the green side. So I'm going to take
just a small amount of cinacrono magenta and mix that in there to increase the amount of red
in this mixture. And then let's take some
titanium white to lighten it. Then let's add some liquid original to thin it out and help it flow
a little bit better. Let's just try this color out, start at the top, start
spreading it around. So as we start moving
down the canvas, we need to continually add more and more
titanium white to this mixture to pale the sky as it recedes
into the distance. And that's really going to help conveying the depth of the sky, making it recede further
and further back. So just gradually going to be
adding more titanium white, and then just mixing that into the colors above it to
get a nice gradual blend. Now, because the tree is
quite sparse in some places, a lot of the sky color is going to show through the
gaps in between. So we need to have
some of this color appearing in the tree itself. That's also why I've
been overlapping the sketch that I did initially, because it's going to have a
very rough and broken edge. It's going to have a lot of
the sky showing through. So we need to extend
the sky over the top, so then we can work back
over with the tree colors. Okay, so we've
finished the blocking for the sky, as you can see, I have overlapped
some of the edges, and I've put a few blue marks
in the middle of the gaps, well, the large gaps
within the tree. But I think that
the overall color just might be a little bit dark. So in the next layer, I may
lighten it just a little bit. But now let's work on the
foliage for the tree. So because this is the blocking, I'm only going to be putting
down the basic colors, and I think I'm
going to start with quite a muted orange color. So I've wiped my palette clean just to give me some
more room to work, and I've also wiped my
brush clean as well. I've got most of the
excess blue paint off it. So now let's go in and mix
this muted orange color. So I'm going to start
with some burned tumber. We'll put quite a lot
of this on the palette, and then let's tint it with vermilion red and
cadmium yellow pale. So it's mostly burned tumber
then more vermilion red and slightly less
cadmium yellow pale. We'll mix that together. I have added some liquid
in there as well. So I think this is a
pretty good color. It's a very muted, very earthy sort of brown, and this is going to
work nicely for some of the shadow tones
within the tree. So we're going to be working
in clumps to begin with. So where we've got
the densest areas, that is where I'm going to be
putting most of this color, and we're going to be
pretty much blocking in a solid color in those areas. Taking all the way to the edge, and it doesn't matter so
much if we overlap the blue. It will mix slightly, but it's more important to
get a slightly uneven edge. And it's spread this
paint out quite thinly. So I'm pretty much just tapping with the corner of my brush. I'm pressing quite hard and it's maneuvering the paint
around quite a lot. And you can see we're
already starting to build up this texture where some of the paint is thinner, where
some of it is thicker. We're already starting to
get some tonal definition within this blocking. So again, just remembering,
I'm only going over the densest areas
that I can see. So I can see this rather large
dense area at the bottom. So I'm going to be
pretty much covering this whole area in paint, brushing very broadly here. And we've got a few areas around here right in the middle. And I can see predominantly
on the outside, it gets a little bit thicker, all of these areas. So I'm making it quite uneven. Some of the leaves extend out
a bit further than others. Pretty much just tapping
very roughly with the brush here to get all those edges. So along the right side, it
gets quite sparse, actually. A lot of this area is
going to be blue sky. So I think I'm going
to leave most of this. Just put a few marks
here and there. And I'll probably go back with the blue colors and
just fill in the gaps. So before we do that, I'm just going to take some
more burned timber, and I'm going to take some
ultramarine blue this time, mix those together to
get quite a dark color, and I'm just going to tint it very slightly with
some sap green. And this is going
to be for some of the bark that's in shadow. So it's going to be
very close to black. But I can see that we've got quite a few green shades coming through on the lighter
areas of the bark. So I'm just tinting
it with sap green just to give it that
greenish tinge. So then with this color,
we're just going to be brushing in the branches. We can follow along with the
lines that we've got here. A lot of this area is in shadow. We can take it right up to
the edge of the blue paint. So we've got a slight
shadow in the middle. It's a very dappled shadow, and then the rest of it is
pretty much in highlight, so we can probably
leave that there. But we do have a lot of these branches that
we can see weaving in and out of these areas further into the tree
at the very top. So you can just draw some
loose branches here. And now that we've got
a bit more direction with the tree, let's go back to the blue color. So I'm gonna wipe my
brush clean again, get as much of the
brown off as I can. And then let's take
some more phalloblue and small amount of quinacronym magenta and
some titanium white. Just remixing that sky color. And then with this, let's
just take this all the way. Well, let's find the
right color first. That was a bit dark. So with this color, let's take that
all the way up to the edges of the leaves. A Okay, so I think I'll leave that
there for the time being. I know it looks a lot like
a mess at the moment. A lot of the colors did mix and create like this
muddy sort of color, but it's only the
blocking and we can adjust all those
in the next layer. So while we're waiting
for that to dry, let's move on to doing the
rest of the tree trunk. So the colors here
are quite light. I can see a lot of
grays with green hints, as well as some redder
colours in there as well. So we can use these mixtures
that we've got out here. Again, I've wiped
the brush queen. It's still got some
blue in there, so let's just use some
more burnt tumber to get rid of that blue. Okay, let's mix that with some vermilion red and
some titanium white. So it's going to give us a
fairly pale pale brown color. And we can use this
for the time being. Let's just go ahead and
put this on the outside. So remembering that
this is the blocking, so we only want to
be putting down the mid tones or the
darkish mid tones, the basic colors, and
the highlights and the darker and lighter
areas for the texture. Those can all be added
in the next layers. At the moment, we
want to put down just the solid solid foundation
that we can work over. So we're just gonna
paint this all in, cross the whole tree trunk, taking it right up to the edge. Okay, now let's get
some more sap green. I'm going to mix that
into this grayish brown, just tint it slightly. And that's pretty
much good enough. So with this color,
we can go in and start lightening the areas where we've got the green tones. So we can see a little
bit on this side, and it gets the green becomes more prominent the
further up the tree we go. So we can put a little
more at the top, pretty much showing through in the gaps and between
the shadows. Just touch it in
in a few places, bring it down a
little bit, creating a slight dappled effect. And then just going
back with some of this darker color to just
touching the shadows again. Okay, now on the bottom, we've got a slightly deeper tone. So I've just taken some
more burned timber here with a slight amount of ultramin blue
and vermilion red. So it's a slightly
darker reddish tone. We can just put that
at the very base, just touching it in. Okay, so that's the
basic tree trunk. I'm going to leave all
the branches until the second layer because we need to work on the sky colors
a bit more there as well. And it'll be easier
without having the branches covering
that area up. So now let's just move
on to the foreground. So it's just a grassy hill.
It's gonna be very simple. I'm just going to
take some sap green, touch of ultramarine blue, and a small amount of
cadmium yellow pale. Mix that together
with some liquid. And then let's just
brush that in. Okay, so now that we've
done the grassy bank, I've actually had
second thoughts, and I think I am going to
put in the second hill, maybe just not in
as much detail. I just think that
without having it, it's kind of warped the
perspective a little bit, and it looks more like
you're looking up at the tree more so than
you actually are. So we'll just take a
slightly lighter colour. I'm going to use
the same mixture, just add a touch more
titanium white in there, mix that with some
liquid original, and then we'll just go in and kind of brush this
in at the top it, brush it coming down across. And it can connect
on here somewhere. And then we'll just fill
that in with a solid color. Okay, so while
we're here, we may as well put in just a few of the distant hedgerows
in the distance. So I'm going to take some
more burnt tumber here, mix that in this mixture. Then we need a slightly paler because it is quite far away, so we're going to pale and
haze this out a little bit. So I've got some
ultramarine blue here, and I'm going to mix in
some inacronymgenta, give it a slight redishue and
then some titanium white. Just mix that together,
make it quite pale. And then with this, we're
just going to line the top of the hill here with some
very distant trees. So I'm just gonna
make small strokes, make the top line uneven.
Bring it down across. You can see a few gaps. And we'll just bring it all
the way coming up here. Very uneven, just a few marks. And that's pretty much all
we need for the time being. And so then coming a little
bit further forward, we've got some deeper
tones, some deeper colors. So I'll just added
some more burn timber, touch more ultramonblue, and maybe we can start introducing some green
in there as well. So we got some sap green. Going to just extend a few
of these smaller trees, smaller bushes in a line coming down can bring it about halfway, maybe just a little
bit further to connect onto those large
trees that we can put in, make it a little bit
larger in certain places. Just using the
corner of my brush to get a slightly thicker mark. And then we can put that
larger tree in there. Then coming further
forward still, it gets even more
saturated and darker, so we'll take some
more burned timber. And I'm going to mix
that quite heavily with vermilion red and maybe
some yellow ochre. Let's try yellow ochre. And then with this color, it comes down at more of an angle, but we've got a
slightly larger hedge extending its way down here. So again, making very uneven
marks with the corner, just changing the height. But it needs to have
quite a solid base. So we can draw pretty
much a solid line there. And then the tops, we can just alter the height of these trees. And then let's just
put in some more of the closer trees as well. So kind of in between
the two hills, we've got a quite
distinct tree line. And we can just brush that in with some of these
stronger reddish colors. So take it all the way up. Just draw very large shapes
with this red color. Now let's once more, just use a slightly darker color to put in some of the
shadows in between. So just dotting with the
corner of the brush again, putting in just some
of the main shadows. This is a mixture of burnt
timbra and ultram& blue. Okay, so I think I'm going to leave that there
for the blocking. We've definitely got
in the basic colors. It's definitely something to
work with. It is very messy. It's going to need a
lot of refinement, so we're going to be
spending a lot more time on the next layer. But I'm going to leave
it as it is for now and wait for it to dry and
then come back the next day.
3. Autumn Tree Part 2 : Okay, so, welcome back.
The paint is fully dry. So let's begin working
on the next layer. So as I said before,
I'm going to start with the sky
again and this time, I'm going to lighten
the sky a little bit. I think it's a little too dark, and we can also clean up all the areas where it
started to mix with some of the oranges and become
a very muddy sort of blue. So to begin with, I'm going to be mixing the same mixtures. So let's take some thalo blue here and mix that with a
touch of anachronimgenta. Then let's use some
titanium white. Let's just mix all
that together. I'm going to use some
more titanium white, so we're going to start
off a little bit lighter. Let's try this color out.
I'm going to be using liquid again to thin the paint. This will just help spread
around the canvas a bit more. Let's just start at the top
and work our way across. You can see how much lighter
this paint is comparatively. So once again, taking
it all the way across into some of the tree. It's better to overlap them now. Okay, so now that we've
blocked in the sky, I have covered over a lot of the initial groundwork for the leaves that
we put in before. But now let's just go back and put a bit more
detail in these leaves. We'll have to work over
the sky color again. So the first thing I want
to do is put in some of the shadows that are really
deep into the leaves, the ones that are
really far back. And this is just to help provide the texture of this
leafy surface. So I'm going to take
some burnt amber here. And I'm gonna mix that with some million red and maybe just a touch
of ultramarine blue. And let's just see what
that color gives us. Okay, and let's use
some liquid original. So these are the earlier layers, so we want to keep our paint
as thin as possible cause thinner paints a
lot easier to work over than thicker paints. So with this colour,
let's just try this out. And I'm going to begin using this small ivory flathead brush, and I'm just going to be
tapping with the corner of the brush over this area. So I think we need to
get a little bit darker. So I'm going to use some
more ultramarine blue. Let's just mix that in there. We want this to be quite
a warm dark mixture, so it needs to have more burn sunbur than ultramarine blue. So still using some liquid, I'm just tapping with
the corner of the brush. Trying to keep our
paint quite thin here, tapping with the corner
over this orange area. And it should be leaving all of these little dots kind of in a small triangular
sort of shape. And again, we don't
want to create any patterns in this area, so I'm making sure not to use the same strokes
all the time and altering the spaces between the marks and how hard
I press on the canvas. A lot of this will
be covered over when we put in the lighter colors, but this is just to help start building up some
of that texture. So I'm going to be working
over the whole area, wherever we've got
this orange color, going to be using
this to tap into. So as I'm looking at
the reference photo, I'm seeing where
the darker areas are within the leaf structure. And in these areas, I'm putting this darker
color down in more density, making it closer together. And where it's
predominantly lighter, the marks that I put down are going to be
a lot more sparse, indicating a few
shadows in between. Okay, so while we've
got this color, let's start using this over some of the sky areas as well. So it's going to be pretty much the same technique just
tapping over this blue area. And we still want to
be leaving a lot of gaps to allow the blue
underneath to show. So again, looking at the
reference photo, Okay. It is going to mix
with the blue paint. So it's going to
become quite light. So in the center portion, I can see there's a
lot of the leaves in shadow at the very back just
coming through in this area. So I'm going to lead into
this part that we have. Again, I'm leaving a lot of
gaps between the marks here. This will probably require another layer once it's
all dried to really get the depth of this area is mixing too much with the
blue and becoming quite pale. The area on the right
here is very sparse. So we're going to be very careful as we're
putting these marks in. Leave a lot of gaps and a lot of spaces in between these areas. Working along the outer edges, just giving it more
of a leafy edge. A lot of this rough texture. Don't want anything to have
hard lines or smooth edges. It's all going to
be very uneven. Okay, so now let's
start layering over the top with
some lighter colours. So I'm going to mix a
fairly bright orange color. So I've got some
cadmium yellow pale here and I'm going to mix
that with vermilion red. And maybe just a touch
of burnt tumber. Okay, so it's quite
a bit lighter. It's still not the
brightest we can go. I'm leaving some room
to work so we can layer over the top with
even brighter colors. But this should be a fairly good mid tone to
use over the top. So again, I've added
some liquid to it, just to help it
take to the canvas, and I'm going to be
a little bit more precise with my marks in. So the techniques are the same. I'm still using the
ivory flathead brush and just tapping
with the corner. Just trying the
color out. I think it's a little bit too yellow. So I'm going to be adding
in some more vermilion red. And let's just try
this out again. So I think that's
a better color. So let's use this, and we're going to start putting in some of the lighter marks. So I'm going to be
leaving a lot of gaps for the colors
underneath to show through, just taking that over and
extending it into the sky area. Again, trying to
get that leafy sort of texture along the edge, just tapping with the corner, making it very uneven. So I'm not working
the paint too much. I'm leaving all of
the different types of marks as they are. So sometimes the
paint deposits a little bit thicker
on the canvas, and that results in a much
stronger sort of mark. So I'm leaving all
those variations in there to help add
to the texture. So I'm also slightly changing the color
up as I work here, introducing a bit more
of a reddish orange, which is also just helping to add to the variety
of color here. I've got some more
yellowish tones, more reddish, brownish. A Okay, so I think I'm going to leave the tree there for
the time being. I think that's probably the
best we're going to get it with the sky still being wet. So now let's move on
and work a bit more on the foreground or at least the area on the bottom
along these distant hills. So I want to begin by paling the different sections of
this most distant hill, and I'm going to start by mixing a very pale,
earthy green. So I've got some yellow ochre. I'm going to mix
that with sap green and some titanium white. And then just to tone it down
a touch of burned tumber. Okay, so using this color, let's just go ahead
and I'm going to start brushing in along this section. So I think that's probably
still a little bit strong. So gonna add some more titanium white and a touch
more burned tumber. I think it's still very strong. So I'm going to add
some more burnt amber, maybe just a touch of ultramarine
blue in there as well. And let's try this. Okay, so I think that's a
much better color. So we'll use this and then brush into up along the very top, getting a nice edge
along the sky. Take it all the way to the tree. So it doesn't all remain
one color this area. So it starts to get
a little bit more green as we move
down a little bit. So I'm going to take
some more sap green, but it is still in the distance, so we'll tone it down with
some ultramarine blue, as well, getting a
little bit darker. And let's get a little bit
paler across the very top. So we've got some
more titanium white. Just go to lighten this area at the very top, Blend that in. Just we're adding just some
variation in this area, making it not seem so flat. But again, this area
is not very boring. We're not really focusing
on this foreground. Emphasis is going
to be on the tree. A bit further over, we start
getting a little bit darker, but we're going to have a
lot of ultramarne blue in there because it is quite
far in the distance. So just mixing some more
sap green ultramarine blue into this mixture. And we can use this to
brush over this area. And we'll give it a little
bit lighter for the very top again to add some variety. Okay, for this area closest, it start getting a little
bit more saturated. So I'm going to be using
some more sap green. Mix that in there. And this
can be for the very top. It is actually quite
flat, this whole area. There isn't much tonal
definition across this field. We can just add just a small
amount of ultramarin blue, maybe just put a few
shadows here and there. Again, I'm going to blend
them out quite a lot. I don't want these
to be too strong. And for this closest field,
that's even stronger. So I've just put in some
more cadmium yellow pale to really warm that area up. And I can see he's
got a really pale, kind of really pale yellow, earthy tone just along the
very edge of the tree line. I'm just going to dot that in. And then cut against the
edge with that green color. Okay, so with those established, let's go ahead and put in some of the
distant trees again. So we have lost a lot of the tops of the trees
that we put in before. So we just quickly want
to re establish those. I'm going to take
some ultra ring blue, mix that with burnt tumber and a small amount
of quinacriimgenta. The magenta will just give
it a slight purple cast, and then let's lighten it
with some titanium white. So then with this color,
we'll just use the corner of the flathead brush again and just start putting in some
of the tops of the trees. So that might be a
little bit pale. So let's deepen the tone, put a bit of familiar
red in there. And you want to start
getting some color variety, that's going to help add
the detail to this area. So we've got some
slightly more red tones. Let's get some more
blue tones as well. And I can see some quite dark
blue tones for the shadows. So maybe some palo blue with ultramarine and a touch of
burnt amber to darken it. And with using this color, we can go into the bottom and start
introducing a few shadows. We can see that
coming up in between the tree structures.
So we're just tapping. We want to get a solid
line across the bottom, but we can just tap
in the middle parts just indicating layered trees. Now we can just reestablish this hedgerow as we come
a bit further down, put in the trees
as well that we've lost by tapping this
brush horizontally, making sure to vary the
height of the hedgerow. And we can even put in a small little highlight
along the top. And then work that
into the rest of it. As we come a little
bit further forward, the colours are going
to start getting a little bit more vibrant, so a lot more oranges
and bright yellow. So I'm using some
more vermilion red with a small amount of
cadmium yellow pale. And we can use that for these larger hedges across this tree line coming down here. Could we even start introducing
a bit of green in there? Let's get a few darker,
more earthy greens. For the closer tree line, we're going to get even
lighter or even more vibrant. So we've got some
stronger colours of yellow oak vermilion red
and cadmium yellow pale. I'm going to begin
by pretty much doing the same technique just
tapping with the corner, just going over this area, really brightening some of those lighter areas
of these trees. Changing the cor up so we've got some more yellow leaves,
some redder ones. Then we've also got some quite deep browns in there as well. So let's take some burn tumble I'm going to mix that
into this dark mixture. H maybe use a little bit
of liquid to help it flow, and then let's just start adding in some of the shadows
of this area as well. Same technique just
tapping with the corner. And while we've got this color, let's just go over
the whole area, just add in some
of those shadows. Okay, so now let's start putting in some of the lighter colors. So I'm going to start on the right hand side and
then work my way across. So I'm going to begin
with this lighter color, this lighter orange color and begin just dotting
in a few things. A few leaves here, and we want to change those up we've got some greens
in there as well. So duller greens. And we've got some quite heavy
shadows in there as well, along with some paler browns. Getting a whole variety
of colors down here. Let's go into some
of this darker color and start putting in some of
the more intensive shadows. I I Okay, and the last
thing that I'm going to do for this layer is just to start to texture and
detail the foreground grass. Now, this grass is
actually very short, so we don't have like distinctive or really
deep shadows in here. It's more just a grouping of mid tones blending through
the different variations. So we've got a pretty good fairly neutral
color down there already. I am just going to get a
bit dark in a few places. So let's take some
sap green here. I'm using the larger
flat brush for this. And I'm going to mix that
with just a small amount of ultramarine blue. I add some liquid to this, and that's all I'm going to do, keeping this mixture
very simple. And with this, I'm
just going to tap. And I don't want to put this
everywhere because as I say, the shadows aren't deep. They're not too pronounced, just in a couple of places. And again, I'm keeping
my marks quite thin. I want this to be really
easy to layer over. Again, the most important part
is that we start building up some texture in the surface. A lot of this will be covered over when we go in with
the lighter covers. So I'm working in
horizontal lines. Sometimes I'm using a
slightly broader mark, and I'm maneuvering
the paint across, spreading it quite thin, still using this tapping
motion with the brush. Okay, now on the grass, I can see we've got a few areas which have more
distinct shadows. So we've got a few
trees that are casting shadows directly
onto this grassy area. So for these areas, I'm going
to be using a darker color, which has got more ultramarine blue and burnt timber in there. The technique is
going to be the same because we're looking
at it quite flat, so the shadows are going
to be quite narrow. So I'm gonna keep my
marks fairly horizontal. And it doesn't have
to be too exact here. But there. And we've
got another one. I can see just coming
round round the hill here. Again, if you make
them too thick, you can always push
them back when you do the lighter colours. Okay, so now let's move
into some lighter colors. So we're going to take
some more sap green. I'm going to start mixing in some yellow ochre and
cadmium yellow pale and just a touch
of titanium white. We'll add some liquid, as well. With this color,
we're just going to use the same technique just tapping across the top. The paint is a
little bit thicker, so it should sit
nicely over the top. Still working in these
horizontal lines. We're going to start
changing the color up, adding a bit more yellow
oak to this mixture, maybe a touch of vermilion red to get a slightly
more earthy sort of green we can start
putting that in between the marks
we've just put down. Okay, so I'm going to leave
that there for today. I think we've put in a
lot more refinement, but it still needs quite a lot
of work doing to the tree. So once the sky behind it is
dry, that is what we'll do. Add in a few more shadows and highlights and detail the branches in
the tree trunk, as well.
4. Autumn Tree Part 3 : Okay, so now the paint
is fully dry again, so we can begin working
on the next layer. And in this layer,
I'm going to be working in a lot more detail. So let's start with
the tree again. And I'm going to begin
by mixing a dark color. So we'll take some burnt
tumber and ultra marine blue. So for this layer,
I'm actually going to begin painting the branches, just kind of
connecting up all of these blocks of
leaves that we have. So to begin with,
let's use some liquid, and I'm using this
ivory flathead brush, and I'm going to be using this for the larger tree branches. So we'll start at
the bottom here, and I just want to kind of
clean up all those edges. So using the blade of the
brush, just pushing up, getting a nice crisp edge. Wow. So I'm just looking at the
reference photo to see where exactly these darker parts
are, where the branches go. And I'm just trying to
follow those as best I can. So it's still quite large at
the top here. It does split. We've got another larger
branch coming out this way. But a lot of this out here
is in quite deep shadow. So, again, it doesn't
matter so much if you overlap the leaves at all, because we're going to be working on the
leaves afterwards, so we can always go back over the branches and
overlap those as well. We're just trying to make
everything make sense, make sure it's going
in the right direction and connecting to
the main branches. Okay, so now that we've put in the main branches,
let's switch brushes, and I'm going to be using this
small ivory pointed round, and we're just going
to be doing the same thing again
with this brush, work in the smaller areas. We can get a little bit more
detailed with this brush. So we're gonna be
drawing in some of the smaller branches. So I'm looking at the sort of shapes that these branches make. I'm not copying them exactly, but I'm trying to replicate
the characteristics. So we've got a lot
of these sharp bends and kinks in the wood. So I'm making sure
to try and add those in the branches
of the eye draw. That should just help it
make a lot more sense. Make it in keeping
with the type of tree. Okay, so now let's
change the color up. I'm going to introduce some
sap green to the mixtures. And this is going to be for
some of the lighter colors. I can see these
brownish green shades appearing at the top of
the tree in the bark. So we've got some sap
green burn tumba, and I'm going to mix that
with just a small amount of titanium white. And I also may add
in just a little bit of cadmium yellow pale. Okay, so using this color, we're going to go in and put in some of the lighter
colors at the top. So it's got a very dappled appearance, the highlights here. So we're just going to use
this and put in a few marks. Using the blade of the brush, making short strokes, and
leaving some gaps in between. I'm trying to indicate some
kind of a bark texture. So I'm leaving gaps
in between my marks to let some of the dark colors in between
to show through a bit more. Let's change the color up,
add a bit more sap green. Let's make it a
little bit darker. A As we start to move down the tree
trunk a little bit, we start getting even lighter. So I'm going to be adding
some more titanium white. We're also starting to go back to being more of a brown color. Let's use some fern
timbrene there as well. Maybe just a touch
of vermilion red. So with this color, let's just begin putting in some
of the lighter bark. So you can probably reserve this color for the
lightest areas. So let's tone it down with
some more burnt timber. Just put that up here. And with this color, let's
just redefine that edge. Then for the highlights,
we'll just tap, leave a very broken
mark with the blade of this brush with
this lighter color. Just tapping over the top. The paint is quite
thick at this point. It's allowing it
to sit nicely over the surface without
blending too much, keeping the color quite intense. Now at the bottom,
we start seeing some quite muted oranges
that are quite a bit darker. So we've got some burnt timber, familiar red and yellow ochre. And with this, we'll just go in and just put something
on the bottom. My use some of this dark color. And maybe let's add just a
small amount of sap green. In the areas above, we
do have a few areas where you've got some of that lighter tones showing
through some of the greens. So with the corner,
we're just going to tap leave a very speckled mark. And we're not painting all the details that we can
see in the trip, but we're more just
hinting at them. Then letting just
giving the impression. But these light
colors, they appear in the other branches as well. So we've got some highlights
just going across the top branches or the
top of the branches, some greens showing
through as well. So we're just tapping
across the surface. Again, it's going to be a very dappled sort of appearance. It's just going to be where
the light filters through the leaves just
catching some parts. So we don't want to
put this everywhere. We don't want to overdo it. So now let's begin putting in some of the smaller branches. I'm changing my brush again. I'm using the rigor brush,
which is slightly thinner. And we're going to
be using liquid, making the paint quite runny, just in this arc mixture. And then we're going to begin drawing some of the
much thinner branches. So we can continue some of these branches
where we've left off. Just to continue with
this smaller brush, we can get thinner lines. And then tapering them
to a very thin end. So this is going to take
quite a bit of time. It's better to be quite careful, spend a little bit more time
getting the lines the right thickness because
it is very easy to press just a
little bit too hard. You'll get a much thicker
line than you want. A So for some of the thinner ones, the ones that are
further away as well, we can move into some of this lighter sandy brown mixture and then just continue
some of the thinner lines. They should still
show up quite nicely against the blue background. Be a little bit paler indicating that they're a little
bit further away. So I'm a lot more precise drawing these lines
in the areas where there's quite a lot of
blue sky or a lot of gaps between the leaves. In the areas where the leaves
are a little bit denser, you don't have to be too
exact with the placement or the shape of the
branches because a lot of it's going to be obscured
again by the leaves. It's just there to
give an impression. Okay, so now I'm going to move on to doing
some of the leaves. So again, we've got a pretty good base where the
main clumps are. And I'm going to once more, start with the shadows. So just to build up
that texture again. So let's take some more
burnt tumber we can still use this mixture
just put in here with some ultramarine blue. And then let's add
some familiar red. We'll use some liquid,
make this quite runny. Okay, and then I'm going to be using the same technique again. This should hopefully
sit a little bit darker against these colors. So just tapping
with the corner of this flat head brush
over the surface. Making sure to keep this
layer quite thin because we want to lay it
over this later. So we don't want to
use too thick a paint. So looking at the areas
and the reference photo where the leaves are darker, and that is where
I'm going to be focusing to put these marks. So I can see mainly we've
got little pockets where there's a little gap
between the closest leaves, and in these areas, that is where we find
most of these leaves. Okay, so now we've got pretty good levels of the
dark tones and the mid tones. So now let's begin working on a few of the
brighter highlights. So for this mixture, I'm going
to wipe the brush clean, get all of the dark
paint off the brush, and then let's take
some vermilion red. Let's mix quite a
bright orange color. Might use some ronacronoagenta, as well with some
cadmium yellow pale. And let's put in a touch
of titanium white. Okay, let's load the brush up. I'm not going to use any
liquid in this mixture because I want the paint to sit quite nicely over the top. So it's going to be the
same technique again, but we're going to be a lot more precise with our placements. So just tapping with the
corner over the top. Making short marks. I'm gonna be leaving a
lot of gaps in between. Okay, so for now, I think this mixture's got a little bit
too much red in there. So I'm going to increase
the amount of cadmium, yew pale and yellow ochre. And it's put in touch
more titanium white. And let's try this. So it's sitting quite nicely
over the top. So we're just going to
work in small little clumps, using the corner. You'll find the more you use it, the more the corner will kind of get crushed and
it'll lose its edge, so you have to constantly
wipe it against the palate to reestablish
the corner of the brush. So towards the edge of the tree, you want to make our
marks quite precise. I want to get nice crisp edges overlapping into the blue sky. So I'm going to be spending a bit more time on these areas, making sure my marks are nice and crisp and
they're not fuzzy at all. I mean, I'm just tone the
color down a little bit. I've just added some
more vermilion red and a touch of burnt timber. Just get a small little
variety of this color. So that's a little bit darker. So I've changed the colour
up a little bit again. This has got a slightly
more red in it. It's a slightly
more orangish red. It's not quite as bright either. I'm just putting this in
this larger area at the top. A This is a very repetitive process. It's very time consuming
just working in small areas and slightly changing the color up
as we remix the color. This is essentially all
this part is going to be. I'm looking at where
the colors are denser and applying more of these
highlights along those areas, making sure to leave plenty of gaps in the
more sparse areas. And working in small
little sections. So we have a few
lighter sections where the highlights are more dense and they've got a little
channel of dark tone, and the leaves kind
of group together in this sort of pattern
for the most part. But I'm just looking at
the reference photo to see the general pattern of a particular area and then
trying to replicate that. Some of the marks I put
down are a lot thicker. They make a much brighter mark, and the thinner marks are gonna show through a lot
more of what's underneath, so they're gonna be
slightly dimmer. But it's all just
helping build up the tonal contrast and
variety of this area. Okay, so that is the first
layer of the leaves. As you can see, this zone it's a little bit
lighter where we started using that
brighter yellow color, and the rest of it is more of a warmer but slightly
darker orange. So I'm going to mix another color to get
the same level of lightness in this zone and
then put that over the top. So just increasing the levels
of light within the tree. So for this, let's take some
more cadmium yellow pale. Gonna mix that in
here. And we're going to take some
titanium white. Not too much. We
don't want it to get too chalky or too pale. We want to keep some of the
vibrancy and saturation. And I can see quite a lot of yellow within these
oranges of this tree. So we're gonna be using a lot
more cadmium yellow pale. Okay, so again, we're not
going to be using any liquid, and I'm probably going to be using or trying to use
a bit thicker paint, again, just to help it
to stick to the surface. So I'm going to
start at the top and just work over some
of those areas. Same technique, JS
using the corner. And this is actually
quite a good color. Standing out very nicely
against the darker oranges. Gonna have to keep
consistently reloading my brush to put down the thicker paint and also to reestablish the
edge of the brush. So I'm not putting this color
down in as many places. I'm reserving it for
the very lightest parts of where we've put the previous color we just put down. Don't want to overdo this. A a Okay, so I think it's
looking pretty good. I think we're
starting to build up some level of realism here. But I think on the whole, we need to increase the amount
of leaves that we have. So a few areas are looking
a little bit too sparse, and I feel that we
need to get a few of the darker tones back in there. So I'm going to go back
to this darker mixture we were using and I'm using some
burned tumber with some vermilion red to get a
fairly warm reddish brown. And then with this
color, we're going to be just going over a few
of the lighter areas, just filling out a few
of the areas in between. Again, same technique here. We're just starting to fill
out some of the areas, just reducing the amount of blue sky showing through
some of the areas. So, especially in this clump
of lighter leaves here, I think we need to get
some darker tones in there to just fill
that area out. A Okay, let's revert back to
the lighter colours. So we're going to
get even lighter. So I'm using some more
cadmium yellow pale, taking this mixture to a more yellow tone
to a brighter color. And let's also put in a
bit more titanium white. Just mix that together. Okay, and with this, we're
going to be even more sparing. So just putting the very
top in one or two places. So if we start to see
any patterns appearing, any parallel rows, I'm going to definitely try
and break those up. And I'm altering or changing the angle of the brushes
I'm making these marks, specifically to try and
avoid that happening. Okay, so I'm going to
leave the tree there. And let's just work a
bit more on this row of trees just to make it
a bit more in keeping with the tonal
definition of the tree. So I'm just going to put
in a few more shadows. So I've got S Burnt
Brent ultramarine blue, remixing that dark tone. We can just mix that in here. Okay. So with this, again, this is not going to be
quite as dark as before, so maybe let's mix that with
a touch of titanium white. It needs to be a
little bit lighter than the colors of the tree. And then let's just go ahead
and put in a few dots to indicate some more of the
shadows in between the trees. And then we'll just put in a few more stronger oranges, as well. So I'm just going to
remix some of the reds back into this lighter
yellow mixture, just to get an orange again. And then with this,
let's just go ahead and re establish some
of those brighter colors. Okay, and then I'm going to
mix much lighter colour. It needs to be quite
a muddy earthy color, so I'm just mixing some white
into this greenish brown. I've got a fairly light color. I'm going to switch to using
the rigor brush for this. Loaded up with some liquid, and then we'll just put
in a few of the trees and lighter trees that we can see just coming over the
top of these bushes. So again, this needs
to be very thin. I just going to draw lines. And let's draw a few branches
just coming away from it. Okay, I'm going to leave that
there for this painting. I hope that's given you
some idea as to how I would go about painting
a tree in detail. It was a lot of tapping
with the same brush. It was a fairly
simple technique, but it can be really effective if you do it in the right
way, building up the layers. So we've got the darker, browner reds in the base then, and we were gradually
building up and up to the brighter highlights.
Ashley Davies, Painting and Drawing tips and techniques
