How to Paint: Watercolor Trees

1. How to Paint: Watercolor Trees Introduction: [MUSIC] Hi there. My name is Audrey and I'm the creative behind Things Unseen Designs. I'm a watercolorist, calligrapher and educator. Welcome to my class on how to paint watercolor trees right here on Skillshare. Painting trees can sometimes seem difficult because you want it to look 3D, realistic, and vibrant. Through this class, you'll learn how to use specific watercolor techniques, such as; wet on wet, wet on dry, dry brush, and layering to paint five different trees. We'll also use a variety of brush sizes and sometimes at the same time, because I like to make use of all of my brushes. Trees come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and I've chosen five for this class. They are the columnar, fountain, weeping, pyramidal, and round shapes. By the end of the class, my hope is that you'll feel confident to paint these trees with me but also that you can paint your own trees using the techniques that you've learned. Well, I hope you're excited to get started. Let's break out our paints and dive right in. I'll see you in class. 2. Supplies: In this video I'm going to talk about some of the supplies that we'll be using in this class. First, you'll need some watercolor paper. The type that I'm using is the Canson brand and it's at a 140 pounds. I definitely recommend that you use watercolor paper and not anything else like mixed media or sketch paper or anything like that. You'll obviously need watercolor paints. You can get a full list of all the colors that I'll be using in my attachment, in the class description. You'll also need brushes and I'll be using a variety of sizes. The largest I'm going to use is a 6 or an 8. I probably won't go any larger than this. From there I have a size 4, a size 2, and 0, double 0 and triple 0. I have a wide variety of brushes here. It's okay if you don't have all of these sizes. I definitely recommend you have at least a size 6, a size 2, and a size 0. If you have at least these three, then you will be okay. This will be enough to paint all of the trees in this class. Aside from our brushes, you also need water. I also have water in a spray bottle because I need to keep my paints nice and fresh and wet. I use my bottle to spray some water to keep the paints wet. You will need a pencil for this class because we will be doing some sketching. Then an eraser as well as a kneaded eraser. This eraser is great because once you sketch out your tree, you can use this to erase almost all of the pencil lines so that just a faint line remains and then you can paint over it. I also added a pencil sharpener to my list of supplies because I made the switch from using a mechanical pencil to a regular pencil. This pencil sharpener is great because it can fit three different sizes of pencils and the triangular one I believe. That's really great, especially if you have different types of pencils. Then to empty it, you just pop one of these sides open. Lastly, you'll need some paper towels so that you can blot out your brushes or blot out any of the paint on your paper. That is all of the supplies that you're going to need. Go ahead and gather yours and let's get started. 3. Poplar Tree - Sketching and Color Mixing: Hey everyone. In this video we're going to learn how to paint the poplar tree. The poplar tree has a column shape and they're pretty skinny, slender, and tall. The way that we're going to paint it is going to have a 3D look to it. If you look carefully, we use a lot of different colors. We're going to do some color swatching over here. Then we're going to layer them on top of each other so that it creates a nice 3D effect. It looks like the light is shining in from this way. One of the first things we're going to do is just do a quick sketch so that we get a sense of what the tree actually looks like. Then we'll do some colors launching over here. Then we'll finally paint this together. This one over here, it was a fun paint subject I guess, I wanted to see what the poplar tree might look like if it was swaying in the wind violently. [LAUGHTER] You don't have to paint this one if you don't want to. I just thought it cool to still paint the tree, but painting it in motion. If you want to go ahead, otherwise, we're going to definitely do something similar to this. Let's start out by sketching the general shape of the tree. It's going to have a narrow base up at the top or narrow top. Then it's going to flare out almost in a cone shape but not all the way. Like that. It's just a very long cone, I guess. Then actually instead of closing it up like I did down here, you're actually going to flare down like this. Then this will form the trunk. It's okay if your sketches are imperfect, we're just trying to learn how the tree looks. Now we're not going to sketch out the leaves, but I want to help you understand what the tree looks like underneath the leaves. If we continue with the trunk all the way up to the top of the tree, the trunk will get narrower as you go further up, like so. Then from here, the branches will come out. You can draw some main ones, then smaller ones [MUSIC]. That's basically what the poplar tree underneath all the leaves look like. It definitely has a lot of branches that are coming out, and so when we paint it, our leaves are going to be really close together. We will leave a couple of pockets so that we can see the branches poking through. But for the most part is going to be a very dense tree. That's pretty good, lets go ahead and do some color testing. In my poplar tree, it's got warmer tones to it. One of the first things I'm going to do is mix some sap green and my bright yellow [MUSIC]. As always, I cannot wash it out so that I can see what it looks like when you add water to it. This helps you understand the value of a color. Just keep going until you can't really see the color anymore. Next, I'm going to do some sap green just on its own [MUSIC]. Wash your brush on a little bit more. I just keep going until you can't really see the color anymore here. For the next one, I'm going to mix some sap green and fallow green. Just a hint of that because it's very bright. Add some more sap green just to darken it up. Just a hint of the fallow green. That's pretty good. All we do is just darken up this sap green with a fallow green without going too dark [MUSIC]. Yeah, fallow green is a very rich and intense color. You might find that you'll get a lot more value out of that color when you use it or add it to an existing color. You know that I love hookers green dark, and some payne's gray. That's going to be; actually let's do hookers green dark and some fallow green as well. Actually, I don't like how bright that is, so I'm just going to add a lot more hookers green dark [MUSIC]. I'm actually not really liking this at all and that's sometimes what happens, I'm going to warm up the color because it is just a little too bright and too blue for me. I'm going to warm it up by adding some raw sienna. There we go. Then in the process we also darken the color. I didn't mean to mix three colors but that's just how it happened, so just use that. Yeah, I like this a lot more [MUSIC]. For this one, it looks like I added hookers green dark plus just a little bit of fallow green plus sienna. Now I do want to go one step darker than this. I'm going to do hookers green dark and payner's gray, which is one of my favorite combinations [MUSIC]. What you can see that I did here was, we started out with warm undertones and this will be our first layer basically. Then in a second layer we'll add some of this. Then we're getting gradually a little bit cooler for the top colors. As we move down, we're getting darker but also cooler in color. Lastly, let's do some brown so that we have our trunk [MUSIC]. Well, now that we have our color palettes already prepped and ready to go. We have an idea of what all of our colors look like. We have our sketch over here so that we understand the general shape of the tree. Let's use this side of the paper to now paint our poplar tree. Here we go. 4. Poplar Tree - First Layers: I am going to use my pencil just to sketch the trunk of our tree so that we know where we're going. I'm just very lightly drawing the trunk of the tree so that I know where to stop up at the top, and where I'm starting here on the sides. Now at this point, if you feel that your pencil lines or too dark, you can use your kneaded eraser and then just get rid of that so that they're pretty faint. It might be hard for you to see here on the screen, but do it so that you can still see the lines, but very faintly. Let me try to bring it up for you. There we go, so it's just very lightly done. I'm using my size 4 brush, actually I'm going to use my size 6 brush. This is a size 6 round brush. Like I said, we're going to start with our lightest colors. Now at this point, my paints are a little bit dried out, so I'm going to use my little water bottle spritzer and just give it a very small spritz. Following your outline, we're going to use this undertone all over, and right after we do this underlayer, we're going to go in with the trunk. Now, the type of painting technique that I'm using, I'm just using my size 6 brush, and basically, I'm just going to dot it. I'm just doing small dots all over the place. I'm going to start at the top and work my way down so I can get the general shape of it first. It's okay if your dots are touching. If you want to make slightly larger areas, you can too. Make sure to leave some white area as always, because the other colors will also be covering up your tree. I didn't really follow my sketch, I went a little bit too far to the right on this side, so I'm going to go a little bit more to the right on this side. Because I made it wide here at the base, I'm going to have to go a little bit taller. The joys of painting for this class and learning as I go making mistakes. This is a little bit better. It's okay if some parts of it are still a little bit wet, but we're going to go in with the trunk now. I'm still using my size 6 brush. I'm going to pick up my brown, and I'm going to ahead and paint the trunk down here first. It's okay if you just go ahead and just fill it all the way in. This is what it looks like so far, and I'm going to go ahead and paint parts of the trunk within this tree here. You can paint around the first layer that you put in, or you can paint on top of it. Just be free with it, because again, as we add more layers, you won't really see what's going on here. You can add a little bit of the branches right now if you want. Again, just be mindful that you are going to be probably covering it up later. Okay, I'm going to let this layer almost dry, and then we're going go in with our next color, which is the sap green. 5. Poplar Tree - More Layers: My first layer of leaves is almost drying out. The trunk is still drying, so that's okay. Now, we're going to go over it with the next color which is our sap green. We're going to start making our tree a little bit more 3D. When we're adding the next layer, I want you to focus on this half of the tree and then on the right side, about half of that side as well. We're going to concentrate our leaves on the left like 75 percent of the tree. Then we will add a little bit of the sap green on this far right side, but just little bits here and there, if that makes sense. Pick up your sap green. You can go lighter, water it down a little bit and then go darker if you want. Like I said, start on the left and work your way to the right. You can layer on top of that first layer of paint if you want or you can cover up some of the white parts that you left. Remember, don't feel like you have to cover every single inch. We have a lot of other greens to add. Good thing about watercolors that you can always darken it. It's always better to err on the side of lighter than darker. Now, I only added the sap green to the left side and you can already tell that this tree is starting to take shape. Now I'm going to add a little bit to this middle part. You can go on top of the trunk too. It's cool to see the brown colors sort of bleeding in. Now, with the sap green color on the far right side, I'm just going to add just like maybe like no more than 10 little dots. I want to keep it as light as possible. I'm just going to add up just a couple of spots there, maybe here, there. That's it. Again, you can always add more later, but better to err on the lighter side first. Parts of the paint have already dried and some parts have not and that's okay. I'm going to go ahead and add the next color and some of the paint will bleed together and that's totally okay. This is my sap green plus duller green over here. I'm still using my size six brush. Eventually when I get to the darkest colors, I'm going to switch to my size four. I'm going to go ahead and add that to my tree. Again, this time I'm going to concentrate on the left 50 percent and then add sparingly on the right 50 percent. Now that we're getting darker, you definitely don't want to cover up all of the dark spots, you still want some of the lighter layers to show through. That's looking pretty good so far and I'm going to add some of it to the right 50 percent, but not too much and then very sparingly in the far right here. How is your tree coming along so far? I hope it's good. I'm going to add the next color, which was our hookers green dye plus a little bit of that valid green even though I didn't want it and then some of the brown, so I'm going to pick that up. Again, some of the paint is still wet and that's okay. I'm just going to go ahead and let the colors bleed mix a little bit and that's part of the fun of watercolors. Again concentrate on the left side of the tree. Remember as you're still painting, don't forget that you want to leave still some of that white space. If you can't see your lowest or if you can't see your first layer anymore, you're painting a little bit too much. Just leave some breathing room, leave some space. I'm going to pause for a little bit and I'm going to let the leaves dry. I'm going to go in there with my size four now and use my darkest color here and continue with that same motion of just dotting it all over the place, concentrating really on this second half or the left half of the tree and a little bit right here on the center. Now that we added some of those branches, you can add some of those darker leaves right where these branches are, right around it. That can kind of help you guide you. Again with this darker color, be careful not to cover up the entire tree. You still want some of the lower, the under layers to still show through. How is your tree looking so far? You should definitely be getting the sense that your tree looks three-dimensional, the light is coming in this way. You should be able to see your branches, pretty clearly. You might have some bleeding or mixing of the colors and that's okay. Let' take a closer look at this. 6. Poplar Tree - Final Layers: Then you can let your paint dry a little bit more. If you want to darken up this area more, that's totally okay. You can darken up this side, just a little bit more, if you feel like it's too light then go ahead and add some more. For example, I think on my far right side, I don't have enough of just a sap green, I'm just going to add just a little bit of that, around where the branches are, just to give it a little bit more dimension. If you want to darken up your trunk a little bit more, you can do that too. You can add some more of the brown trunk within the tree, if you want to make it a little bit darker. At this point, you could probably layer on top of some of the greens, if you wanted to. If you feel like you're branches got lost as you are painting over them, or maybe they are mixed and blurred out, then go ahead and add some more there too. If you use just a tip of your brush, you can paint these really small, thin, fine lines, and there you have it. The poplar tree is all done. We practiced sketching it out, we tested out our colors, and then we painted in layers, starting with the sap green and bright yellow as our undertone, and then we went on with the trunk, and then added these in succession, to create this 3D effect. From here, I can still add darker colors, I can still make the trunk more defined and add details there too, and you could keep on doing it until you feel like you come to a stopping point, but I like the way that it looks right now. I'm not going to mess with it, I'm just going to leave it as it is, let it dry, and then see how I feel about it. For now, I'm really, really pleased with it. I can't wait to see your poplar trees too, thanks. Join me in the next video as we paint the next tree. 7. Palm Tree - Sketching and Color Mixing: Hey, everyone. Welcome to this video. We're going to paint the palm tree together. Here in this sample painting, I first sketched out one of the trees, did some color samples, and I actually painted two trees. We'll do something similar as well, but we're just going to paint one tree. Yeah, this sketch, as you can see, it's complicated, but it's really not, it's just looks complicated because all of the tiny little hash marks, but that's just to indicate the leaves. The palette that I chose to go with is a more earthy tone colors but you can make it more of a tropical feel by adding some blue greens and things like that, or bright yellows. For the palm trees, just has a more earthy feel to it even in the trunks. For the coconuts, I only put one, but we can definitely add more. In terms of supplies, I'm going to be using mostly a size six brush and then a size zero or one, or even a two maybe for the fine leaves here. Then go ahead and grab our supplies and let's get started. Palm trees have a fountain shape to them, meaning that if we look at this, it has the skinny trunk and then the leaves erupt into like a fountain. We'll have some leaves that are coming down like this. Some leaves that are going up and spouting to the left and right. It's just a really fun shape to draw and to paint. Let's go ahead and start with our sketch. We're going to sketch in the order that we're also going to paint. Let's start out with some coconut. You can draw some almost circle shapes like this. Let's do three. I think three's a pretty good number. From here we're going to have leaves coming out all over the place. Let's have a couple going up and to the right like so, let's have one shooting out to the left like that. Now, even though these are one-sided, just keep in mind that when we go into paint them, they're actually going to have another layer behind it. The way that we're going to paint it is that we'll do the first layer in a lighter green and then go back over it with a darker green to show that there's that other side of the leaf. This just gives you a basic idea of how our palm tree is going to look. I might paint it a little bit small hurt because the sketch is pretty large but let's go ahead and sketch in the trunk. Palm tree trunks are not always straight. If you make it straight, it's going to look very unnatural. As you come down, you start out with a pretty skinny trunk, have some bends to it like that, and even bend the other way if you want. Then the base gets pretty wide like that. I don't like how it's thick right there. I'm going to erase just a little bit of it. I want the trunk to be still skinny. Here we go. This is a little bit more realistic. You can have it coming out this way but then bend to the left. It really doesn't matter, just whatever your preference is. That sketch is looking pretty good. Let's do some color testing and I'll do my color swatches, may be just right here in this corner. Like I said, I'm going to do earthy tones, but you can choose whatever you want to do. Just make sure to do some color swatches before you get started. For my earthy tones, I am going to use a lot of Sap Green, but I'm also going to mix in some of my yellow ocher or this Naples Yellow or this bright yellow and any of these earthy tones over here too. You can also experiment, try adding some reds and oranges to your greens. It's going to look a little bit brownish, but if you add just a hint, it could be a pretty color. I will do maybe one cool green by adding some blue hues or my favorite Payne's gray. Let's just do some color swatching and you do the same. For these colors, you can always label them like I normally do but I'm going to let this tree be a little bit more free spirited. I'm not going to be so stingy about labeling all of my colors instead, I want to just mix as I go. I don't always recommend that but sometimes, you don't want to just be limited to a certain color. In that case, you just want to go with the flow. I'm just trying different combinations and just seeing what I get. I want an even darker green so I might use my fellow green here, which is always so bright but it's so thick and very vibrant. I'm going to add some raw sienna to it to get a nice deep color. Yeah. I really like that. These are just some of the colors I might end up adding one or two or if I mix a different color that I might get a different result. But this is just what I'm working with. For the trunk, I'm going to use a pale Payne's gray mixed in with some maybe yellow ocher. I don't want it to be too green because Payne's gray has a yellow or green or blue hue to it. I just want it to be subtle. I will be adding some brown to that mix too. Let's just add a little bit of that brown just so I have an idea what that looks like. For the coconuts, I might use a combination of raw sienna, raw amber. It's a darker color for my coconuts. Those are just some colors that we're going to be working with. I know that was quick, but I also just want to show you how sometimes I am very strict about colors, but how sometimes I just have an idea of what I want and then I just mix as I go. You'll see how that process comes about. 8. Palm Tree - First Layers: All right. So like I said, we're going to start with the coconuts. I am going to paint my palm tree just a little bit smaller than this. So don't feel like you have to go too large. I'm going to start with my size six round brush and just right around here. Again, I'm only going to paint one palm tree, but we're going to do a couple coconuts. Notice that I'm not painting a complete circle. I'm letting some blank space happen and then sometimes what I like to do, I like to make the next one lighter in color. So I just washed out my brush and I'm going to come up right up against it and let the color just bleed into the next coconut. You just get a real cool effect like that. I'm going to add just a little bit of color and then just do one more down here and let the colors bleed in together again. I'm going to leave that the way it is and you can always go back in there and then add some more color. For now, I'm going to now paint the branches, I guess if you will, that go all out like this. I'm going to use my size six brush, but you can use a size two as well. It's just that the size two or smaller brush might not hold enough paint for when you go out. At least with a size six, if you use just the tip, you can get a really nice thin line and then it will be able to hold enough paint as well. Now for these branches, I'm going to make them pretty dark. So I'm going to use maybe the darkest green that I had in my palette here. So maybe this one or even this guy over here. Again, you can always darken it up later, but I think doing it ahead of time would be good. There's my dark green right there, loading my brush up with it. Then they're going to come out from this coconut point. I am going to leave a little bit of space here because that's where my trunk is going to come down. So make sure to leave some space for that. All right, so we have the skeleton of our palm tree. This is the basic shape of that fountain shape. Now with our size two brush, or actually this is a size zero. I might have my size two handy just in case I want slightly bigger strokes. What we're going to do, we're going to start with are lighter colors first because remember, we always want to work from light to dark, and then we can layer on with darker colors later. Using my size zero brush, going to start out with maybe some of these lighter greens here. This is my sap green and Naples yellow. With this, again, I'm going to use just the tip of my brush and just like in my sketch, I'm going to just follow those lines. For here, I'm going to make this one a double-sided one. Then to make it look a little bit more natural, you can make the leaves not the same exact size. We do different sizes, but in general, getting longer as you approach the tip. I know it looks a little bit weird because the branch is so dark, but don't worry, we're going to go over it with darker colors. So I'm going to do and this one next. This is also going to be double sided. A little bit more straightforward than the other ones. Now you don't have to use this yellow or this green as the undertone for all of the leaves. For example, I want these top leaves to be a more vibrant, green, I guess, if you want to call it that. Then these bottom ones are going to be darker or more earthier tones. Sometimes when you look at a palm tree and it looks like half the plant is or half the tree is dead, like the bottom half is all gross and dried out, that's look I'm going for, but not as harsh. These will be the brighter green color. Again, at this point, your palm tree might not really look like a palm tree yet. But remember with each layer we're getting there. Now for these bottom ones, I want to have a more earthy tone under earthy as earthy green as the undertone. All right. How is your palm tree looking so far? So far we're done with all of our first layers. 9. Palm Tree - Second Layer: Now we're going to go back in there and at this point you can add some more dimension to your coconuts if you want just to mix things up or you can go back in with your second layer. By now, the top leaves should be dry. Then by the time you paint the second layer up here, the bottom part should be dried too. I'm going to pause and then switched gears and add some more dimension to these coconuts. All right, so for these coconuts, let's see, let's do some more of that dark brown. I'm going to add just a hint of the Payne's gray. Just to get a slightly different color and just add some shadow to it. Therefore these lighter ones, again, just adding some more dimension to it too. That's pretty good for a first layer or a second layer for these coconuts. I might go back in there and then add even more details. But so far, I'm liking the way that they look. Let's go ahead and start adding our second layer to these leaves. I'm going to continue using my size zero brush and then maybe mix up some darker greens so that I have them ready to go. That was my fellow green and my brown ombre. That's a little bit too dark. So I might save that for my last layers. Let's do maybe one over here. Yeah, this is a little bit darker and I like that. Just a hint of that fellow green. Now I'm going to use this and use that as the second layer for- Sorry, I want to mix up a little bit more of it so that I don't run out. I'm going to use this to go over. Now this time, you really need to be careful to paint very, very thin strokes. You don't want your leaves looking too full. Because palm trees are cool because you see the sunlight shining through them, you see what's behind them. You can basically see through the trees, and so you want to give that effect too. So you don't need to add one at every single stroke. You can skip around, maybe do some there, and then skip a little bit and then do some more there. Just these two leaves are ready. You can already see this one looks a lot more dimensional than that one. Go ahead and continue adding some more leaves. Now with this darker color, you can already see the original branches that we drew or painted are already blending in nicely, they're almost disappearing. So that's good. That's why I don't ever be worried what that first layer, because you can always add more. Now for this one, sorry, I should have explained before I started painting. I'm going to make my darker strokes a little bit shorter because that gives the illusion that the leaves are behind. I'm going to do a little bit shorter. So now it looks like the leaves are right behind. Now for these down here, I'm going to add even more of the brown to give it that aged tree look and then use that as my next tone or next color layer, whatever you want to call it. So that was our second layer, and you can already start to tell, the top half is looking a little bit brighter whereas the bottom half look like they're on their way out. So now for the top and hopefully the final layer, we're actually going to use a method called dry brush. Dry brush just basically means you're going to use a very dry brush and your paint will be pretty wet, but it won't be sapping wet so you want it to be mostly paint and just minimal water. I'm going to let this kind of sit and dry. What the dry brush effect will do if I bring out my original. If you take a look at what's going on, like right here. If you take a look at what's going on right here, you see some spottiness in the paint here. That's the effect that I want to have. I don't want it to be straight painted, but to have some of that spottiness. Hopefully, we can achieve that. But I might actually do a third layer before I do the dry brush. 10. Palm Tree - Final Layers: At this point, I'm going to paint the trunk. To paint the trunk, I'm going to use my size six brush. I'm going to first paint the trunk in a pretty light color. I'm just going to do a really light gray brownish color. Then using the wet-on-wet method, we're going to add some darker spots. That's pretty watery. Remember, we're going to make the tree trunk not as straight, kind of have it bending at different points. Now I'm going to come out with a base like that. While that first layer is still wet, I'm going to pick out some darker colors and then add in some paint at random points. You can just do dots if you want to have it come out further. All right, I didn't mean to make it so twisty, but that's how it turned out. But that's okay. It just looks more natural that way, at least in my opinion. You know what, I changed my mind. I'm going to do a third layer of leaves before I do the dry brush. Maybe I'll just use a size two brush and then go over it. Let's see how that works. I'm using a size two. I'm not going to dip it in water. It's already pretty dry. I'm just going to dip this in the paint and I'm going to use that dark color that I had made up before. It's not completely dry but it's not sopping wet either. I'm putting the paint on but not adding any more water. The first several strokes are going to be pretty clean lines. But then eventually it's going to run out of paint and then be a little bit spotty when it paints. Let's see how that turns out. Dry brush just might take some practice. For example, I'll do a test paint down here. For example, the first stroke is going to be pretty clean like that. But then as you keep painting, do you see how it gets a little streaky? That's the point. That's the point that I want to get to eventually. That first stroke is going to be pretty clean, but then as you come down, it's going to be little bit streakier. It's the effect I'm going for. Let's try it out. [MUSIC] You can see that it's getting streaky already. I really like that. I'm picking up some more of that paint and doing it again over here. [MUSIC]. Dry brush technique is really great for those final layer details. Dry brush is great because you know that these colors are not going to mix with the other colors because it's hardly wet at all. Let's do that again over here. Again, I'm still trying to make my strokes pretty thin. But notice how I'm not making my leaves as long as the layers below it. I do want the layers below it to shine through. [MUSIC]. I'm really running out of paint and it's super dry, it's very streaky. But that's okay. That's the effect that I was going for. I do like how it's turning out. [MUSIC]. All right, look how full my tree looks already, as opposed to the bottom layer. I'm going to do the same. I'm going to keep my size two brush dry and I'm going to mix another color with a different brush so that I don't get this one wet. I'm just going to use my size six brush that's already wet, and I'm going to just darken up this color, add a little bit more brown, a little bit more phthalo green. But just try to get it mostly paint so that when I pick it up with the brush, it's not going to be as watery. I didn't wash out my size two brush. I just set it aside. I'm going to use this darkest color to do the dry brush technique on these bottom ones. [MUSIC]. That's another good example of the dry brush technique too. See if you can see the spottiness. [MUSIC]. Now you'll notice that the original branches that you've painted are all but gone. You're going to really hardly see it. [MUSIC]. Yeah, I'm really liking this so far. I'm just adding up just a couple more longer leaves. Just so that my tree looks a little bit fuller. Again, with the dry brush technique, it's not adding so much paint and so it's still feels light. If you just take a look at that one, I added all those extra longer leaves, but because it's so spotty, it doesn't seem as heavy. I'm going to keep doing that just wherever I feel like. I will add to the plant. Yeah. If you've never tried the dry brush technique, this is a pretty good tree to use it on because it's forgiving. You don't have to worry about it trying to look perfect because every palm tree looks so different. That's looking pretty good. I think I'm going to go back in with the trunk and just add a little bit more detail to it. I'm going to use that gray brownish color. What I like to do, I sometimes lay some color down and then I use a different brush to draw that color out to kind of blend it in. Now this area down here under the coconut should be pretty dark. I'll just add some more detail there. I'm going to make the base pretty dark as well. [MUSIC] Well, there you have it. I hope you had fun painting the palm tree with me. We had fun sketching it out and just getting an idea of what a fountain shape sort of looks like. These color testing, I was free with it. I wasn't too struck down myself. These leaves you definitely want to go layer by layer. Using the dry brush technique that we practiced down here, you get that final look to it that gives it a great dimension, doesn't make the tree look too heavy, it just gives it a lighter touch. I can't wait to see your palm tree. If you haven't already, start creating a project and then add this to that page. All right, thanks and see you in the next video. 11. Weeping Willow - Sketching and Color Mixing: everyone in this video, we're going to paint the weeping willow tree. Now the shape of this tree is just weeping. No, and I think it's probably the only tree in this category. If you look at the sketch real quick, you can see that, you know, it's got the main trunk here. Then the branches just really go all the way out. And then they had, you know, down to the ground. Even if it goes up, it really just falls straight back down. Um, and even in the painting, it kind of does the same. So it goes out, but then it comes down. Even if it goes up, it comes almost immediately back down. And so this is a very unique tree. I think it's even more cool to look at when it's kind of swinging in the wind. The's colors are just my colors. You can choose whatever colors you want. I've seen, you know, like more yellowy greenish colors s. So I just chose a variety of colors, minds kind of on the cooler side with the bluish tones to it. Um, this style is also gonna be painted in a very, very loose style we're gonna do a lot of wet on what kind of for the background for these for these broad colors and then use layering to add the's final details. So, yeah, just be prepared to kind of work a little bit faster than normal. Um, if you're more comfortable, you could just watch the watch this painting happening first on, then and then follow along later. In terms of brush sizes, I'm gonna be using mostly a size six and maybe even the size eight. And maybe even also the size for I just kind of depends also depends on how large you want your tree to be, you know? So if you want your tree larger than this size, this is roughly, you know, a little bit bigger than my my fist. So if you want it to be any bigger than you should use probably a size 8 10 or 12. But if you want to make it, you know, just kind of this size, then you could probably get away with using a size four and six. And the reason why the larger brushes were really help is because when you're doing what on what you need a lot of water, so these bigger brushes will hold more water. Um, all right. So we'll just do a very basic sketch just to kind of help us understand the shape and how and how the leaves and branches are are structured. And then we'll do a couple of tests colors again. You can choose whatever colors you want to do, and then we'll go ahead and start painting this. Okay, okay. So forth this So for the weeping willow tree, it's going to have a main trunk. Yeah, kind of like right there in the middle. And it's gonna seem short on Lee because it's going to be shrouded in all of the leaves. So if you can imagine, you know, trunk or the branch kind of coming out this way but then weeping down and here they're gonna be a lot of branches that sort of that sort of overlap because they will be all coming down at some point kind of something like that. And then you could do the same here on the other side. Now, in the middle, they there will be some branches that go up, but again, eventually is going to curve and I come down a swell. Okay, So that just gives you a very generic idea of how this this plant its structure for this true structured. Okay, so let's go ahead and do some color swatches. And for this I'm going to use. And I know I've got the same colors here that I used for that Himalayan cedar tree. So I kind of like this color combination. I might just makes a little bit more of that fellow green. And for Sienna. Yes. Let's just see kind of how all of that looks in a little bit of that Brown the burnt number so that we have our trunk. 12. Weeping Willow - First and Second Layers: What we are going to do first is paint that trunk right here and then we're going to use the wet on wet method and just well, not quite what I want, but we're just going to use two different colors and just start painting the farthest latest layer. Let's go ahead and paint that trunk. I keep mine short and stout and it will continue up this way, but I'm not too concerned about that right now. I might just do like just this line up here and then have a branch going that way. At this point I'm going to go in there with my size eight brush. I'm going to pick up my lightest green color. At the same time, I'm also going to load up my size six brush with, with a little bit of a darker color but not too dark. I'm going to use my brush to paint just in a up and a down motion and just start creating those curves. Don't worry if it looks weird, you know, as always, we're going to layer and it will start to really take form. I know it looks weird right now, but that's okay. I will go in there with my slightly darker color and remember to still leave some white spots. Now at this point, I know it still looks weird, but that's okay. At this point, I'm going to go in with my darkest color. I'm going to go in here with my darkest color. Start creating some of these that are like branches. Then, and then some of those leaves that you would seen. What I'm doing, I'm just making like tick marks. I'm going quickly, and at the same time I'm going to use my size six brush to add some sap green details. At this point, I know it still looks weird. But don't worry, it's all going to come together. I'm going to go in there with my size- 13. Weeping Willow - Final Layers: Now, I'm going to add a lot more of the staff green ones. I think this one can still use a little bit more of the dark green right here in this area. I'm just going to mix a little bit more that green color at my darkest green and just add. All right, and there you have it. That is the weeping willow tree, I think just because of the nature of how fluid it looks and just how it dances so well in the wind. I think it's only appropriate that you just use very loose gestures with your brush to create this effect. if you're still not comfortable, I think half of it is just improvising as you go along. Half of it is really just knowing how your colors work. That's why doing a color test like this or just with practice it'll come. I hope you had a lot of fun painting this. I can't wait to see yours in your projects. All right, thanks. 14. Himalayan Cedar Tree - Sketching and Color Mixing: Hey everyone, welcome to this video and we're going to be painting the Himalayan cedar tree together. Now, these types of cedar or evergreen type of trees have a pyramidal shape, your typical evergreen tree shape. However, I was inspired by this one photo that I couldn't find later, but it had this tree and it was leaning off of a cliff. I thought that was so cool that even though it has a pyramidal shape, that because it was leaning off the cliff, it had that bend to it too. This tree does still have somewhat of a triangular shape, but it doesn't adhere to the standard or conventional shape. I'm still going to paint this one just because I do want to show you that not all trees are the same and being able to paint it differently will really show your range and dynamic. Even the sketch is haphazard and crazy. You don't need to follow it exactly, but we will just do a very rough sketch of this tree. The colors that we are going to be using are just your basic greens. But the one thing that I did add that was cool is that here I added to my burnt umber, I added some purple and that just gave it another dimension to that brown color too. As always in my color swatches, I always encourage you to try out new color combinations. If you have a master color chart, then by all means reference that and then use that to paint your tree. But if you don't, that's okay. Eventually you might want to. But if you don't, then you can always do a quick swatch here. Let's go ahead and get started by sketching this out and making that basic pyramid shape, but then really showing the tree in its own unique away. In addition, the brush sizes that we're going to be using, I have a 4, 6 and an 8 here. I'm probably going to be using mostly the four and six just because the eight might be a little bit too big, but I could use the eight for the trunk. We'll see how I use it, but definitely the four and the six. For our tree, we're going to have two main trunks. We are going to have one main one that comes out like that, and the trunk size is going to be somewhat consistent, but it will come up to a point eventually. Then the second one is going to be coming out of that first one. That's a little bit too much. I'm going to have it a little bit closer to that first trunk, so something more like this. Now from here, I do want to have somewhat of a pyramidal shape. If my leaves come up to here, then I am going to have somewhat of a triangular shape like that. You can even use dotted lines if you want like that, maybe more like that. This just gives you an idea of what the boundary will look like. I do want the branches to come out this far. I'm not really thinking about where these branches are going, I'm just placing them wherever I want. Actually this tree trunk is coming up too far. I don't want it that tall, I want something more like that. Again, these are just very rough sketches. As we paint, you'll get a better sense of how you want the tree to look. Then you might have some random branches coming out from behind the tree. This is just a very general shape to it. You can add some leaves, but it's pretty time-consuming. You can do that on your own if you want. I'm not going to do that here. Let's do some color swatching and I'll do some down here. For our colors, I do want to use my basic green some of my favorite combinations like the sap green and Naples yellow, the fallow green and some of that burnt sienna or burnt umber. I'll do some of those colors here. Again, we do want a range, and so we do want lighter and then darker colors and then some dimension in the browns because we will be doing not exactly layering, we'll be doing mostly what on what, and I'll demonstrate that when we get there. But basically, we're going to put down the lighter colors first, like here, and then go in there with the darker color. Let me make some of my favorite color combinations. I really like sap green here. Sap green is probably one of my favorite greens. Some right there, and then Naples yellow is like my new favorite colors, like this light peachy nude-ish color. It's a little bit opaque, which I also like too. For the next one, I do like to use just sap green on its own to, but I'm not going to go into that right now, let's do some fallow green and some burnt sienna. Then as you all know, my other favorite combination is the fallow green and Payne's green. It just gets the coolest green color that I know. This is actually a really great color for those evergreen forests or yeah, it's got that slight blue tint to it. All right. Let's do some of those browns for the trunk. Here is burnt umber on its own. Then I'm going to add some purple to that burnt umber here. You see how it's still nice and dark, but it's got a slightly different color to it and I just really like that. 15. Himalayan Cedar Tree - First and Second layers: We have our colors here. What we're going to first do is paint the trunk, and some of the branches, not all of the branches, but some of the main ones that come out here. Then these guys as well. Then we're going to go right in there with the wet-on-wet. For that we're going to use two different brushes. We're going to use a size 6, and the size 4. The size 6 is what I am going to use for the lighter color, and then once that is still wet or when that is still wet, I'm going to go in there with my size 4 that has the darker color and just punch in the darker color in certain spots. I'll demonstrate how that looks. Let's first draw the trunk, and I'm going to do it in a pretty light brown color, so l can always darken it up later. I'm going to draw that main trunk here, thicken it up just a little bit at the bottom and not too much. Don't forget that other smaller branch that we're painting here. Again, as always, I know it looks a little bit weird at first, but it always comes together in the end. Now I'm going to paint some of those other main branches. You don't have to paint all of them right now. You can always add some more later, so don't feel like you have to do them all right now. This is just to guide us so that when we are painting our leaves, we know where to concentrate our leaves. That's all I'm going to do for now. Now as I said, we're going to go in with a wet-on-wet, and we're going to use this size 6 to load up on the lighter yellow color, get a pretty wet. Then use your size 4 brush to pick up the darker color. Then hold it in your hand as well. First I'm going to do the lighter color, and what I'm going to do, I'm going to use short strokes, connected. Some of them can be spotty, but I'm going to just be very loose with it. I'll demonstrate up here first. It just loosely going like that. Painting leaves, but not really. Some of it is connected, some of it is not. Now the paint is still very wet, and so now I'm going to go in there with my darker color. I've got it here on my size 4. I'm just going to [inaudible] Not everywhere so that it bleeds everywhere, but just in some parts. It looks pretty good so far, and I'm going to keep doing that here as well. Just loosely, just going around the branches. Not really thinking about where all of these are going, but just loosely placing them. Notice that I'm just really keeping it loose. I am not even following the original branches that I painted. Oh no, I smear down here with my hand. Well, I'll just cover that up with some more paint. I'm going to continue doing that just everywhere. There's something else that you can do with this main branch here, is to paint some leaves coming out of it. As if it's coming from behind it. I like how this is looking so far. I definitely want to add some more dimension to it. Now we are going to layer, but also still do wet-on-wet. I also want to add some more leaves just right here. Let's do them right now. 16. Himalayan Cedar Tree - Final Layers: All right, at this point I want to darken up the branches so that the tree looks a little bit more dimensional. I know it still looks funny, so we're going to add some of that burnt umber, maybe just a little bit of that purple, I don't want to add too much of that purple just yet. But let's definitely darken up that tree, and you can see already the tree looks more like a tree, and then you can do the same thing with the branches, it's loosely, lightly, have it coming out like that. I am going to blend that brown in a little bit so that it's not so starkly dark on one side and light on the other. It's not too bad so far I do want to add, I want more foresty green color, I feel like that thaw green and that burnt umber wasn't foresty enough so I do want to create a more earthy, a warmer toned the dark green to it. Again, similar process, I'm going to get my maples yellow and sap green mixed up in their, load that up with my size six brush, and then pick up that darker color with my size four brush. I'm just going to go over this layer again, and this time is going to be a combination of wet-on-wet and just layering, I don't want to do too much wet-on wet because I don't want all these colors to re-mix itself. I'm just lightly going over with the lighter color, I'm just being careful not to cause the under layers to get wet again, you don't want it to make it reactive. But just adding a little bit more color just to make it seem more vibrant and fuller, maybe some more leaves right there. All right, it's not going to go in with that darker color, I'll then just add some more dimension to it, so it's a little bit of wet-on-wet, but I'm also going over areas where I didn't add that lighter color just to add some more dimension. Add some of the darker color where the branches are and especially where the branches meet, because that's where a lot of the shadows will be, so it just makes sense to concentrate your darker colors there. Again, I'm just being very loose with this, and this is actually more representative of my style, I think it just allows for a lot of creative freedom, so hopefully you're enjoying this process too. Okay, I'm going to let that dry just a little bit, and let's see, I think I can darken up the trunk a little bit more, so now I'm going to add some more of that purpley brown. I'm going to add that just in some spots, and I'm going to use my size four brush, a clean brush to draw that color out. All right, there you have it that is a Himalayan cedar tree which is generally a pyramidal shape. I know we painted it a little bit differently because I was inspired by the tree that was hanging off of a cliff, but I'd love to see your version of this as well. I hope you like the loose style that I have using the wet-on-wet method, and using some unique color combinations like this burnt umber and the purple. Yeah, I'd love to see your cedar trees, so go ahead and create that project and share your progress with me. All right, thanks and see you in the next video. 17. Red Maple - Sketching and Color Mixing: Hi everyone. In this video, we're going to paint the red maple tree. Now the red maple tree has the round shape to it. Basically it's got one main trunk, and then the trunk extends all the way up here, as you can see in this sketch. Then all the leaves come out from that main trunk while all the branches come out from this main trunk. The red maple, I've chosen a really bright red color, it's just that this whole class has been green, green, green, green, green. As much as I love green, I think this red maple tree was really fun to paint. It literally lit a fire under my butt, it just got me really excited. I hope you're excited too. Let's see. We'll do a basic sketch like we've been doing. We will do some color testing so you can choose your favorite red colors. The maple tree is also beautiful during the fall with it's orange and yellow and other colors as well. If you want to create a fall themed red maple, that would look really cool too. The brushes that we're going to be using are mostly a size two and a size six. We're going to be using some wet on wet, not too much. But basically, I'll explain. We'll paint these outer little leaves first and then use the size six brush to draw the color out and then paint the center of it. Then as we go along, we'll paint the main trunk and the little branches too. Just like the poplar tree, there is a light source coming in from this way. This side is going to be a little bit darker just to give our tree a little bit more dimension to it. Well, I hope you're excited. Go ahead and grab your supplies and let's paint the red maple together. As I described, the red maple has the main trunk like this. Then the general shape is like this, round shape like that, and then all of the branches are going to be coming out from this point. There's usually a lot of branches to this depending on how large it is and how complicated it is. This will give you a good indication of where to draw your branches when it comes time for that. It's not too bad. It's a pretty basic shape. I think a lot of trees have this basic shape. I should also mention actually, the branches more so go up like this and outward. Now let's do some color testing. For this, we're going to be using a lot of reds. But let's do the trunk. The trunk is pretty easy. I'm going to be using just the light paynes gray, and then I might add some black to it just to make it a little bit darker without getting to blue. There's my paynes gray. Here I have a couple of different reds in my palette. This is the alizarin or alizarin crimson color, and this is cadmium red deep, and this is the grumbacher red. Each of them have slightly different components to it. You can go ahead and see what reds you have in your palette. I'm just going to show you what the red looks like right out of the tube. It's very bright and it's almost got a little bit of pink to it. That's why I like to mix a little bit of the color so that it's not so pink. But that's what it looks like straight out of the tube. I'm going to make some of that red and the red deep hue, and then you can see how it looks a little bit more different. Now that is more of a true red color, it's less pink. Then let's see what the alizarin crimson looks like with this grumbacher red color, and then that also has another property to it. These are just a different types of red that you could get. If you want to make this and even warmer and darker color, you could even mix it with some of this burnt umber or the burnt sienna. Let's see what that looks like. It's a little bit too brown for my taste, but that's probably my fault. I think I added a little bit too much of the burnt umber. But anyway, that just gives you an idea of the range. I might use this actually as the topmost layer, maybe in some parts. We'll see. So far those are the reds that we're going to be working with. 18. Red Maple - First and Second Layers: In this area, we're going to be painting and let's start with the trunk. Like right there. Again, you can make it as light as you want, just so that you can always leave room to make it darker later. Then you can draw some preliminary branches. We can have one coming out like that, maybe a little bit thicker, maybe a couple coming in this way there. Then you can have your trunk continuing on as if it's hidden within the leaves already, just to give you a generic shape to work with. Remember the branches go upward and outward. That just gives you an idea of the shape that you're going to do. Now to guide me, I am going to draw very lightly that round shape all around, just so that I stay within my border. If this is my topmost, I'm just going to just very lightly dot it, go all the way around. I know it's really hard to see, but as long as you can see it and I can see it, that's really all that matters. You want it to be pretty light because you don't want to interfere with the painting. If you like that general shape, then let's go on to painting. The way that I'm going to be painting this, like I said I'm going to be using mostly a size 2 and a size 6. I'm going to load the brush, the size 2, with the color. I'm going to start light, so I'm just going to take one of the reds that I mixed, add some water to it so that it's thinned out. I'll start on this left side since I'm right-handed. I'm also going to load up my size 6 brush with some clean water. Following your edge line here, I'll start just to the left of the top center. I'm going to just lightly paint the outer leaves like that. I'm just following that painted line that I just drew. I'm going to do just about that much, and then I'm going to go in there with my size 6 brush. Just draw that color out, and let that blend into the rest of the tree. Again, leaving some white spots, not completely covering it up. I'm just going to keep going and following my boundary line. Then after you've gone a couple inches, you can go in there with your size 6 brush again, and just draw that color out. Remember, we can always go back in there and add some more color, add some more dimension to it, so don't worry if it again looks weird. I think by now you've gotten used to just going with the flow. Now so far I've made this whole thing the same height, or the same length. When we go back, you can add taller leaves because sometimes branches come out further. Don't worry so much about that yet. But even now if you wanted to vary it and make some a little bit shorter, and then make some of these taller or longer, that's fine. You can do that now, or you can do that in the next layer too. Draw that color out again, let it blend. As I'm coming out this way, remember the shape of the branches are going to be coming out, and so I did mess up down here. I don't want them to face downward, I want them to face outward, so I'm going to try to fix that a little bit. You can fix that a little bit in the second layer too, but I want to make sure I do it right the first time. That's what the first half of the layer looks like. Let's do the same on the other side. Again here I want the leaves to be going outward, instead of facing down, I had to remind myself again. Now before I go on with the second layer, I'm just going to cover in this middle section with some more of that light reddish color. I just have a very wet brush, I'm just going to dab the color on. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, I'm just dabbing as I go along. Again you always do want to concentrate the darker colors towards the branches that you've painted, but you can always add more colors later. Now same thing, I'm going to go over the same layer, but now with a darker red. The same process, I'm going to paint some of the smaller leaves and then use my size 6 brush. Actually, instead of a size 2, I'm actually going to use the size 4, just so I can paint slightly larger leaves. This time, I'm not going to go so inch by inch by inch, I'm going to skip around. Remember, I want this left side to be darker, and so I'm going to do this left side first. Then as I do that, I'm going to go back in there with my size 6 brush and just let that bleed in and blend with some of the other colors that are already there. Now something that I didn't really do in the first layer is, I'm going to use that same darker color, but now also do it in this middle of the tree. Again, I'm going to concentrate around these branches here. Then again, let that free flow. Not every single part, but just some parts of it. I'm liking how that looks. Again, we can always go in there with darker colors for now, or darker colors later. But for now I like how it looks, I'm going to add some smaller leaves just here. I'm going to do the same thing on this side. I'm not going to add too much of this darker red because I do want it to be on the lighter side. I will have some, and concentrating it to where the leaves are sticking out, and where the branches are as well, but just smaller strokes this time. Our tree is starting to take some shape. At this point, I'm going to pause on the red leaves, and then define my trunk, and then add some more branches. To do that, I already have the Payne's layer, or Payne's gray layer down. I'm going to add some black to that, just to get it a little bit of a darker color. I'm going to go ahead and just go over that there. Now is the time that you can reference your sketch and then start drawing some of those branches. Remember, you don't have to draw every single branch, but just draw them, space them out, but follow that generic shape of up and out, out and up. 19. Red Maple - Final Layers: I'm liking how that looks so far. Again, we can always go back in there and add some more. I'm going to continue filling in our tree and just keep adding layers with the reds, and use your brush to blend it out. Now that you have the branches there, you can also put the leaves right around it to help define it a little bit more, and that should help fill in your tree a little bit more too. So the left side is looking really nice. I'm going to do something similar to the right side, but not filling in every little part. Still looks a little bit empty, so I am going to add some more of that red, I don't want it to look to night and day here. I'm going to add just a little bit more. Now I'm going to go back in there and then add the burnt sienna and the red mixture. That's going to be my final layer, and I'm going to use my size four brush. Some parts of this are still a little wet and that's okay, but I'm just going to add it to just really darken up some areas. I'm following the branches, especially where the branches meet. I'm really concentrating a lot of color there and darkening that up. Then finally I'm going to add just another layer of the black and the paint's gray is to help define my tree trunk and branches just a little bit more, and there you have it, that is the red maple tree. Yeah. Again, painting it in a looser style and using a bright red color. It was just really awesome, and it's a great break from using all of those screens. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but trees do come in all sorts of different colors, shapes, and sizes. So I hope you had fun painting this one and I can't wait to see yours. Thanks. See you in the next video. 20. Conclusion: Hi there, and congrats on finishing this class on How to Paint Watercolor Trees. Through this class, you practiced painting a variety of trees using watercolor techniques such as wet on wet, wet on dry, dry brush and layering. The goal of all of my classes is to help you not only create a specific image, but also to be confident in these techniques, so that you can apply them to other subjects of your own. If you haven't already, please take a moment to create a project and share your work with me. It's okay if you only painted one tree or all five. I also love to share my students' work on Instagram. Be sure to tag me ThingsUnseenDesigns and use the hashtag, #WatercolorwithTUD. Here are a few tips before you go. First, it's a process. As you can tell with most of the trees in this class, the painting doesn't look like much after the first layer. But the more paint you add, the more dimension you create, and the more the tree comes to light. The process really just takes patience, discipline, but also a little dash of improvisation and instincts. Like anything in life, things take time. Remind yourself that it is a process, and even if you don't get it the first time, maybe you'll get it the 2nd time or the 3rd time or the 10th. Just don't give up. Second, gather inspiration. It's currently summer here in Chicago and trees are at their peak. Soon it will be fall providing a whole new palette of colors. Unless you live in Antarctica, I know there are some trees where you live, so it takes some time to snap photos, draw some quick sketches. Whatever you do to gather inspiration. You can also pick up fallen leaves, seeds, or branches and study them. Your best inspiration could literally be in your backyard. Third, practice, and don't give up. The more I create these Skillshare classes, the more I realized I still have a lot of learning to do. I consider myself a lifelong learner and don't plan to stop anytime soon. This weeping willow tree especially took more than just a couple of tries before I filmed it, and even then, I didn't really love the result. But in all of my classes in general, it's more about the techniques that you're learning and not necessarily trying to copy what you see on the screen. By the end of this class, if you understand the principles of the watercolor technique, then that's really the best part, and because you can apply them to any other subject. Well, that's it for me. Thank you for taking my class. Remember to create your project, share it on Instagram and leave a review so that I can make the next class even better. I'd also love to hear from you if there are specific topics or techniques that you'd like to learn. I'm here to help you learn and grow as a watercolor is. So feel free to chat with me. Thanks, and I'll see you next time. Bye.