Transcripts
1. Introduction: Today I'm going to
do something that I've been asking
about a whole lot. And that is how to
simplify trees and how to paint trees in a way that
doesn't overwork them. It's very easy to overwork
the fall each we're going to keep it relatively simple so that whether you're a
beginner or advanced, I believe you'll find
this one useful. So without further
ado, let's take it to the table and get started.
2. Drawing stage: So as I'm drawing the scene, let me talk a bit
about our game plan. One of the things I get
asked about a lot is how to avoid overworking trees. Trees and foliage in general
can be very complex. In this video, I'll
attempt to address that in a way that makes
sense and is simple. We're going to somewhat
simplified the trees, but let's not even
the emphasis here. My emphasis here is on how
to simplify the leafy part. One of the things that
initially attracted me to paint this scene is the beautiful composition between the trees. Often when you have a
lot of trees together, beautiful patterns
can be created. So here we have one tree. I'm going to place another
one right around here, going through the
other direction. Next three there
is a shorter one. And I'm going to make everything
clear in just a moment. And here there is one
closer to this one. If you can avoid even distances as much as
you can, that's ideal. Okay, so make, make an attempt not to have anything
be of equal distance. I know that can sound
a little funny, but you can try it. Try having every distance
between each and every tree. We're going to
explore it, actually composition in an
upcoming video, but try at least I'm going to
move to pause for a moment. Try at least to have everything
in different distances. Okay, now here's the thing. So for the tree branches, I think most people don't
have that much of a problem. I'm just going to plop them in around the lines
I already marked. So that's the first tree branch. And notice how my straight
lines aren't as straight. My hand is a little shaky, which will be to our
advantage here because the trees aren't fully straightened out.
That's the whole thing. It's an organic shape and it's, it's imperfect in the most
perfect way possible. I'm just going to drop around the lines.
I've put it in again. The trees, the lines
I previously put R just to mark the
different spots. So here's one here. I think I drank too much coffee, so my hands are a little hyper. Here's one, the one
that's close to the right is going to move
to the right like that. Okay, Now similar to what we did with the masking tape trick, we're gonna do a similar thing here when it comes to
leaving highlights. So we're going to leave
them on the right side of the trees because that's where at least I see most of the highlights
going here. Let's have one tree that's
kind of interesting, splits into a couple of main
branches, like so thicker. And then one here at the back. Like so maybe, maybe you should have it
go the other way round. We'll see about that. I actually, I don't really,
it doesn't matter as much, but let's go at it like this. Now, here's where
most people get into trouble and
that's the leafy part. So I'm just following the
contours when I draw it. So you see the contours of
the leafy part and it's all just one big shape to
me. That's the beauty of it. Here. I split some of
the tree branches, but just so that I
know until when, where this goes, you see it's just one big
chunk of foliage. That's for the drawing stage. I'm going to show you
in the painting stage soon in a couple of
other tricks. Okay? Now, for the background, we do have a lot of trees here that we have this one
that's closer to us. But we also have this
background layer of trees, if you will, that
goes like this. A couple of even closer
ones, lower hanging ones. Now here's what's
really important. The shadows cast by the trees, so they're all going to go left. So we have this one, this one, and making them in
different distances from us also helps with
creating interests because you see how
the shadows are also spread out in an interesting
manner like that. Then we're gonna get this beautiful shadow coming across from perhaps other trees. You want to get that in. Like so. All of this is in the shadow. See this area. And it's just gonna
lead hopefully to a more interesting
composition. Okay? Now there is a shed
here I'm going to drop that just doesn't
matter as much. And there are a couple
of other Sierra, but this is for the
drawing stage and all. Let's talk about
the painting stage.
4. Creating base of over paint: So what I'm gonna do is let's
rearrange some stuff here. So what I'm gonna do is
Here's the game plan. We're gonna do one initial wash that's going to cover
everything but the highlights. And then we're going to start placing in the actual elements. Now, I will leave the tree highlights
white and this example, so the initial washes going to paint everything around them. I do want to keep
this fairly saturated and interesting in that regard
because I got to paint, and this is a personal choice. I got to paint quite a
lot of more bland scenes, more muted scenes lately, I do want for my own sake and sanity to have this one a
little more strongly saturated. So we're gonna start with
a pretty strong blue. I think. Let's add a bit of
pure blue into that. This is gonna be our sky. Notice how with
these small sizes, you can have a lot of fun
and really take your time. That's what I love about it. Now, let's pour in a
bit more of pure blue. See, just to get some
interests going. Now, we're getting
to the treats. Here. I'm going to drop pure yellow
into the mix like that. And here's the thing. The foliage itself is misleadingly darker
than you would think. It's very easy to
be confused and think it's the lighter
than it actually is. So don't worry about really going strong
here with the yellows. Look, I'm really digging
through the well and going dark because I understand
that the foliage itself is much darker than it appears. So don't worry about going to even a little too strong here. I'm going to add a
bit of red to it just to keep some
interest in it. Then we can kind of go back to the sky here and go back to this blue bit tainted by the, actually, let's
clean it up a bit. Let's get it to be pure. Something like this. Now here we need to start watching out
for the highlights. So what I'm gonna do
is just very casually go around the tree branches they put doesn't
have to be perfect. And we are painting
pretty small here. So I'm going for an
overall impression. As many of my paintings are, especially around the
main tree branches. I'm going to be a little more careful now here's
the good news. If we missed some three branches are some tree barks that we
want to have highlights on. The good news is we can
always use opaque paint. We can come back
with a bit of white or what do you call it? Like I have this warm white, so kind of like buff titanium, similar, not exactly the same. And you can use these to bring back the
highlights you've lost. So don't don't be too worried about missing
the highlights. Okay, it's fine. It's not too bad
now we're gonna get to the ground and the ground, again, the green is fairly dark. I know it can look
a little wider, but it is white dark sometimes. So I'm gonna get this whole
thing a little darker than I think it should be. Like. So Let me see, We're going back to
some stronger green. And I'm going to add
into this mix a bit of sap green just to
get a bit of a pure, you see, the sap green
is very strong, two, so it will be combined
nicely with the rest. Now, a common mistake I see
a lot of people make is, they are greens aren't varied. And look at how much
variation we have here. We have yellow areas, we have red areas, we have all sorts of different
areas in different color. Dominance is even
the grass here. I'm going to put a
lot of yellow into. One of the main
mistakes a lot of people make with
greens is they just do one green all over the
thing and it ends up looking very, very artificial. That's the word I
was looking for. So if you want to avoid that, be sure to vary your greens. Have a bit of sap, to have
a bit of new gamboge in it. I have a bit of red.
Play around with it. Greens are very
rarely pure green. Okay, now we're going to
let this dry for a bit and come back and
start adding in the tree barks and
the foliage here. That's, that's where most
people have their problems. So let's let it
dry and come back.
7. Adding details: Now this is fully dry
and what I wanna do is before we get to
this main section, Let's start with
the muted section in the background, okay, with, it's not necessarily muted, but with the trees you
see farther background. And I'm going to try and
go for a more muted color to really contrast with the trees that are
more in the front. So I'm kind of
picking up leftovers from whatever I got here. Bit of red, a bit of
blue, a bit of yellow. And hopefully this you
see that's quite neutral. We're going to use that and get the entirety of the bottom part. In. Another common
mistake people make again is overworking
their trees. So in order to combat that, we're making some elements
of the foliage very loose and unique, unique value. So it's just one
value you see here. Just one value that's
kind of in the middle. Maybe even light. Let's get a bit more
strength to it. It's going to be too light. Alarms sound the alarms, we're going to need
to work at it fast. So this, I think, is more likely just added
a bit more paint and let's dip into it again just
to get it a little darker, not too much, and
continue moving on. So because this is going to be at the front and
it's going to be so full of maybe details and the risk of
being overworked. I want now I wonder if the
background is too dark. But whatever, we'll stick to it, worst-case, it's gonna be too
dark, it's not a big deal. So yeah, so this is the main
actor here in the scene, which is why we want to get the background a
little more muted, a little dumbed down. Not with as many details so
that we don't run the risk of having conflicting
focal points that are two conflicting. Just be sure to, while you're working
on these small shapes, you have the opportunity
to be even more certain. You get the shape
actually correctly. Okay, so just take
your time with it and try and get the shape
a little more accurate. Now you see how we have
two layers of foliage. I'm going to make
the separation here. We're going to keep
certain area in delight. So you see how I make the
separation between the top and the bottom just by
doing this gap here. If you look at the reference
photo, you will see it. So hopefully that makes sense. The solution is always to
just look at the reference. Sometimes you need to look
at it a little longer. Sometimes it's the impression
is there really fast. So take your time if
it doesn't make sense at first and you look at
the photo and you're like, I don't know what to do with it. Sometimes it's just about taking your time and trying
to let it come to you. The impression, I'm putting
these gaps in between these trees that are
a little darker. The gaps, that is, I'm going to paint at all the
way to the ground like so. And we're pretty much
done with the background. Again, we're keeping
this fairly simple. Now on to this area. We already got a base, but you will need to this the lightest parts
of the foliage you see are actually darker. So what I'm gonna do
is start applying a wash and then into
that I'm going to inject the wet-in-wet,
darker spots. But here's the thing. You want to avoid, overworking it at pretty much at all costs. So let me show you how I do it. At least one way of
doing it then is to use very, very unified shape. So no matter where I
go with the edges, the main core shape
is going to be 11. Single shape. That is. So I'm going to switch
to a bigger brush because this is too small. This is going to be my
initial tree value. We're going to get it
darker in just a moment. And I need to work
somewhat fast here. Let's make it more interesting
with some yellows again, remember you have to vary it if you want to create
some interests, the edges are going to play an important role in
creating that interests. Now notice how much
contrast there isn't a in the original photo. So we're going to infer
that in just a moment. Let's put it in a bit
of yellow in there. Now when we get a baseline, Let's start injecting darker
values into it, wet and wet. So let's see what we
got. Bit of blue here, a bit of red, even to mute and neutralize some of
the shadows you see. And just one dark shape, not few dark shapes, not every single leaf like that. Don't do that. Okay, For this
instance where we're trying to simplify things, try and have it in one
go simple as you can. I'm going to add a bit
of this warm, warm red. And again, whether you like
this kind of look or not, that's up to stylistic choice and whatever you enjoy,
generally speaking. But I do want you to
take from this the, the simplicity and the shapes. That's really key in my opinion, get the shapes to be
as simple as you can. And I'm all for
going more detail, showing more of the details,
working larger even. But just for starters, if you find yourself
overworking things, often, try go the other way around
and see how that connects. Okay? Try going a little looser
like I'm doing here. Let's connect some of
the tree branches here. Just putting in some of them
already now in this state. And out of this foliage, we're going to go straight
into the tree barks, the actual tree trunks. So let me show you
how I do this. I just go like that and connect, okay, it's all connected. If you can connect them, it will just simplify
the impression for the viewer even more. Now the most
important part is to keep that highlight
on the right. So I'm going to try and
avoid it like that. You see? Like so. And just pull down some of these tree barks if
you get a bit of the papers texture showing, which is going to be hard
and these smaller sizes, that can be a plus
because then you get this feeling like it's
an actual tree bark. You see right here. These
secondary lines of the brush. That's actually something
that works to our benefit. So don't, don't be
scared by that. This, maybe this branch casts a shadow onto
this tree-lined scene. And just try to see what the painting like
the mindset is to think about what the painting
needs at this stage. Does it need a
little more detail here with the leafs go for it doesn't need a little
strengthening here and there. The top parts go for it
doesn't need more branches coming out of the tree
trunks. Go for that. You see what I mean? And it's just about
doing this a lot. If you can, for starters, not over-complicate the
foliage. That's good. Now, don't forget, we do still have quite a lot
of details here, so it's fine too. Go a little looser
on the tree trunks. Okay, it's fine not to include
as many details there. Now here when we get to
another important part. And that is the cast
shadows by the tree. So I'm going to add a
bit of sap green to this mix so that the shadows are a bit of a darker version of the already green that we have here. And if you can connect it to the tree barks while
they're still wet. That's a plus. It's not a must. But it can just improve the
overall flow of the painting. I hope that makes sense. Connect this one here. This one is to the bank. This tree bark here. Sometimes you need to make
these connections again. So I put this shadow and
then I go back and add some details onto the tree
bark you see like so. And perhaps the tree
bark, bark expands. So we want to get these
spending parts with the shadow. It's a bit hard
sometimes to explain what those are really
bad with words, but hopefully that makes sense. I'm going to add a couple of
other tree branches here. And lastly, let's add this beautiful shadow
in the foreground. Again, I'm going to
try not to do this the same exact same sap green. And I'm going to mix it up
a bit and let's warm it. So I'm adding a
bit of red to it. This will both warm
it and neutralize it. We have this kind of a shape that goes all the way from here. You see if you can get it in one go and keep
the freshness, that'll be good because it's so much so in the foreground. Also keep it thin
because remember we see the ground at an angle. It's not in front of
us like the trees, It's actually on the ground. Let's go edit like this. Let's add a bit more paint here. And I don't mind
varying get into a bit of a stronger read like that. But it does play an
important role in the overall composition
and kind of connecting all of the bottom of the scene. You
see how that works. I think that looks nice. Actually we have another
kind of shadowed. It's framing the right side. So let's close that off a bit. And this is mostly it now, if you're like me,
sometimes you don't like the white as much. The white of the paper
feels kind of sticking out, like it's sticking out too much. So what I'm gonna do here
is just get a bit of as pure yellow as
I can muster here. Like so. And what we're gonna do is just add a touch of that
to the tree trunks, just to make them a
little more math to match with the rest of the color scheme here I'm actually using a piece
of paper as a palette. That's fun. So here we go, you
see it just gets the tree trunks local, little better and
more connected, I guess, to the scene itself. Now Funny enough, I actually liked the shape of highlights, so we probably will not have to change anything
in that regard. I'm not gonna go over
with white paint. It actually looks
good to me like that. Now you may find, I think one last thing, this now looks much
better in my opinion. But you may find that
there isn't enough of the clearer leaves and foliage. So let me show you what I mean. I'm going to mix back
this neutral green, okay? And just to create some more
layering and interests, let's add a bit of that
foliage here as well. You see it? It does
exist in other places. And I feel like having
a just round here is a little too unnatural. So I'm going to add
a bit more of it, some chunks of it
here and there. Here. Just to hit a bit of to break through this very
flat and unified shape. Okay, I hope that makes sense. Here we go, something like that. And I think with
that, we're done. So let me sign this one
and remove the tape. I'm actually going
to do it while filming because I haven't
done it while filming lately. I'm going to sign it really
small here above the shadow. Sometimes I like to stick my
signatures and funny spots. If it's just a fun little piece like that, I don't mind that. Let us remove the tape
and see what we got here. I'm going to remove
the pallet away. And you can see here that
the border is gonna be, I think, really good looking. The blue of the sky sticks
out a bit too much. I would've neutralized
is a little more had I done this one again, but I may make a larger
version of this, but anyway, here
it is, up-close. I hope you enjoyed this one. Just simplify it
into one big shape and pay special
attention to the edges. Try and see this as just
one big lump of foliage, and that's how you
avoid overworking it. Don't go edit small
dabs every leaf. It doesn't matter. Get
the main shape in first. That's one way to keep things. I can say later on you can
slowly and gradually move towards more detailed work while still keeping it not overworked. Okay, Now let's wrap
it up face to face. So this is it for this one, I hope you found it useful. And once again, I know
foliage can be challenging. Focus on the large shapes, focused on the big areas. Don't try to paint
every small leaf. That's something you can
definitely explore later on. Or you can make it seem smaller and focus maybe
just on one tree, one branch, one small
group of foliage. And that gives you
more freedom to add more details on the
leaves or paint larger. That's always an option. And I hope to see
you again real soon.
Imre Balogh, Artist
