Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello. In this class I'm
going to teach you how to paint winter trees, like these ones here. I'll be honest and tell you that painting trees always used
to scare me a little. The complexity of
all the branches can be a little
bit overwhelming, but when you break it down and let yourself
go with the flow, they become much
more manageable. In this class, I'll
guide you through simple techniques to paint
two types of winter tree. In your first class project, you'll learn how to simplify
a tree silhouette and create realistic foliage textures
using dry brush techniques. For your second painting, I'll be sharing my top tips for painting fine lines
with a credit. Perfect for tree branches. This is a really fun tutorial
and you'll come away with two beautiful tree
paintings to be proud of, plus the knowledge to paint
many more in the future. It's a class for all levels, whether you're brand
new to painting or want to strengthen your skills
with a new subject. I can't wait to get started
and see what you'll create. Have fun.
2. Project 1: Getting Started: Hello. In this class I'll be
showing you how to paint this lovely
winter pine tree. This is a really fun
tutorial and you will learn some great ways to create foliage effects
with your brushes. You'll need your black and
white paint and some blue. And you'll need a
large flat brush and a small round brush. If you have one,
you could also use a fan brush for the foliage. I'll show you two methods, one with a round brush and
one with a fine brush. I'll also be using my stiff bristle brush to create some splatters for
snow at the end, but that's completely optional. Get yourself setup with your supplies and then
we'll get started.
3. Project 1: Paint Your Background: First of all, we'll
paint in the background. So I'm going to squeeze
out some white, black and a touch of blue. Sky will be a nice pale gray. I'll take some of this white and I'm going to mix in some black. You'll see that because black
is such a powerful color, I only need a small
amount to create my gray. I'm also going to add a touch of blue to give it a
cool winter feel. I'm going to take my flat brush and just paint a horizon line, which I'm going to
give a bit of a curve as though it is a
snowy hillside. Once you have your horizon line, you can fill in the
rest of your sky. I'm keeping my darker
gray towards the bottom, but I'm going to blend
in some white so it gets lighter towards the top
while the gray is still wet. Just pick up some white on your brush and work
back and forth, just blending those
colors into each other. Now I have this nice
subtle gradient, which will be the
snowfields sky. For the snowy hillside itself, we'll just use a paler
version of this same gray. So I'm going to mix this
up with more white. Leave a little of your
darker gray aside because we will use some
of this again later. You will aiming for a nice
crisp edge along the horizon. So load your brush up with
paint and rotate it so you're using the flat of
the brush going horizontally across
the page like this. The fewest strokes
you can make here, the easier it will be to
get a nice crisp line. Once the edges done, just fill in the rest of that space at the
bottom of your paint. While that is still wet, we're going to add some
of the darker gray again, just to create a shadow underneath where
our tree will be. I've switched to my
round brush here. I'm just using this brush
in a small area of shadow. Then you may just want to blend and soften the edge of
the shadow a little. You could even create
some texture by using smaller brushstrokes and
leaving them nice and loose. While we let the background dry, we're going to practice some
ways to create texture. So whenever you are ready, you can then grab yourself some scrap paper and we'll explore some
techniques together.
4. Project 1: How To Paint Tree Textures: Here I have some scrap paper, a tissue, and a
small round brush. And I'll show you
how you can use a stippling technique
for foliage textures. Stippling is basically
just dabbing your brush on the surface to build up
lots of small marks. It works best when
your brush is dry, you want to gently dab
off the excess paint on a tissue before
applying it to your page. Because my brush is quite dry, you can see that the texture of all those bristles
is coming through. So I don't have to physically paint every
leaf on my tree. The textures I'm creating, well, give that illusion. Will typically be more
leaves towards the center. You'll want to lay your marks
to build a darker area. Then the leaves will thin more towards the
end of a branch. Don't worry too much about
the shape address now, but do keep practicing
that stippling technique. To add a bit of extra definition to the
edges of your branches. You can just use the
point of your brush, dip it in paint to add some
extra dots and dashes. You don't need to dry the
brush on tissue for this one, but you're just using the
point to create smaller marks. This extra step can be
quite useful because even though the
stippling technique creates a wonderful texture, it does leave slightly
fuzzy looking edges. If you happen to
have a fun brush, this is also a great
shape for painting trees. The technique is
exactly the same, but with a fan brush, you can do a whole
branch at once, dip into your paint, dab off the excess, and then apply to your page, just pressing on or off
to create the texture. You can twist the brush
a little to create variation in the direction
of the leaves and branches. And just keep building up
and layering those marks. For smaller branches,
you want to just use one side of the brush rather
than the whole thing. It can take a bit of practice, but when you have
the hang of it, the fan brush is much faster
at building up those marks. You do get less control them
with a pointed brush though. Either technique will work. It's just about experimenting and finding what
works best for you. You could even use a
combination of the two with the fan brush filling in
the majority of your shape. And then the point
of your round brush. Just to add the extra
definition towards the ends. Feel free to pause this video and keep on exploring
on your scrap paper. If you'd like some
more practice, then whenever you're ready, we'll add the tree
into our painting.
5. Project 1: Paint Your Pine Tree: Before we paint the tree, it's good to take a moment
to really observe the shape. I'm going to take
my pencil and just loosely sketching a line
for the trunk of the tree. The reference photograph, the branches form a
tool triangular shape. I'm also just going to
use my pencil to lightly indicate the edges
of this tree shape. This will help to give me a
bit of a guide which will be really handy as I start
to fill in the textures. Once you have the shape, take your small round brush and use this to
paint in the trunk. This is what will give
the tree its structure. And notice how it
is thicker towards the base of the tree and
narrows towards the top. I'm going to use a bit of the stippling technique to rough up the base of the
tree here too. So it looks like it's just
emerging from the snow. I'm going to work from
top to bottom as I paint the tree to avoid accidentally smudging
the paint with my hands. The branches at the top of
the tree are quite small. So I'm using just the point of my brush here for a
bit more control. Dipping it into my paint, dabbing off the excess, and then just gently
building up the textures. You don't have to be super
precise with the branches as long as you follow
the overall tree shape. I'm using the reference
photograph as a guide, but I'm not copying it exactly. The main thing is to make sure you have a few gaps between the different branches
and that they get thinner towards the ends. If you'd like, you
can use the point of your brush to draw a line
for your branches as you go, which will give you
a bit of a structure that you can then add
your textures too. You just need to keep
working your way down building those textures. If you're using a
fan brush instead, the technique is
exactly the same, just dabbing and
layering to create the illusion of all
those small branches where the foliage
will be thicker and denser towards the
middle of the tree, you can just keep
on layering or use slightly more paint
on your brush to build a deeper area
of that texture. You can keep on
tweaking and adjusting your tree until you are happy
with the overall shape. I'm now going to switch to my smaller size 0 round brush and use this just to
define some of the edges. I'm just dipping the point into the paint and adding
a few dots and dashes around the edges of the branches to help them
look a little less fuzzy. Imagine that you're
seeing these branches silhouetted against
the light background. And you can just make out a few more defined
details around the edges. Next, we're going to
add a few snowflakes. You can paint these in by hand, but I'm going to use
the splatter technique, which has lots of fun, but also a bit more
risky because you don't have so much control over
where the paint goes. I'm using a stiff bristle brush and I'm watering down
some white paint, filling it with water
to help get a more even dispersal of
paint splatters. I'm holding the brush
quite close to the paper and just flicking back the
bristles to create the snow. If your paint is too thick, you will get bigger
blobs or it might just be too difficult to
get the splatters. It make sure you have thinned that paint down enough
with your water. Then just keep on spattering until you feel like
you've done enough. There we have our
lovely snowy landscape with the silhouette tree. I really hope you
enjoyed painting it with me and I'd love to see
how yours turned out. Next, I'll be showing you how to paint a different type of winter tree using
fine brushstrokes to create beautiful branches. When you're ready for
your next project, just head to the next
video to get started.
6. Project 2: Getting Started: Hello. In this class I'm
going to teach you how to paint winter trees, like these ones here. I'll be honest and tell you that painting trees always used
to scare me a little. The complexity of
all the branches can be a little
bit overwhelming, but when you break it down and let yourself
go with the flow, they become much
more manageable. This class should take
around 30 minutes and you'll only need your
black and white paint. For your brushes. You'll need a large
flat brush and a small rounded brush
with a nice point. I also used a stiff bristle
brush to add some texture, but that's completely optional. Painting fine lines in a
credit can be trickier first, I'd also recommend having some scrap paper or your
sketchbook on-hand. So you can do some
practice along the way. Have fun.
7. Project 2: Paint Your Background: First of all, we'll
paint in the background. And for our sky, we're going to create
a nice gradient going from white to gray. So squeeze out some black and white onto your palette
to get started. I'm going to take
some of this white and use it to mix a very pale gray because black
is such a powerful color, I'm just going to
add a small amount. I'm going to use my flat brush and paint a slight diagonal, the line which is where the
sky will meet the snowy land. Don't worry about getting a
neat edge here because we'll paint the snowy hillside
over the top afterwards. Then continue
working upwards with your gray curving
your burst strokes. So you end up with
a curved edge, almost like a semicircle. Our light is going
to radiate down from that top left-hand
side of the painting. You can dip your brush
into the white paint and then softly blend this
down into the gray. Keep working back and
forth where the two colors meet to soften and
blend that edge. Then you can just continue
up the page with your white until you end up with this
lovely soft gradient. When the sky is painted, we'll add the snowy hill. Still using your
large flat brush and just your white paint. You're aiming for
a nice crisp edge. If your gray is still a bit wet, let that dry off beforehand. You'll be using the
flat of the brush just going horizontally across
the page like this. The fewer strokes you can make, the easier it will be to
get a nice crisp line. Once the edge is done, you can just fill in the rest
of that space with white.
8. Project 2: How To Paint Fine Lines: While you wait for your
background to dry, let's practice
painting fine lines. Grab a scrap piece of paper, and the smallest
pointed brush you have. Because acrylic paint is
naturally quite thick. Painting fine lines
is a challenge. Even though my
brush is thin here, I have this thick blob of paint collected on the bristles, which makes it
difficult to achieve a fine, delicate line. The solution is to
thin your paint down with water so
it flows better. It's hard to give an exact ratio for how
much water to add in. But I'm aiming for
the paint to be thin enough to flow
nicely from the brush. And you can see that there are no thick blobs
around the bristles. When I brush it
across the page now, there's no resistance,
just a nice smooth flow. You want to use the smallest
pointed brush that you have. There are some brushes
like my liner brush here, which are perfectly
designed for thin lines. If you paint a lot
of fine details, it might be worth getting
yourself one of those. Otherwise you want the smallest size round brush that you have. I'm using a size 0 here. Round brushes are able
to hold a lot of paint. You need to be
quite careful about how much pressure you
put on your brush. If you press too hard, you'll get thicker
lines because all of that paint is being pressed
out of the bristles. For a fine line. You need to use a
much gentler stroke by using very little
pressure on the brush here, I get a much thinner line to get a line that gets
thinner towards the end, which tree branches often do. You can gradually release the pressure on the
brush as you go. Use more pressure at
the start and lift off towards the end of the stroke to get this nice natural taper. One last factor to consider
is how you hold the brush. I'm painting a
line upwards and I hold my brush at
the side like this. You'll see how the
line is thicker. Instead, if I rotate the brush so the
handle is pointing in the same direction as my
line and paint it this way, then I'll get a thinner line. If I was painting
a horizontal line, instead of holding
my brush like this, rotate it so the handle is pointing in the
direction I want to go. And then I'll paint
my line like this, almost dragging the tip
of the brush behind me. Having said all of that, I know from experience that
it isn't as easy as it looks. This is something
that has taken me quite a lot of
practice to master. So just keep on trying those
tips on your scrap paper until you start
feeling a little more confident when you're ready. We'll then move on to adding
the trees to our painting.
9. Project 2: Painting Your Winter Trees: Now let's paint your trees. When you paint trees, it's important not
to get caught up in trying to paint
every single branch. Instead, you want to look at the overall structure
and shape of the tree. These trees have
strong vertical lines. Feel free to use a
pencil to sketch in the trunk of your
trees as a guide. We'll have one tree
standing tall at the frontier and then another a little further
back on the hill. Looking at my reference
photograph, the overall shape, the branches form on these trees is almost
like an egg shape. I'm very lightly just
going to put down some guiding marks
so that I can keep from our branches loosely
within the shape. When I start painting. We're going to paint
the trunks first. Make sure you have some slightly thinned down black paint ready. Your trunk should be
a thinner towards the top and slightly
thicker towards the base. Next, you'll want to
add a few key branches. I'm looking at the
reference photograph for branches that stand out. And that will help
me give structure. You can use the photograph
yourself or just simply follow along loosely
with water I'm painting. I'll add a couple
at the bottom here, then some towards the middle and a coupled towards the top. To notice that I'm starting at the trunk
and painting outwards. You always want to follow the direction of growth
with your brush. The branches grow out
from the central trunk. Your brush strikes should
grow out from that too. If you can try to paint each branch in one stroke
from beginning to end. If you do find that your brush
is a bit dry to do that, then mix up some more
paint and water so you always get a
nice smooth flow. Notice that I am making sure some of my
branches crossover each other and some come
out at different angles. This is really important to
make the tree feel natural. Although I'm not painting every detail from my
reference photograph, it's still important to
truly observe the subject and try to notice these
kind of small variations. People will often assume that they know what
a tree looks like. And we'll paint what they
think they see rather than what is actually there
in real life painting. Well, it really help you to improve your
observational skills. As you begin to look at your
subjects a little closer. Then it's time to
fill in the gaps. I tried to just let this flow naturally
rather than getting too caught up in trying to paint every single small branch. You don't want to
get bogged down and lost in every detail, but you do want to observe the general direction and
shape of the branches. Then just try to let your
brush find a flow with it. Really. Make sure you are
changing direction and add in a few branches which
overlap each other occasionally so that the tree doesn't end up
looking to uniform. You're adding smaller
branches that are coming off those key branches
you painted earlier. And this really is just
a matter of patients. The technique is
exactly the same. Thinned down paint, very
little pressure on the brush. I'm perhaps a lift off of the pressure just at
the end of the strokes. To get that nice tapered edge. You simply need to repeat
it over and over until you build up enough branches that the tree shapes
starts to come together. To finish off the painting. I'm just going to use a dry brush stippling technique at the base of the trunks
where they meet the snow. So it doesn't feel as an abrupt. I'm using one of my stiffer
bristle brushes here, but any brush would do dip it into the paint and then
dab off the excess on a tissue until it's
pretty dry and there's just a small amount of paint
clinging to those bristles. When I dab the
brush on the paper, you'll see I get this nice
texture which will look like gaps between the snow
at the base of arteries. You want it to be quite subtle. So if you find you're
getting big blobs of paint, keep dabbing off on
a tissue until you get just a very light texture. I want it slightly darker, closest to my tree. And then for it to fade
out into the snow, I'll repeat the dabbing
motion closest to the tree just to build
up a bit more depth. And then I'll just
have a few marks, a bit more spaced out as
it fades into the snow. We have our lovely winter trees. I really loved the simplicity
of the background in this piece and the way the shapes of those
branches stand out. I hope you enjoyed
painting this along with me and I look forward
to seeing your results.
10. Congratulations!: Well done and congratulations
for finishing this class. I'd love to see your results. So don't forget, you
can share them in the project gallery for extra
feedback and encouragement. If you enjoyed the class, I'd love for you
to leave a review. And if you'd like to carry
on learning to take a look at my other acrylic painting
classes here on Skillshare. See you soon.