Lesson 5 - Trees
Dry brush, sponging, stippling, blowing and using a rigger brush.
Painting lifelike trees is something beginners often struggle with. Again the key is good observation and simplification of the shapes. The best time to study trees is of course during winter when most are bare. Generally trees fall into four shapes as the image below suggests.
Where the trees are placed in the picture influences the amount of detail you will need to depict according to the principles of aerial perspective. In the far distance and middle distance detail does not need to be great and you have already learned several techniques that allow you to portray them convincingly.
In the far distant with a flat wash for sharp silhouettes.
Or wet in wet for softer mistier outlines.
As we move into the middle distance another tone needs to be added.
Or highlights can be blotted off with crumpled tissue,
highlights to the trunk have also been lifted out.
Closer still we need to add another tone, here the base was applied to dry paper and highlights of yellow and shadows of blue were dropped in wet in wet.
As we move to the foreground greater detail is required here we learn some further techniques.
In lesson one we used the tip of the brush to add foliage allowing the paint to dry in-between.
This technique can also be employed wet in wet.
For different leaf shapes try these techniques. In each case the left hand illustrations shows the method when paint is allowed to dry between applications and the right image is the technique used wet in wet.
Using a ragged old or cheap brush stab on the paint, this is called stippling.
Use an artists sponge dipped first in clean water squeezed out and then dipped in the paint. Artists sponges are expensive, choose a bag with a number of different textures, rinse well after use and they will last for years.
A goats hair brush can be shaped when damp, spay out the bristles and use this for stippling.
Use a piece of fabric wrapped over your finger to dab on the colour. Different fabrics will render a variety of textures.
The method you choose to use depends on your taste and needs.
Trunks also need some texture on foreground trees.
You can paint the trunks with clean water and drop in colour wet in wet.
Add shadows and soften the edges with a damp brush.
A rigger brush (so called because is was used to paint the rigging of ships by the old masters) has long fine bristles forming a sharp point and is ideal for suggesting the finer branches, especially on winter trees.
A rigger is also good for dry brush work, though you can use other brushes. Load the brush with paint and dab on tissue to remove the excess moisture. Hold the brush horizontal to the paper and barely touching, use the belly of the brush in sideways motions to give a broken texture to suggest bark.
If it is not too important where the branches are going this technique can be a lot of fun. Drop a wet blob of paint onto the paper and use a drinking straw to blow the paint in little rivers. A sharp puff will help send the river in a new direction for the offshoots.
Now for the step by step painting as shown at the top of the page.
In this painting cerulean blue is used as it is much colder than ultramarine giving the temperature of the mood for winter. Likewise raw sienna gives a weaker sunlight. The violent reaction between the pigments of light red and cerulean; resulting in a separation of the colours as they dry, gives an added excitement to the clouds and distant trees.
Colours
cerulean blue
raw sienna
light red
burnt umber
brushes
goats hair
number 10 round
number 4 round
rigger
sponge
drinking straw
step 1
You will need to work very quickly so have everything ready to hand. Create medium to strong washes of the following colours raw sienna, cerulean blue and light red. Wet the sky area with clean water on the goats hair brush. Change to the number ten and drop in the raw sienna at the base of the sky, add a tiny patch of blue, add a little light red to the blue and drop in the bases of the furthest clouds nearest the horizon, add a little more red for the mid distance clouds and a little more for the nearest at the top of the picture. Using tissue paper blot off the highlights and with a clean damp brush soften any edges as required. Use a strong mix of the blue and red to drop in the distant tree line.
step 2
Mix cerulean blue with light red a little weaker than that used for the distant trees. Remember that the distant trees were further diluted by the moisture on the paper, although we want this nearer tree line to be stronger in tone it will not be diluted on the paper and so will need to have just a little more water in the mix. Test the mix on some spare paper and check it's tonal value against those distant trees. Take one spot of this mix and dilute further, although the mid distance field is snow covered it will not be as bright as that in the foreground and needs to be dulled a little.
Cover the mid distance field, don't worry if small areas of white show through as these will provide interesting highlights. Allow to dry before describing the mid distance trees, which should of course be slightly larger than those in the distance to give perspective.
step 3
We now come to our focal point the lonely foreground tree. Prepare a mix of raw sienna and burnt umber and a slightly stronger burnt umber alone. Using the number ten brush begin with the raw sienna/burnt umber mix and describe the main trunk of the tree and largest branches, change to the number four for the mid size branches and the rigger for the smallest. Do not try to paint every twig , instead use stippling with the goats hair to suggest them and any odd bits of old foliage.
As the glisten goes off the wet paint use the number four brush and the burnt umber to add shadows to the tree. Tip if the paint has dried too quickly for you soften the shadows edges with a damp brush.
Use the burnt umber on dry paper to describe a couple of extra branches closer to us coming from the front of the tree.
step 4
Dilute the previous mixes very slightly and repeat for a couple of branches emerging from the rear of the tree.
Using the number ten brush and the shadow colour previously used on the distant hills, which will have dried a little in your palette so should not need strengthening roughly describe the foreground and shadows cast by the tree.
When the tree is completely dry make a stiff mix of burnt umber and light red with a little cerulean blue and using the rigger dry brush the trunk and larger branches for texture.
Step 5
Mix raw sienna, cerulean blue and a little light red to create a green brown. Using the sponge create some foliage at the base of the tree, use the rigger and the same mix for the odd bare twig.
step 6
When the foliage is dry use a stronger mix to add some variation to the tone.
step 7
Mix burnt umber light red and a little cerulean blue to make a bright strong brown. Drop a little onto paper and using the drinking straw blow on some twigs.
Copyright Jane Grainger 2004
