6 Gamechanging Tricks To Paint Trees in Watercolor

Hi guys, welcome to this step by step watercolour tutorial all about painting trees in watercolour. I show you six easy techniques and I really hope it inspires you and gives you the courage to paint trees in your landscape paintings. Let's get started. So my first technique is side brush for painting the oak tree. So I've drawn out six oak trees and I'll show you six different techniques. So I'm going to work light to dark. So I'm using the dry brush on this rough paper, using the belly of the brush, pretty much working wet on dry with a very light yellow green. I've mixed up a little bit more Prussian blue into that yellow, cadmium yellow, taking the excess paint off there and sort of scrubbing on this sort of semi dry brush with this light green paint. Damp into damp here and there. So working light to dark, painting all the light foliage on first of all. Now I'm exaggerating the darks here. So I've mixed up some Prussian blue with some burnt umber. You can use phthalo blue with burnt sienna. And I'm painting this damp into damp, sort of still scrubbing it on, trying to use the belly of the brush there so the paint doesn't pour out. I will say as a little tip is don't use your best brushes for this dry brush technique because it can actually wear them out. So you might want to use an older brush there as you're scrubbing onto that rough or cold pressed paper. Now I've mixed up some ultramarine and burnt umber here and I'm just going to paint in damp into damp the tree trunk. Now I like to do this damp because you get some soft edges, but I've also sort of painting in, so it's almost like a negative shape. So I'm leaving the positive, lighter shape of the foliage that looks like it's in front of the tree trunk and branches as well. So if you look at the photograph, you've got the main sort of trunk going up obviously through the centre of the tree there and then the branches branching out sort of from larger branches to very thin branches and you can leave gaps in between. So it looks like the foliage is in front and those branches are in the centre or in the back sort of of the tree there. I'm keeping this as simple as possible just to give you an idea of the technique and just to say it's important to keep your light source the same. So the light is coming from above the sky and also from the left. So the sun is somewhere in the left in the sky. So you get more light on the left hand side and above. So your darker tonal values will be more on the right hand side and underneath the foliage there. So I've decided to just paint a very simple background and I'm painting some ultramarine wet on dry and paling this towards the horizon, mixing up sort of a little bit of a blue green, pale green in the distance here, still wet on dry. And just sort of it's a really nice way actually of just sort of practising techniques and putting the tree in a sort of situation here. It's great for the sketchbooks. And just painting the grasses wet on dry with a dry brush effect there, as you can see, to give the grasses a touch of sparkle, mixing up some ultramarine here with some burnt umber, painting the shadow of the tree on the right hand side because the light's coming from the left. Damp into damp, a little bit of shadow just in the foreground to finish off this first technique. My second technique for painting trees is to use a scourer. And here is a household scourer. You can use a used one. And my tip is to tear it and not to cut it. And that way you get some nice, natural looking edges. My next tip is to dip it into clean water and then wring out all the water so you have a damp scourer sponge. Mix up plenty of milky paint and then print onto your dry surface there with the light colour first. And I've used the cadmium yellow with the Prussian blue. Mixing up now sort of my darker tonal value and I'm using ultramarine with some quinacridone gold. For all the materials I'm using, colours and alternative colours, you can find those in the description below. So on with the dark green. I'm pressing wet into wet this scourer and I'm trying to keep all the darks underneath the lighter areas and a little bit more to the right hand side of the tree. It's such a fun technique and great if you don't have access to a natural sponge. And I'm just painting in the tree trunk and branches damp into wet. I'm going to paint in a few grasses here and there using my size 4 round brush, damp into damp with that sort of mid green there. As you can see there, I lifted off with some plastic card. I thought it'd be quite nice just to paint some darks at the bottom of those distant trees. I thought it'd be quite nice actually just to paint some darker grasses in the foreground as well, really to create some depth in this painting. So tip number three, using a synthetic sponge. Here is the synthetic sponge. Again, you can use an old used one. And I'm tearing it again to get that nice textured edge and soaking it in some water and then wringing all the water out. You get a damp sponge and you can see it's got a nice texture on the surface there. So I've mixed up some milky paint. That's the cadmium yellow with a little bit of the Prussian blue. So it's a yellow green. So more yellow, less blue. And I am sponging wet on dry. And I'm just tapping away there using the sort of side of the sponge as well to create some really nice textures. So I'm mixing up a really dark green, again using the Prussian blue with the burnt umber, going in with my sponge. They're really fully loading it, as you can see, getting a touch more paint there and just tapping very gently, trying to get underneath the sort of lighter foliage there and just tapping away pretty much with a little bit of the edge of the sponge there. I'm really enjoying this. Actually, it was a lot more effective than I thought it would be as well. It's creating some lovely textures and I am tapping very gently. So I'm using the plastic card. It's actually dried off a little bit, but I've managed to pull out a few sort of lighter marks there. And I'm also trying to pull out some light on the left hand side of the tree there as well. The light's coming from the left, remember. So I'm going to tap in a little bit more dark there. There's a lot of shadow at the bottom of the tree and to the right hand side as well. So I'm tapping very gently just to make sure I don't sort of sponge dark over the lighter area. And I thought I'd do a little bit of sponging on those bushes there. And I quite like actually just mixing with a sponge, going straight into the paint to create some textures as well. I'm just sort of bringing my tree trunk there at the bottom there just out a little bit to the left so it looks a bit more natural. So my number four technique is using a natural sponge. I do tend to use them quite a lot and I have lots of different variations. This is a very smooth one, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend for textures. I use it for lifting off. This, as you can see, has got wonderful textures across the sponge there. So I make a collection of them really, just getting the ones and I just look out for the different textures to see if I can get that to look natural for the tree foliage. So again, I've mixed up a really milky wash there. Make sure you mix plenty of paint and it's not too thin. And I'm pressing very gently, wet on dry, starting off again with this light colour there, sort of filling that shape the canopy of the tree. This is a very dark sort of green here. The Prussian blue with the burnt umber, you can use quinacridone gold and I am sort of pressing damp into damp. Again, trying to keep the dark underneath the lighter areas of the foliage and to the right hand side. Not always easy when you've got a big sponge in your hand, but try your best. And again, some sponges, natural sponges will be better than others. So I'm just sort of painting here the sort of shadow part of the tree and also the shadow for the bushes on the right hand side and starting to paint the tree trunk now, sort of damp into damp with my size 4 brush using that mixture again of ultramarine and burnt umber. So again, I'm going to paint the sky with the ultramarine, wet on dry with my size 10 brush, paling towards the horizon, just little wriggles of the brush. So number five technique is using the natural sponge, but this time wet into wet. So I'm going to wet the paper with my flat one inch brush there, wetting everything. So sort of put that sort of underpainting on there using the sponging technique. So I'm going to paint the sky first using my size 10 brush with some ultramarine and just paint it slightly dark at the top. So again, creating depth. The darker tonal values will be at the top because it's the nearest to you and it gets paler towards the horizon. And just painting some of those light green grasses wet into wet here. And I'm painting the distant trees also wet into wet. So again, mix up a milky wash, a light green wash. That's the cadmium yellow with the Prussian blue. So 70% cadmium yellow and 30% blue. And tap your sponge gently onto the damp paper. So I'm mixing up the darker green now. I've actually used some ultramarine there as well with the quinacridone gold, and I'm going to tap this very gently, not too hard, very gently so you get the texture. Damp into damp onto the damp surface. And again, I'm just painting the sort of bushes to the right here and the shadow of the tree damp into damp with a little bit of shadow underneath there for those distant trees. Damp into damp again, using some ultramarine just to create some subtle darks in those distant trees and also some darks at the bottom of the bushes there, damp into damp. And again, I'm just going to paint a dark shadow in the foreground to create depth in the painting. Damp into damp with a mid to dark green and use my plastic card to pull out some of that paint to create some grasses to finish off this first stage. So my last technique is using speciality brushes and that's brushes that are designed to create texture. And this is one here that actually creates the look of foliage. It's quite a sort of textured brush, a little bit like a hog hair brush, which you could use as an alternative. And I'm sort of scrubbing it onto that sort of rough watercolour paper. And it's really creating some nice sort of textured effects, the look of foliage there. And I'm sort of changing the direction as well. And again, if you're using these brushes or a hog hair brush, just take the excess off on your paper towel. It really does control it and gives that lovely dry brush effect as well. So as you can see there, I'm really sort of covering all of that sort of lighter area of the tree there with this sort of foliage brush. And I will put a link for the brush in the description below. So I'm mixing up a dark green here again. It's that Prussian blue with the burnt umber and painting underneath the sort of lighter foliage there, damp into damp, really sort of looking at the photograph just to see where those darks are. Not every single dark, but it's just to give that impression. And remember, the dark is on the right hand side because the light's coming from above and the left. And again, using my size four brush to paint in the tree trunk. And remember to fan it out at the bottom so it looks like it's growing out of the ground rather than straight down like a telegraph pole. So again, going up into the centre of the tree, lining up that trunk and painting damp into damp. So leaving that sort of gaps there with a light of the foliages and painting the trunk behind or in between. But it creates the look of it being behind there. What I'm doing here is I'm just tapping, almost stippling with this brush. So I've mixed up a creamy yellow with a little bit to the Prussian blue and just tapping away here at the edge of the tree, really, to create that sort of natural edge and try to keep it sort of asymmetrical. Don't keep it all round, sort of break it off and have little bits of foliage breaking away so it's not a neat circle on the outside edge of the tree. Now I'm going to allow my little paintings to dry and I'm going to go back to a couple. And the one I'm going to go back to, first of all, is the sponging wet into wet painting because I want to create some more texture here, wet on dry. So you've got that fuzzy sort of texture in the background and now I'm sort of painting the sort of darker tonal values, especially to the right again and underneath the lighter foliage areas there, tapping very, very gently, don't press too hard. And it just sort of brings the painting to life there because you don't get as much texture when you sponge wet into wet or damp into damp, but when you do so wet on dry, you get a lot more texture there. If you compare the sponging wet on dry without any wet in wet, it's almost too many sparkly sort of white gaps there and this looks a little bit more natural and softer. But you may prefer the one on the left and that's the beauty of painting. So again, I'm painting now the tree trunk here wet on dry with my size 4 brush and because I quite like what I've done here, I'm just spending a little bit longer than I would normally do. So I'm really sort of finessing the bottom of that tree and the shadow going out to the right hand side there. And I'm painting sort of a mid green there, sort of a bit of a dry brush effect there with my size 4 brush to create the look of the bushes there to the right hand side, going up through the center of the tree there with that ultramarine and burnt umber sort of mix there quite creamy using my size 4 brush and just again following the line of the tree trunks and branches, giving the appearance that they are connected. So I'm actually scraping off the left hand side of the tree with my plastic card to create the look of light hitting the left hand side of the tree. So I just thought I'd add a few more dark sort of marks here, shadows in the tree that I use the scourer. So I'm actually using the scourer still and just printing on gently some of the dark marks there and using a little bit of light as well here and there, and it does sort of bring it all together. It looks more natural this way, it almost needed that other stage and just sort of painting a few little branches in here and there as well. I really hope you found that helpful and that it inspires you and gives you the courage to paint trees in your watercolor landscape paintings. Some of the techniques are so much fun and just experimenting with the different sponges, either household sponges or if you can get your hands on a natural sponge. If you have any questions about this tutorial, please put them in the comments section below. And if you would like to learn more about watercolor, get access to exclusive content, downloadable sketch outlines and more bonus content. Why not think about joining my Patreon membership? Details about the membership can be found in the description below and don't hesitate to ask me any questions. Thank you so much for watching. Happy painting. Bye for now.