Watercolor: how to draw trees
Found just a super watercolor lesson. From the artist Marvin Chew. I share with those who want to learn or at least try themselves in watercolor - an interesting lesson. But in order to learn, you still need to know the rules. Drawing trees and shrubs is not as easy as it seems. This is what I know from experience...
And here is the watercolor tree - very cute and very alive
Let's try to draw similar
1. Observe color and light in nature
To begin with, we will observe the color of trees (well, if these are trees that grow nearby) at different times of the day and under different lighting conditions. It is better to observe color with a camera in order to capture all the shades of color. We pay attention to everything: how, for example, long branches affect the color of shorter ones. What leaves are at the ends of the branches, how light and shadows intertwine in the foliage. Where does the sunlight come from and how does it reflect on different layers of foliage. Where the shadow lurks, etc. We observe color, light and shadows. For the same purpose, we carefully examine the photographs taken.
Notice how the color changes depending on the distance...
From afar, we can not see any leaves or branches. Agree, they are just different shades of green and shade.
2. Mixing paints
Line A: color straight from the tube
A1 - lemon yellow
A2 - yellow ocher
A3 - bright green/leaf green
A4 - SAP Green
A5-Cobalt Blue
A6 - french ultramarine blue
A7-Indigo
A8 - Sepia
Line B: mixed colors
B1 - lemon yellow + bright green
B2 - lemon yellow + bright green + yellow ocher
B3 - Lemon Yellow + Green + Vivid Sap Green
B4 - SAP Green + Cobalt Blue
B5 - SAP Green + Cobalt Blue + Indigo
B6 - SAP Green + Indigo + Sepia
We can try to create our own shades
4. Making strokes
Now about the size of the brush: the artist uses: sables (nos. 8 and 3). BUT, the larger the size of the picture, the larger the brush should be. And this is how the artist applies strokes, which later become leaves. The arrows indicate the direction of the stroke. Over time, we will develop our own directions: from top to bottom and from left to right, etc. and that's okay!
5. Writing a tree
Using a mixture of lemon yellow and bright green, draw the lightest contours (basting) of the foliage (view from above). We need a sufficient amount of this color of the mixture, because the paint will be needed at other stages of drawing. With light paint we make the same strokes as the author's. Leave unpainted areas too...
Add some brighter green to the previous mixture and paint the foliage wet on wet while the paint is still wet so that it spreads a little to the right and down.
Before the paint in the previous step is completely dry, add more green tone and paint the bottom of the foliage. Let it be tiny dots, and in our imagination - leaves. After all, the details become less noticeable depending on the distance ...
Now we move on to darker colors. Add some cobalt blue and ultramarine blue to the previous green mixture and paint the dark areas wet on wet.
Let the paint dry completely. Then we'll mix indigo green and sepia to get a very dark blend of color that we use for the shadows. We apply paint to the lower part of the foliage - we get a shadow. Now wash the brush and with a damp brush go over the dark, freshly painted edges, barely touching to soften them and deprive them of clear lines, which is good. If you want to get a clear foliage, then you do not need to go around the edges with a wet brush.
Every novice artist should learn how to draw a tree in watercolor, because such an element is often found in pictures. Without it, it is impossible to draw a landscape. Therefore, we boldly take a watercolor sheet, paints and hurry to learn new skills in drawing.
Wood drawing materials
- - watercolor;
- - brushes;
- - a sheet of paper for watercolor;
- - water in the container;
- - pencil.
Drawing a tree in watercolor step by step
1. In the first stage, we will already use paint. If desired, you can use a pencil to get a light sketch. We breed brown watercolor on a palette with a small amount of water and draw a vertical line of a tree trunk on a sheet. Let's add some side branches.
2. We finish with brown watercolor a few additional branches that may be located on the other side.
3. We begin to draw foliage. We use a dark green watercolor color. Dilute well with water and create stains with a wide brush. Add drops of saturated color and let the paint effectively spread to get beautiful stains.
4. So we paint over the whole tree. In some areas near the crown of the tree, we intensify the tone.
5. Paint the tree trunk and twigs on it with a richer brown color. Additionally, we work with green watercolor foliage.
6. Mix brown watercolor with green. We paint over the trunk with the resulting shade. Add foliage around the base of the tree.
This dramatic watercolor landscape is easy enough to paint using a common camouflage fluid among watercolor artists.
One of the most surprising elements of this dramatic scene is the stormy sky. However, imagine how difficult it is to depict fragments of the dark sky between the intricately curved branches of a tree1. In such a case, watercolor artists use masking fluid.
Without the help of a masking fluid, it is absolutely impossible to show the details of a branched tree.
Camouflage liquid
Camouflage liquid- an ideal material for those cases when the artist needs to combine large areas of saturated color with a detailed subject or character. A layer of elastic, rubber-like liquid, which is pre-coated with a selected fragment of the picture, protects this area from paint. Subsequently, the image, cleared of the masking fluid, can be left white or painted in a contrasting tone with respect to the main tone.
How to draw the sky
In this case, the trunk and branches of the tree are covered with masking fluid to keep the image under the subsequent layer of paint, without fear of losing the fine lines and fine details of the tree. Now you can use all the advantages of transparent watercolor to paint a stormy sky.
While you are creating the sky, the tree drawn earlier will be safely hidden under a layer of masking fluid. At the end of the work, you can simply wipe off the dried masking liquid with your finger.
For the watercolor lesson you will need:
Sheet of watercolor paper about 28×41 cm
Pencil 2B
Eraser
Round brushes: fine #00, #6
Thin old #00 brush for applying masking fluid
Camouflage liquid
11 watercolors: cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, ocher yellow, burnt sienna, raw sienna, cadmium red, Prussian blue, indigo blue, black (burnt ivory), bluish green, cobalt green
1 Draw a tree and outline the horizon line
Draw the outline of the tree with a pencil. Mark the horizon line raised about one third from the bottom edge of the picture. The main image is a tree. It should be positioned by shifting to the right from the center. First draw the trunk, then the intricately curved branches.
Spreading masking liquid
Apply masking fluid to paper very carefully. Don't put too much on the brush or you may accidentally drip paper or let the liquid run. To avoid such troubles, always apply masking liquid only with a thin brush. If you still drip in the wrong place, do not try to remove the liquid until it dries. Let the drop dry, only then wipe off the film with your finger and start painting.
2 Coating wood with camouflage
Take an old #00 brush and cover the tree image with a layer of masking fluid. Apply the masking fluid little by little, covering only a small area of the image at a time. Remember that all areas covered with this liquid will remain unpainted. After completing the process, immediately wash the brush with warm soapy water.
3 Filling the sky with the main tone
With brush number 6, mix Prussian blue with a drop of yellow ocher and dilute the colors with plenty of water. Apply a thin layer of this paint over the entire surface of the sky, from the top edge of the picture to the horizon. Mark a spot in the upper left part of the sky with Prussian blue. Dip the brush in water and fill using the bluing applied to the paper.
4 Create clouds
Again, draw a strip with Prussian blue, it will emphasize the lower edge of the cloud. Leave areas of the sky around with just enough light to create contrast.
5 N Anosim the base of the foreground
Rinse your brush. Mix yellow ocher with water and a drop of red cadmium. Paint a third of the bottom of the painting. This basic tone will depict the ground covered with dried grass.
Now that we have the tree drawn and the main areas of the landscape marked - the stormy sky and the ground, go back to the same colors and cover the sky and the ground again, trying to achieve maximum contrast between light and shadow. Don't worry if some parts of the painting seem too dark for you: watercolor paints become lighter when they dry. Do not try to write out a stormy sky. To create color effects, add more water to the paint.
6 Making the background darker
Using brush number 6, dilute the yellow ocher with water. Moving down from the horizon line, apply a layer of this paint to the left side of the painting.
Applying masking fluid, you can try different ways to paint the sky. Feel free to give free rein to your imagination - the drama of the scene allows it. Feel free to apply one elephant of paint to another, just make sure that the work does not turn out / different. On the presented version of the landscape, our artist painted the sky with indigo blue, purple and violet colors. He kept the tree trunk brightly lit, breaking through the clouds and creating a very sharp, almost theatrical illumination of the scene. At the bottom of the painting, he depicted a field with individual blades of grass painted over several even layers of paint. True, in this landscape the land in the foreground looks more alive than in our picture.
7 We continue to write clouds
Rinse the brush and add some indigo blue on the left side of the sky. The paint must be diluted with water so that it spreads easily over the paper, but at the same time retains an intense color. Write with the same color the clouds running across the stormy sky. Soften their edges by washing with clean water. Let the paint dry.
8 Enhance the tone of the sky
Continue to enhance the color on the right side of the sky. Mix Prussian blue with black paint (burnt ivory) and paint with this mixture a section of the sky between the branches to make the cloud hiding behind the tree even more formidable. Let the paint dry. If you want to speed up the process, dry the paint with a hair dryer.
How to fill
Water in watercolor painting is used not only for diluting paints. If you put a spot of paint on paper, and then draw a line from it, having previously dipped the brush in clean water, the paint will begin to spread. This method is very often used by watercolor artists when making fills.
9 Adding texture to the foreground
Rinse your brush. Prepare a mixture of raw sienna and yellow ocher and draw a line over the horizon. Add bluish-green paint to the mixture and draw a line under the tree, and then make small horizontal strokes all over the foreground. Add some water to make the paint spread easily.
10 Working on a stormy sky
Now make the sky really stormy. Dilute indigo blue with water and add a drop of black paint. Apply a blot of this mixture to the upper left corner of the painting and smear it all over the sky. To lighten a dark color, dip the brush in clear water as you sweep across the sky. The area of the sky behind the top of the tree should also be saturated with a mixture of Prussian blue and black paint.
11 Draw grass
Mix cobalt green, black paint and yellow ocher with a little water. Write short, vertical lines of various heights with this mixture. Start at the foot of the tree and move to the bottom edge of the painting. Let some strokes flow slightly.
12 Removing the masking fluid and painting the tree
Once the paint is dry, wipe off the film of dried masking fluid with your finger. After that, the image of a tree will appear in the picture, retaining all the small details - branches and twigs. Mix lemon yellow paint, yellow cadmium and a drop of red cadmium, dilute the mixture with water. With brush number 00 paint a tree.
13 We pay attention to details
Rinse your brush. Dilute the burnt sienna with water and write in thin lines individual branches and shady areas of large branches. Add some yellow ocher to the paint to emphasize the individual blades of grass in the lower left corner of the picture.
The last, final detail of this picture is a rainbow. Its arc rising above the horizon connects heaven and earth. If you don't think the sky is dark enough, mix indigo blue or Prussian blue with black paint and make the clouds that overwhelm the sky even more stormy.
14 D make the sky darker
Rinse your brush. Apply a mixture of Prussian blue and black paint between the branches to emphasize their whimsical curves. Rinse the brush again.
15 N spotting the rainbow
Take an eraser and draw an arc from the middle of the sky to the ground. At the same time, most of the colors with which the sky is written will be erased a little, a light stripe will form - we will write a rainbow on it.
16 We write a rainbow
Paint a rainbow with cadmium red diluted with water and then with cadmium yellow.
The result of the watercolor landscape painting lesson
A Written details
Thanks to the masking fluid, all fine lines in the picture remain clear. It is easy to see even the branches that stand out against the background of a stormy sky.
B Feeling of space
Some areas of the painting - for example, a piece of sky behind a tree - form an interesting contrast with the overall dark background of the painting. These areas help the artist create the illusion of depth.
In Blurred Rainbow
The arc of the rainbow was marked with an eraser over the already painted sky, so on that fragment the lower dark layers of paint have been preserved and partially show through, due to which the rainbow seems to be lost in the clouds.
Trees are always very interesting to draw and quite simple. The main thing is to know some rules and be observant. How to draw a tree? First of all, you need to know what kind of species, breed? How do branches grow - straight, sideways, falling to the ground? What kind of crown does the plant have - lush, small, round, dense, triangular? The birch has its own silhouette of the crown, the pine has its own. In this lesson, we will try to draw a tree in stages. You will understand how to correctly depict dense foliage, bark, tree roots. This knowledge will come in handy when you go to the open air or want to draw something of your own.
- We take a thick sheet of watercolor paper, a simple pencil, an eraser. If you want to draw a tree in a “wet” technique, then the sheet is first slightly moistened with water. This can be done with a wide soft brush or sponge. With this technique, you will get very beautiful stains and gradients. To begin with, we outline our tree with a pencil. Let's draw it with a lush green crown. In summer and spring, the trees are especially beautiful, the sun reflects from each leaf and they seem to glow. Let's draw the earth in a semicircle. The tree itself will be depicted with small roots. The tree is far away from the viewer, so the roots will appear small. We make the thickness of the branches such that the approximate sum of their thicknesses is equal to the trunk of our tree. The higher the branches are, the thinner they become. At the top of the crown, the branches are the thinnest and youngest. We draw the crown of the tree in general, with an uneven circle.
- Now let's designate the "floors" of the crown. If you look closely at any tree, then each large branch creates a separate "tier", a kind of mini-tree, and together they form a lush crown. Each such “tier” has its own volume, they overlap each other, later we will denote this by the play of shadows and light.
- To make the tree look more organic, let's finish the elements of the landscape - the sky, clouds, as well as the shadow of the tree. We only lightly outline the clouds with a pencil, then we simply outline these sections of white paper with blue paint, and add a light shadow for volume. So that the tree trunk does not look smooth and boring, let's draw it as if it consists of many large branches. The texture of the bark will not be visible, so we will draw the tree trunk with color shades, without drawing small details.
- Let's start painting with watercolors. We start with the crown of the tree and with a transparent yellow-green paint, unevenly paint over this area with a soft wide brush. In some places we leave white spots, somewhere we add thicker paints, but do not overdo it. The grass on the ground will be colder in hue, so add some light blue or blue. Let's draw a shadow from the tree. We draw the sky with a blue gradient, the thickest shade is at the top, gradually the paint is diluted with water towards the horizon. Clouds are simply circled with a brush.
- We draw shadows. We take a green tint with the addition of blue and “sculpt” the crown with short strokes. On the lower "floor" the shadows will be larger and darker, towards the top the brush strokes become shorter and lighter. We carefully outline a couple of branches in the middle. Give volume to the tree trunk. The shadows throughout the figure are on the left. With different shades of brown (with the addition of ocher, blue and a little green), we draw the bark of a tree, leaving white spots of light in some places. We also make shadows on the clouds - we paint over the lower part of each cloud with a gray-blue tint.
- The most “delicious” stage is drawing the details. Now we need the thinnest brush. Go through all the shadows again and make them more saturated. The viewer's attention should be focused on the central part of the picture, it must be drawn especially carefully to make it interesting to look at. Therefore, we add contrast to the branches, in the shadows on the crown and trunk of the tree. With thin strokes we denote small branches in the depths of the crown. We draw the grass with light strokes (touch the paper with a brush and make a quick stroke with it “away from you”).
