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.
You know, when I compiled this lesson, I reproached myself for not having thought of taking this topic earlier. I enjoyed the work, and I really liked how ordinary dots and shapes turn into amazing trees.
I had to take up painting trees only for the reason that I am often asked to publish a lesson on creating landscapes. But before starting work, it seemed to me a good idea to disassemble its main components. The most important of them (in my opinion) are trees. This lesson will teach you not only to display trees in watercolor, but also show you four options for making different forms of crowns. This is the first part of two. Next time you will learn four more forms.
To paint trees in watercolor you will need:
- Sakura Koi Watercolor Travel Set
In this tutorial, I use Sakura Koi brand watercolors. I highly recommend them to all aspiring artists. The 12-color set costs just $15 on Amazon and is easy to travel with.
- Yellow Green
- Viridian Hue
- Lemon Yellow
- Ocher yellow (Yellow Ocher)
Before starting the step-by-step demonstration of the process, I would like to talk about the four forms of tree crowns that we will work with today. Moving clockwise from the upper left corner, the figure shows columnar, spreading, open and round crowns. Trees are classified according to the shape of their foliage. I drew black outlines to make it easier for you to sketch with a pencil.
1. Columnar tree
According to the name, such a crown resembles a column. Cherry and red maple are of this type. I did without a pencil sketch, but you can draw it if you are not sure that you can immediately paint with paint. I used Lemon Yellow as a base, applying a few drop-like strokes, starting from the top. As you go down, add some Viridian Hue. Since this is the base coat, I diluted the pigments liberally with water.
At this point, I combined Viridian Hue with Yellow Green and let them mix. The best thing about watercolor is that it will do all the work itself if you let it. See how wonderful the color of the mixture came out.
While the paint was still wet, I added a grain of Lemon Yellow. Then, I continued to paint with color spots, drawing the shadow of the foliage, until I got the outline of the crown.
Finally, I prepared a wash of Yellow Ocher and Viridian Hue to show the shaded areas at the very bottom of the foliage near the trunk. You can also add depth to the drawing by touching the crown with this shade in several places. Finally, draw the trunk and the ground.
2. Spreading crown
Have you ever seen a beautiful banyan tree? It is so huge, and its branches are so wide that several people can hide under its shadow. This is the clearest example of a spreading crown. As a base tone, I took Lemon Yellow. Next, on both sides of the foliage along the contours, I entered Yellow Green (Yellow Green).
After that, I darkened some areas with Viridian Hue, leaving the central part of the crown yellowish. I decided that the light would fall on this area. Continue applying dark strokes.
At the final stage, mix Yellow Ocher and Viridian Hue. With the resulting darker shade, put a few dots on the foliage, showing depth. The banyan tree has aerial roots hanging down from the branches. I drew them along with the trunk.
3. Round crown
This is the most fun and simple form of all presented here. And that doesn't require an explanation, does it? It is clear that this form is the easiest to transfer. The black maple and frame tree have just such a silhouette of foliage. As in previous cases, start by applying light shades.
Gradually move to darker tones. The main thing is that the form does not look rigid and motionless. Even if the crown is round, a couple of branches can always stick out of it.
Draw the trunk and, if necessary, change the shape of the leaves. To get a spherical outline, make sure the underside of the canopy is a darker shade that gradually lightens towards the top of the tree.
4. Open crown
In my opinion, this tree is the most beautiful. Presumably, this is due to its asymmetrical silhouette. Scatter several "islands" of foliage at random, drawing the largest one at the top of the tree. You can refer to my picture at the beginning of the article.
Apply dark tones to the bottom of the foliage.
At the very top, highlight the illuminated areas with strokes of Lemon Yellow.
Then, paint in the shadows to make the tree look believable. Draw a trunk and several branches connecting all the "islands" of foliage. That's all!
What do you think?
Which crown shape do you like best? What is your favorite tree? Mine is the banyan tree because it is associated with my childhood memories. What other components of the landscape should I devote a lesson to? Leave your answers in the comments. And don't forget to use the hashtag #makeinkstruck on your Instagram if you've been drawing with me.
So, these were four ways to draw different shapes of tree crowns. I hope that the photos turned out to be exhaustive and clear enough. I wish you a great day!
Drawing a landscape in watercolor step by step for children from 5 years old. Master class with step by step photo
Master class in watercolor painting from 5 years old "Landscape". Introduction to watercolors
Author: Natalya Alexandrovna Ermakova, teacher, Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education for Children "Children's Art School named after A. A. Bolshakov", Velikiye Luki, Pskov Region.Description: the master class is intended for children from 5 years old and their parents, educators, teachers of additional education.
Purpose: interior decoration, gift, drawing for exhibitions and competitions.
Target: creating a landscape in watercolor.
Tasks:
- to introduce children to the profession of an artist, to give an idea of the fine arts and painting;
- teach how to work with watercolor: wetting paints before painting, diluting with water to obtain different shades of the same color, thoroughly washing the brush.
- to teach how to work with color when creating a landscape using watercolor technique;
- exercise in working with different numbers of brushes;
- Raise interest in the visual arts.
I have a pencil
colorful gouache,
watercolor, palette, brush
And a thick sheet of paper
And also - an easel-tripod,
Because I ... (artist)
Hello dear guests! Wonderful profession of an artist. He should take paper, brushes, paints. There was nothing on paper, but the first lines appeared: one, the other - the picture is ready.
An artist can draw everything: a house, a forest, people, animals. And the artist paints pictures. And writes according to his plan, like a writer
An artist is a person who knows how to see beauty in the ordinary, remembers his impressions and knows how to express his thoughts and fantasies on paper, stone or other material.
The artist knows how to create new worlds in his paintings and drawings, unprecedented beauties and outlandish animals, and sometimes something completely new, the colors on the drawings turn into fireworks of colors and shades, they cause incredible joyful emotions.
The first artists appeared in the Stone Age. The role of canvas or paper was then played by the walls of stone caves and various household items of ancient people, and charcoal and mineral dyes served as paints for artists. The work of the artist was closely connected with the manufacture of paints, and people considered this to be a magical act. Much later, people began to paint icons, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and they began to call all this the world of fine arts (the art of capturing images).
So, artists are people involved in fine arts, there are many different directions in this profession:
-Artist-artist in the broad sense of the word (he can do everything)
-A person who makes visual arts
-Graphic artist-engaged in graphics (pencil drawings, charcoal, felt-tip pens)
-Photo artist-does photo art
-Artist-animator
-Illustrator
- Painter - painting.
Painting is the art of representing objects with colors. One of the types of fine arts associated with the transmission of visual images by applying paint to a rigid or flexible surface. The name came from the two words "live" (live) and "write" (draw) - that's how it turns out to write like a living thing, and artists involved in painting began to be called painters.
In the art gallery
There are very, very many of them.
On this sea we see
And over there on that road.
Oil, watercolor
Creation artists. (Paintings)
There are many different directions (themes for drawing) in painting, consider some of them:
If you see what's in the picture
Someone looks at us
Or a prince in an old cloak,
Or a climber in a robe,
Pilot or ballerina
Or Kolya, your neighbor,
Be sure to picture
It's called a portrait.
If you see in the picture
A cup of coffee on the table
Or juice in a large decanter,
Or a rose in crystal
Or a bronze vase
Or a pear, or a cake,
Or all items at once,
Know that this is a still life.
If you see in the picture
The river is drawn
Or spruce and white frost,
Or a garden and clouds
Or a snowfield
Or a field and a hut,
Be sure to picture
It's called landscape
The artist writes his paintings and drawings with the help of various paints - gouache, watercolor and many other paints. A real artist first of all always gets acquainted with his paints, studies their properties, colors and shades. Conducts experiments on mixing paints and obtaining new colors, dilutes them with water or draws thickly, saturated. Today we will get acquainted with watercolor, what kind of paints are they?
Their name is associated with water because "Aqua" means "water". When you dissolve them with water and start drawing, the effect of lightness, airiness, subtle color transitions is created. Before painting, paints must be moistened with water. We dip the brush in clean water and shake off the drops on the paints, without touching them with the bristle of the brush.
Before you start drawing, you need to try the colors. Each color is tried on paper, we pick up paint on a brush and draw small specks of the color of each paint. And you can immediately see which paint is transparent, and which is strong-saturated. A very important feature of watercolors is that the more you dilute them with water, the more transparent they will appear, well, if you add less water, the colors will be more saturated. After trying each color, you need to wash the brush so as not to stain the paints. Watercolor paint is sonorous, transparent, loves cleanliness. After we got acquainted with all the colors, we can conduct experiments on mixing different colors, two, or even three. Remember which paint is friends with which, or vice versa, their friendship ends badly and it turns out a dirty puddle.
Three colors, three colors, three colors
Guys, isn't that enough?
And where can we get green, orange?
And if we mix paints in pairs?
From blue and red (this one)
We will get the color ... (purple).
And we mix blue with yellow.
What color do we get? (green)
And red plus yellow, it's not a secret for everyone,
They will give us of course ... (orange color).
This exercise to get acquainted with paints is carried out before the main task, the children respond with joy and experiment with color. Such an exercise can be carried out on a separate piece of paper, but it is better to start an album "cheat sheet", where the children will do exercises to get acquainted with color and learn various painting techniques each time.
Materials and tools:
-a sheet of paper A3 (for landscape)
- A4 sheet for color testing (or an album)
-watercolor
-brushes of three numbers (large, medium, thin)
- a simple pencil, an eraser (for the youngest children, they can draw a horizon line)
- glass for water
-cloth for brushes
Master class progress:
I see a land hitherto unknown.
Around the land is well-groomed.beautiful...
But to me, my soul, it is so charming here!
So wide is the beauty of my Russia!
Today we will draw a landscape, for kids a good role is played by showing the future drawing and examining it, what is depicted on it.
The landscape begins at the border of heaven and earth - this is the horizon line, where they meet each other. We draw the horizon line with the tip of the brush, then we begin to paint over the sky from the very top of the sheet in a horizontal direction. I always draw with the kids, a new technique, a new detail of the work and the children repeat this in their drawing.
Brush strokes should be large, smooth, use the largest brush. The paint must be well diluted with water, and try to create an even, uniform background.
Then, from the horizon line, draw the earth, the field (green). Brush after each color must be thoroughly rinsed. We paint over the surface in a horizontal direction, with a large brush, with green color with a large addition of water.
Now we take a brush of medium size, draw it with the tip. Emerald paint color - draw hills, the paint is bright and saturated.
Using a clean brush and water, blur the emerald lines of the hills, from emerald to basic green. So that you get a smooth transition from color to color. The work takes place with the addition of a large amount of water, almost on a damp background (therefore, the work shines). Excess water can be removed by dabbing with a cloth.
We leave the field to dry and return to work on the sky. We collect red paint on the brush and draw a rich stripe above the horizon line.
My brush, with a clean brush with water, draw a line along the lower edge of the red stripe, blur it.
Similarly, add orange and yellow colors.
Now with vertical small strokes we draw blades of grass, the farther they are from us, the smaller.
Then wash the brush, wring it out and lightly smear the blades of grass, as if rubbing them with a brush. We draw a red sun.
Clapping a brush on a sheet, draw shrubs.
On the horizon line, draw a saturated blue line - a forest in the distance. And with a thin brush of a blade of grass in the foreground of the picture.
With a thin brush we make vertical blue lines, where there is a forest, these are trees.
Select the forest in the distance with a thin black line (thin brush), and draw branches on the bushes.
Landscape is perhaps the most common subject for watercolor painting. And the most important object in landscapes are trees. Therefore, if you decide to paint a landscape, then first we advise you to familiarize yourself with the technique of drawing a tree, which will help you correctly display this object on paper. And our today's master class will help you, in which we will show in detail how to draw a tree in watercolor.
Wood drawing materials:
- watercolor paper;
- a simple pencil (HB) with an eraser;
- watercolor paints;
- synthetic brushes No. 7 and 3 (round);
- a palette or a piece of thick paper for mixing shades;
- container with clean water.
Drawing stages
Step 1. The first thing to do is to outline the horizon line. We draw a horizontal line at the bottom of the sheet. Draw a tree trunk in the center. Draw three branches on the trunk. 
Next, we supplement the top with a rounded crown, consisting of 5-6 parts. As a result, we got this sketch. 
We erase all the saturated pencil lines with the tip of the eraser so that in the future the watercolor can cover them.
Step 2 Wet all parts of the crown with clean water. We highlight the tops of these parts with a translucent yellow color, and their lower region with chromium oxide. 
We prescribe the outline of the crown in emerald green with plenty of water.
Step 3. The base tones are applied. Now the affairs of the drawing are more saturated and traced. The darkened right side of the tree is filled with an emerald shade. On top of the base tone created by chromium oxide, we draw the foliage with a green and yellow-green tint. 
Step 4. Sepia outline the shadow and bumps on the tree trunk. Draw small branches. 
Step 5. We return to the creation of the crown. First, we create foliage on the lower branch, and then with a dense yellow-green tint we designate the lower shadow areas of the crown. Then we finalize this step with a dark green tint. 
We leave the drawing to dry for about 5-10 minutes so that you can draw clearer and darker details.
Step 6. We knead a shade on the palette to create dark areas of the crown. We put green on the palette, and then add about this amount of sepia to it. With the resulting shade, we highlight the darkest parts of the crown. After we dilute this tone with water and prescribe foliage to them. We also work on the shadows on the trunk and branches of the tree, but with the help of a different color - black. 
Step 7. Fill the grass under the tree with yellow-green. Create a dark green shadow around the trunk. Sepia refine the shadows in the grass. 
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”).
