How to Paint Trees with Acrylic
Acrylic paint allows you to go back once the paint has dried and cover what you might consider a mistake. Colors can be added over and over, and the paint dries quickly. There is always a shaded side, which means the tree will be darker on one side than the other. Remembering which side your light source is coming from will make the task of painting much easier.
Things You'll Need
- Acrylic paint (brown, dark brown, gray, light green, medium green and dark green)
- Flat acrylic paint brush (size 4 or 6)
- Painting surface
- Palette
- Water container
- Paper or cloth towel
- Pencil
- Scruffy brush (an old used brush works fine)
Instructions
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1
Draw a tree onto the surface of your choice. Leave out the details for now. Draw the tree outlines.
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2
Paint the tree trunk with brown. Don't clean the paint brush but add dark brown to one corner of the paint brush bristles. Add the dark color to the side of the tree that will have shade. Clean the paint brush.
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3
Load the scruffy brush with gray paint and tap it on the palette to soften the color a bit. Gently tap the gray over the lightest brown on the tree and let it dry. Add some of the darkest brown to the brush while it has the gray on it and tap that onto the dark side of the tree. It will have a textured appearance. The two brown colors should show through the gray. Clean the brush.
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4
Add foliage using the scruffy brush and a little light green. Add the darkest green sparsely with much of the darkest green being on the side of the tree where there is shade.
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5
Add the medium green, but don't cover all the dark green. Let the colors dry somewhat before applying the lightest green again. The result should be three values of color with the medium green interspersed with the light green in some places as a medium shadow and the darkest green showing as the deepest shadow.
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Tips & Warnings
Let the paint dry completely before attempting to add more paint to the tree or foliage.
Clean the brushes thoroughly with soap and water so the paint doesn't dry and ruin them.
