How to Paint a Forest

Paint your own forest scene by following the basic painting steps.

If you like paintings of forest scenery, you can try your hand at creating your own to display in your home. As long as you follow a basic method of painting and layering colors and use a photograph of a forest as a reference, you can begin painting your own forest scenes. You can use oil paints, watercolors or acrylics to paint your forest painting to get a different texture and depth to your forest scenery.

Things You'll Need

• Canvas
• Paint brushes
• Palette
• Oil, watercolor or acrylic paints

Instructions

1. Dip a broad bristled-brush into the color you want to use to paint the sky behind the forest. Apply this color furthest in the background, from the top of the canvas to wherever you want the treetops to be.

2. Paint in green, or red or yellow if it's a forest in autumn, in the vague shapes of trees in the background. Fill this color in the areas from where you left off with the sky color, down to the horizon line. Add smaller areas of different shades of green to make the forest look more realistic. Mix the green you are using with a small amount of yellow and red to get different shades of green. Blend the different colored areas together slightly at the edges.

3. Fill in the foreground of your painting with colors of the forest floor, such as different shades of brown and green. Dip a thinner brush into a slightly darker brown, a few shades darker than the colors you used to fill in the shapes of the trees, and paint the trunks of the trees in downward strokes. Make the trunks thinner in the background and make them wider and darker as you get closer to make them appear closer to the foreground. Add a few branches extending up near the tops of the trunks.

4. Dip a smaller paint brush into a shade of green darker than the green you used in the background. Create a series of dots on the canvas near the tops of the tree trunks to paint in the leaves. Paint in groups of leaves in various spots near the middle of the trunks to create lower branches. Add leaves for plant life around the forest floor. Add other details to the forest floor, such as a stream or fallen logs.

5. Apply dark brown or black to the tree trunks and areas of the forest flower to create shadows, and white or yellow-green to show where the sunlight is shining. When adding shadow and light, keep in mind in which direction the sun is shining from. Let the paint dry for three or four days (for oil paints) before displaying your painting of a forest scene.

References

• YouTube: How to Paint a Forest Scene

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish