How to Draw a Tree on Canvas TUTORIAL

"Every bit the forest are the aforementioned, the copse continuing in their places, the rocks and the earth... they are always dissimilar too, as lights and shadows and seasons and moods laissez passer through them." Emily Carr

Trees are an countless source of inspiration for me. So many unique combinations of color, light, shadow, form, and other elements (Emily Carr put it well in the quote above). In this post, I provide guidance on how to paint them. I cover:

• Idealized Views
• Simplification
• Purpose
• Color and Light
• Brushwork
• Style and Theme
• Limerick
• Nature Is Non Perfect
• Different Mediums
• Footstep past Step Guide
• Additional Readings

Ivan Shishkin, Pine Forest. Unfinished Sketch, c.1894

First things get-go—you lot must interruption free of any idealized views you accept about trees. That is, what you lot call up a typical tree looks like.

Have a moment to close your eyes and picture a tree in your heed. What practise you see? That tree is not based on reality, but rather the ideas and experiences y'all have had with trees throughout your life.

For me, and many others I imagine, I see a tree with rich umber wood and luscious green leaves. Some trees look similar that, simply not all!

These arcadian views may seem harmless, but they tin can work behind the scenes to bias our decisions and paint things that are not actually there. I meet it all the time in beginner paintings—they are unsure well-nigh the color of the leaves, and then they default to green, even if the leaves are warm yellows and oranges.

Leaves are non always light-green. Forest is not ever chocolate-brown. The heaven is not always blue.

Be careful about letting your idealized views dominate how you paint. Pigment the tree as you see it.

I will testify you what I mean using the following reference photograph:

The trees in the foreground are dark and underexposed in the photo. Because information technology is hard to make out any color, my mind defaults to light-green and chocolate-brown. It seems the more cryptic the colors, the more my idealized views take over. Regarding the trees in the background, beginner painters would be decumbent to overusing light-green and underusing yellow and orange.

A tree is a circuitous arrangement of shapes, lines, colors, and other elements. You lot must learn how to simplify this information to brand any sense of it and paint a coherent picture. Even realists like Ivan Shishkin simplified to some extent.

If you could only meet bones color shapes, what would the tree expect like?

For example, accept this reference photograph:

This is a circuitous scene, with countless leaves, branches, shadows, highlights, accents, and colors. Not long ago, I would have put this in the "too hard" basket every bit my untrained optics would have been overwhelmed by information. But at present, I am able to tune out the noise and narrow down on the of import details.

To give you an idea of what I run across, beneath is the starting time of a recent study. Nothing more basic color shapes. It took me about 10 minutes to get to this stage. Yet, even with such primitive item, at that place is a quality of realism to information technology. That is the beauty of narrowing downwards on the important details and getting them right.

Below is the finish outcome. Keep in mind this is just a minor study washed in grooming for a larger work (to exist revealed shortly, along with progress shots).

Dan Scott, Tree in Perspective, 2020

I have besides been playing around with filters in Photoshop to simplify the racket without picking up a brush (run across the two examples below). But this is a matter for a split postal service.

In one case y'all meet the tree in terms of basic color shapes, the rest is much easier. Every bit long as you stay true to these basic elements, your tree volition end up looking somewhat realistic. The amount of detail you employ from there is up to you. If you enjoy getting lost in the detail, by all means, paint every leaf and co-operative. But you lot do non have to.

Hither are some questions to assistance pull primal details from the body of water of information:

• What is the lightest calorie-free/darkest dark?
• What is positive/negative space?
• What is the hardest edge? (The softest edge is, by nature, hard to spot).
• What is the focal betoken?
• What is the nearly saturated color?

If you lot want more examples of simplification, cheque out the piece of work of Sir Arthur Streeton. He was a master of it. His paintings appear fresh and spontaneous, all the same there is a remarkable sense of realism. In the painting below, notice how he intricately rendered a few trees in the lesser right. This near fools you into thinking the rest of the painting is equally detailed.

Arthur Streeton, The Purple Noon'due south Transparent Might, 1895

The tree'south purpose will influence how y'all paint it. A feature tree requires more attention than a groundwork tree. Sounds obvious, simply many aspiring artists overlook this idea.

TakeOak on the River Banking company past Isaac Levitan (below). The tree in the center is the focus and Levitan painted it accordingly. Subtle colour changes, light and shadow patterns, a sense of form, rendering of private branches and leaves.

Isaac Levitan, Oak on the River Bank, 1887

In my painting beneath, the amber tree is the focus and therefore required more than detail and colour variance. The other trees in the painting are really just 2-value shapes; no mid-tones, no intricate branches, no subtle color changes.

Dan Scott, New Zealand, Amber Tree, 2019

In Claude Monet's painting below, notice the varying level of detail on the copse. The closer the copse, the more detailed they are.

Also, look at the tall trees shooting up into the sky. The dissimilarity between these trees and the sky (night green confronting light blue) is much sharper than the contrast between one tree and others (green against green). Areas of abrupt contrast stand up out and require more attention, hence the intricate linework and rendering of individual leaves.

Claude Monet, View Near Ruel-Le-Havre, 1858

"If you see a tree as bluish, then make it blue." Paul Gauguin

In that location is no color recipe or formula for painting copse. Only I can give y'all some general tips:

• Most of your color questions can be answered by the lite. What is the light source? How potent is information technology? Where is it coming from? What color temperature is it? Is information technology straight or diffused by clouds?
• What are the lightest, darkest, most saturated, warmest, and coolest colors?
• Pay close attention to changes in color temperature. Are the lights warm compared to the darks?

Arthur Streeton, Sunlight (Cutting On A Hot Road), 1895

• Cleaved color can give the illusion of detail. Refer to Camille Pissarro's Hyde Park, London:

Camille Pissarro, Hyde Park, London, 1890

• Do not endeavour to capture every subtle change in lightness. Simplify the value structure.
• Ensure you take enough color variance. Again, leaves are not e'er greenish! Take reward of yellows, reds, oranges, blues...

George Inness, Autumn Oaks, c.1875

• For greens, I often first with viridian and add xanthous to arrive warmer or bluish to make information technology cooler.

William Wendt, A Grove of Trees, 1933

• To paint lighter colors, be conscientious nearly calculation pure white. Pure white makes colors lighter, weaker, and cooler; this can work against you when painting landscapes. Consider using yellow to lighten your colors.

I generally try to lucifer the nature of my brushwork to the nature of the subject area.

Is the bark crude and textured? Apply rough and textured brushwork. Or even a palette knife.

Are the leaves delicate? Use delicate brushwork.

Are the leaves and branches dense? Use solid brushwork or layers of cleaved color.

Equally for what brushes and tools I use: any gets the job done. There are no rules. In my tree report shown earlier in this post (Tree in Perspective), I used filberts, flats, rounds, a palette knife, the tip of my finger, my fingernail, and newspaper towels.

The tools are there to help get the job done, not limit you lot in any style. Exercise non default to the fan brush whenever you need to paint a leaf.

To run into what I mean, I suggest you lot check out Australian creative person Ken Knight. Hither is a video of him painting. A perfect case of using annihilation to become the desired result.

You need to consider the overall manner and theme of your painting. Consistency is key. It does non matter how well you pigment a tree, or anything for that matter, if information technology does not fit with the rest of the painting.

Vincent van Gogh took a stylized approach, using bold outlines and directional brushwork to reiterate the contours of the trees.

Vincent van Gogh, The Large Aeroplane Copse (Road Menders at Saint-Rémy), 1889

Monet often used crude brushwork and broken colour to weave the trees in with the residue of the painting. The challenge with this approach is retaining a sense of course and realism.

Claude Monet, The Olive Grove in the Moreno Garden, 1884

Ivan Shishkin'south piece of work is remarkably detailed. Therefore, it fabricated sense for him to paint individual leaves and tiny branches.

Ivan Shishkin, Rain in an Oak Forest

Trees are a fantastic composition tool, particularly in terms of space, remainder, and pattern.

Beneath are some examples, starting with John Vocalizer Sargent's Olive Trees on Corfu. Notice the dance between positive and negative space. Positive infinite being space taken up by objects and things (the trees, buildings, and foreground); negative space being the space in between objects and things (the sky and mountains). There is also a secondary level of contrast, with the positive space being dark and the negative infinite being light.

John Singer Sargent, Olive Trees on Corfu, 1909

Here is some other example of using copse to create an interesting dance between positive and negative infinite:

Anna Althea Hills, Ocean View

In George Clausen'sThe Carmine Orchard, the positive and negative infinite is woven together by the branches, leaves, and flowers.

George Clausen, The Cherry Orchard

Monet often used trees to create a sense of rhythm (refer to the two paintings below).

Claude Monet, Iv Poplars on the Banks of the Epte River Almost Giverny, 1891

Claude Monet, Poplars on Epte, 1889

From afar, large numbers of trees unite into solid shapes that can ballast your composition. Refer to Pine Forest below. Hundreds of trees viewed from a distance appear to form a relatively solid shape.

Ivan Shishkin, Pine Woods, 1895

Trees allow you to explore changes in form, contours, and perspective. InOak, Lit past the Sunday (below), the tree and its branches shoot up, down, forward, and dorsum in perspective. This is reiterated by the shadows and contours.

Ivan Shishkin, Oak, Lit by the Dominicus

Yous can use copse to explore extreme perspective points, similar looking upward from the human foot of a tree (refer to the painting beneath).

Ivan Shishkin, The Tops of the Pines, 1890

Trees ofttimes create interesting light and shadow patterns from light bursting through gaps in the canopy. This is known equally dappled light. A common theme in many of Isaac Levitan's paintings, like the two below.

Isaac Levitan, In the Park, 1895

Isaac Levitan, Birch Grove, 1889

(You might be interested in my Painting University course. I go into more detail on how to pattern interesting compositions for painting.)

"If a painting of a tree was only the verbal representation of the original, then that it looked just similar the tree, there would exist no reason for making information technology; we might likewise look at the tree itself. But the painting, if information technology is of the correct sort, gives something that neither a photograph nor a view of the tree conveys. It emphasizes something of grapheme, quality, individuality. We are not lost in looking at thorns and defects; nosotros catch a vision of the grandeur and dazzler of a king of the forest." Calvin Coolidge

Nature is a forgiving bailiwick to paint. No ane will notice subtle departures from the subject—an extra tree branch, fewer leaves, a missing tree in the background.

You are not afforded this flexibility in portrait or still life painting. People volition notice if yous pigment the nose wrong.

Isaac Levitan, Blooming Apple Trees, 1896

I paint in oils, but the information in this post can be applied to any medium. The techniques alter, but the principles are the same.

Also, different mediums let you to capture different sides of the same subject.

Watercolors: untamed, intricate, and transient.

Fedor Vasilyev, The Trees, 1867

Pencil or pen: perfect for linework and contour drawing.

Ivan Shishkin, Trees, c.1870

Oils: thick, textured, dramatic, and versatile.

John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821

So far, I have covered high-level principles for painting trees. But I sympathise some of y'all are looking for more than of a step by step guide. So hither is mine:

1. Bespeak the full general positioning, size, and shape of the tree. This may exist a bones sketch, colour stain, or negative painting (lifting paint from the sail with a cloth or rag).
2. Capture the important lights and darks.
3. Cake in any leaf masses.
4. Refine what is on the canvas.
5. Add together intricate details (individual branches, leaves, highlights, and dark accents).

Keep in listen that what works for me, might not piece of work for y'all. You may as well desire to check out my "On The Easel" posts to see my painting approach in activeness.

Vincent van Gogh, Mulberry Tree, 1889

Thanks for Reading!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I capeesh information technology! Experience free to share with friends. If you want more painting tips, check out my Painting University course.

Happy painting!

Dan Scott

Draw Paint Academy

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How to Draw a Tree on Canvas TUTORIAL

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