Step-by-step guide for watercolor painting of a tree

You can consider your watercolor painting completed, or go on to the next steps.

I’m Jenna Rainey.

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How To

11/03/2021

In this watercolor tutorial, learn to paint 10 easy watercolor trees! We start with sketches and basic shapes then dive into techniques for leaves techniques and shading. This tutorial is for all levels—yes, even if you’re a beginner!

Music license acquired from Artlist

10 Easy Watercolor Trees

00:00 – Intro
00:25 – Getting started.
01:37 – First tree: Round shape.
11:26 – Second tree: Spreading shape.
18:07 – Third tree: Oval shape.
25:17 – Fourth tree: Vase shape.
30:38 – Fifth tree: Column shape.
34:35 – Sixth tree: Open Style.
42:10 – Seventh tree: Umbrella shape.
45:21 – Eighth tree: Pyramid shape (with snow effect)
50:21 – Ninth tree: Irregular shape (with golden color)
54:57 – Tenth tree: Round top, tall trunk (golden color)
56:57 – “Circle of Life” REMIX
57:13 – Tips on red trees.
01:00:03 – Final thoughts.

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How to paint a watercolor tree step by step

Painting watercolor trees and leaves can be tricky, you have to decide what level of detail you want to achieve. When painting a tree from a distance, artists will usually look for areas of the same color. In this particular case I wanted individual leaves to be discernible. I didn’t paint every leaf, but did start with a very detailed drawing and stayed as close as I could to my reference picture.

To paint a watercolor tree, you will need:

• Watercolor paints, I used:
  • Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna,
  • Reeves Payne’s grey,
  • Holbein Cobalt Turquoise,
  • Da Vinci Prussian blue, sap green, and cadmium lemon,
  • Van Gogh Madder Lake Light.
  • I also used a bit of black from my Yarka watercolor pan set

  Painting a watercolor tree step by step

  

  

  Once your drawing has been transferred onto your paper, stretch it with your favorite stretching system. Here I used a stretching board. Wetting the paper carefully won’t remove the graphite. Let your paper dry.

  

  Start painting the leaves, mixing different shades of green from sap green, adding yellow, blue or red, and mixing some of the colors wet in wet. Look carefully at your reference picture to paint the different types of green you see.

  

  Painting a big very detailed painting can be intimidating but very manageable if you paint it one section at a time, making your way across the painting.

  

  Once you are done with one element of the painting, it can be helpful to stop for a while and assess what you have done. Here I like the result but find I am missing a bit of contrast to get the effect of the light showing through the leaves. I decide to apply a darker wash of green on some of the leaves to increase contrast.

  I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

  Yarka St. Petersburg Professional Watercolor Pans

  

  Mixing sap green and madder lake will give you a very dark green, I am applying it as a glaze on some of the leaves I want a bit darker.

  

  Here is the painting after I did darken some areas on the leaves.

  

  To paint the trunk, start by painting light brown washes, that correspond to the lighter color you can see on the trunk on your reference picture. This is the basis layer from which you will start building up your texture.

  

  Working one section at a time, paint darker washes adding texture to the trunk.

  

  Keep adding layers of texture until you are satisfied with the result.

  

  When the painting had time to dry, remove the masking fluid. I usually recommend to soften the edges after masking fluid has been removed and paint a light wash on the white areas but for this particular painting I want to keep the white areas very crisp to add to the effect of light shinning through the leaves.

  

  Here is a close up of an area with the masking fluid removed.

  

  

  And here is a time lapse video of the whole process

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  Sandrine Pelissier

  Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years. My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books. I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month. I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.

  How to paint trees and leaves with watercolor

  Nymph Echo : Painting lily pads and reflections on water with watercolor

  
  

  Comments (18)

  Puangtip

  Thanks for ur generous sharings. It is very helpful and inspiring on the beginner like me.
  April 14, 2015 at 3:33 am

  Sandrine Pelissier

  Thanks Puangtip! Good luck on your artistic journey
  April 14, 2015 at 8:37 am

  Puangtip

  Thanks for all ur generous sharings .it is very helpful and inspiring on the beginner like me.
  April 14, 2015 at 3:30 am

  Reema

  Thank you for the instructions. Its a beautiful work of art. I tried it myself today. And although it felt tedious in the beginning, your suggestion of working in sections made it quite enjoyable.

  
  

  Step 1: Watercolor the trunk, branches, and leaves with simple strokes

  Use a round, pointed brush. I used a size 10, but a smaller one is fine too. Draw lines for the trunk with dark brown watercolor. Turning your brush around as you paint for thinner or thicker strokes.

  

  Below are the colors I used. Mix the colors in advance, and keep a good supply. You will use a generous amount of color painting the tree.

  

  With a rather wet brush, paint the leafy shapes with broad strokes. Make sure to leave spaces of white in-between, and avoid details. Play with reds, orange, and greens. When should you stop and not overwork your piece? Pay attention to how the colors swirl and make beautiful patterns. If it’s pretty, stop. If you don’t stop in time, it will become a muddy brown. But what if it doesn’t get pretty? It means you have too much pigment or water on your brush. With the right amount of color and water, it will be beautiful. You may want to practice painting this on sketching paper first. Then you can unleash on precious watercolor paper. This way, you will get a feel for how much pigment and water to use.

  

  You can let it dry naturally, or use a blow dryer. If you use a blow dryer, the paint will move around due to the wind. You will get some exciting shades by controlling the movement of the water.

  

  

  You can consider your watercolor painting completed, or go on to the next steps.

  Step 2: Applying watercolor with a dry brush for look-alike-leaves

  Before you get on with this step, practice using a dry brush on sketching paper. Use an old brush, because you’re going to press it down hard and apply dry paint with a fan-like motion. Wet the brush and soak up the water with tissue paper. Apply paint that is barely wet. Move your brush around in various directions, letting the hair spread out in a fan. Apply the fan-like motion at the edge of the leafy structures. This will give you the realistic-looking leaves sticking out. Look at the photo for inspiration on where to apply the dry brush.

  

  When done, repaint the branches in-between leaves with a dark brown or black.

  

  Step 3: Get creative with colored pencils

  It is not necessary to match my colored pencils as depicted below. Use what you have in similar color ranges.

  

  Our tree looks a bit messy from the dry brushwork. You’re going to take advantage of this very fact. With colored pencils, let loose and amplify the uneven blotches of color. Use light and dark colors for light and shadow. Your colored pencils should not be sharp. Draw with a circular motion. Notice how you get texture from colored pencils on top of the watercolor layers.

  

  Lastly, I drew a bit of glow on the right side.

  

  After looking at the tree once again, I decided it needed more pronounced shadow and light. And some more red color.

  

  It’s all done. Happy painting to you! If you wonder about relevant art materials for this tutorial, I have written a Guide to Art Supplies that I hope you fnd useful.