DIY Foggy Trees Watercolor Painting on Wood
I’m such a sucker for foggy photos and foggy looking art. I mean, one look at the photos I have used the past few months for my tech wallpapers and that is more than clear. And remember that time we put a giant foggy trees scene on our bedroom wall? I’m borderline obsessed. So when I spotted these gorgeous wooden signs from Walnut Hollow and decided to try watercolour painting on them… it was no surprise that I’d pick foggy trees yet again to put on my walls!
These framed wood signs are so nice and lightweight and I love how thin the frame is- perfectly modern. Even better… it cuts one step out of my DIYing! And you know I’m all about shortcuts 😉
Today I’m going to share the tutorial on how to paint your own foggy trees painting like this (I’ve never painted fog or trees in my life, so this is beginner friendly!). I love how it turned out and the warmth the natural wood tones add. Plus… since I didn’t have to make the sign, this painting was really simple to create! Let’s get to it!
For this project, you’ll need:
- Wood sign (I used this one!)
- Large flat paint brush
- Small round paint brush (mine is actually a sword brush)
- Two watercolour paints (I chose a navy and a black from this Kuretake pallet)
- Water
- Pallet (or plastic!) to mix on
- Coffee is recommended but not necessary 😉
The first thing you’ll want to do is make your wash or your fog. I used just the two colours for my painting to keep it simple. I used a navy watercolour and a black watercolour from my Kuretake pallet (this one exactly), but honestly any black and either blue or green would be lovely!
If you’ve never used watercolour before, this video I made last year has some great tips! To pick up the paint, I dip my paint brush in the water, then onto the solid watercolour, mixing until I see the water has taken on the colour of paint. Then I take my paint brush to my pallet and paint little circles to transfer the paint there. This makes it easier to pick up when you’re painting. Then, I dipped my paint brush back in the water to lighten up what I had on my brush and painted it on to the canvas.
For the fog, I started really light with mostly water, then adding in the darker spots (by picking up paint from my pallet). I used a large flat brush for this.I stuck to an ombre type wash where I used blue on the top and faded to the black at the bottom. I kept it organic by using the edge of the brush to pull the paint out from the main wash. I switched to my small round brush to add in some darker details before letting it dry completely.
Make sure to let it dry completely before adding the trees. I took three shots at this painting. The first, I didn’t wait until it dried completely and the trees just blur into nothing. I layered blue and black trees, just keeping in mind that any wet space will blur (so layering trees should be done slowly if you want clarity). To paint the trees, I took the EASIEST way out there. I basically painted the cone of the tree with tiny little back and forth lines. Then, I dragged a wet paint brush from the top all the way to the bottom to create the centre line and stump. I went back in and added some irregular to the cone shape of the tree to keep with the organic feel of the trees.
I also added in some darker shadows underneath the trees. I like how this set them in the foggy scene. I slowly added more trees until I was happy with how it looked. I have to work really hard to NOT add too much (because then I don’t like it anymore!) but have so much fun painting that I often try to add more in to make it better. Keep in mind that the paint will lighten up a little bit as it dries though!
I added lettering on one of my signs. I love the way this ‘Be Still’ look but I’ve gifted that one and am keeping the plain foggy trees for myself!
Alright… that’s it! I so hope that you enjoyed this tutorial- I had such a fun time playing with it to get it just how I liked it! I’ve moved this down to my office studio but since that space is dark and not very pretty right now- I photographed it up on my mantel. But tell me- what would you want to try painting on a wood sign like this? They also have some cute square ones!
PSST! Want to see the other projects I’ve made using Walnut Hollow wood products?! Check them all out here!
Category: DIY Tag: Art, Craft, Sponsored, Wall Art, Watercolour, Wood
About Colleen Pastoor
Colleen is the DIY blogger and author behind Lemon Thistle blog where she shares hands on DIY tutorials, home renovations, hand lettered designs, and projects to simplify your life… beautifully.
If you enjoy modern home decor (that’s totally cozy for your family!), saving money through DIY and simplified lifestyle- you’ll love the tutorials Colleen shares on LemonThistle.com. Find her @colleenpastoor everywhere else!
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Comments
- Katie IshOct 29 at 12:02 pm
I was thinking of doing a version of your DIY Foggy Trees Watercolor on wood. I wanted to mask out letters with removable vinyl. Do you think the watercolor will bleed under the vinyl mask anyways? Thanks for any advice! Very pretty design 🙂
Foggy Forest Watercolor Painting
A foggy forest is a rather simple motif for a watercolor painting because basically you always paint the same thing in different sizes or different intensity of color. Before we venture to the actual painting, we take a look at useful materials and helpful techniques.
If you have never painted with watercolor, you could take a quick look at the article Painting with Watercolor and get familiar with the basics.
Painting a tree with watercolor
For this watercolor painting, you can paint very simple trees. It is enough to draw a vertical line for the trunk of each tree and add strokes of different lengths on both sides.
Nothing can go wrong here, because the more irregularly you paint the strokes, the more natural your forest will look.
Painting trees in different shades
In order to give depth to our forest, we will paint our groups of trees in different shades of color – from saturated to transparent. If you paint a group of trees in this way, the saturated trees will come to the foreground, while the transparent trees will fade into the background.
Painting trees with different brushes
In addition to the different shades of color, trees of different sizes will help us give depth to the forest as well. And to make our lives easier, we can simply use different sizes of brushes.
For my painting, I will use brushes in sizes 0, 3, and 8 for the trees, as well as one larger brush (3, 9, and 12) each, with which I will paint the fog effect.
Painting trees in fog
We will paint the fog mainly with clear water in which the color pigments of the trees dissolve. For this reason, I would recommend using a separate, clean brush. If you do not have any additional brushes at your disposal, you should wash your brush very thoroughly in between.
Painting a tree partially in fog
To paint a tree partially in the fog, we first moisten the area with clear water where we want the fog to be. Then we paint the tree from top to bottom. If we paint in the other direction, i.e. from bottom to top, we run the risk that far too many color pigments will be mixed into the wet area and we end up painting colored smoke instead of fog.
What we want to achieve by painting through the wet area is a blurry, light silhouette of the tree in the fog.
Painting a tree completely in fog
To make a tree completely disappear in the fog, we first have to prepare the whole area with clean water. Next, we paint the tree with a very sheer color.
We should definitely resist the urge to work with too intense color, even if the tree may seem too bright to us. Since you can hardly see anything through dense fog anyway, a tree painted with too intense color simply looks like a big stain.
Correcting pigment borders
Sometimes pigmented edges can form when wet areas of the fog dried. But don’t worry, these can be easily corrected with clean water by painting gently over the edges until they dissolve.
Colors for the foggy forest
For the foggy forest, we can combine various colors. Whether juicy or cold green tones, even the colors of a sunset can be used for this watercolor painting.
For the following example, I use a cool color palette, where I mix Coelin blue and Umbra burned in different proportions.
Watercolor Painting: Foggy Forest
In our example, the trees are placed on smooth hills, but you can also place them in straight rows next to each other.
We start off with the trees at the back, so we work with a small brush, transparent color, and place our first chain of trees near the top of the paper. In the example I let the whole left area of the tree chain fade into the fog, while in the right area the contours of the individual trees are visible despite the very transparent use of color.
When everything is dry, we can paint a second, third, or maybe even fourth layer over it with the same brush. With each additional layer, the color should become more intense. We should make sure to keep the lower part of the tree chains always moist so that the colors can run into the fog.
We can add any number of tree chains. They can be spread all over the paper or be cut off in some places. In some areas, we can also do without intense color to create the illusion of, particularly strong fog. The more unevenly we paint, the more natural the forest will look.
Tip: When we reach the lower half of the forest, we can switch to a larger brush. The trees are closer to the viewer and should therefore get a little bigger.
The final watercolor painting
Although the motif is very simple to paint, the use of the different techniques is great fun and the final result always looks fascinating.
Since colors have an enormous influence on the mood of the painting, it can be interesting to paint the motif again with different colors. You will always create a completely new, unique foggy forest!
