How to Paint Fall Trees | Step by Step Tutorial | Water Colour Painting

Hello dear Steemians! Today, I'm going to share how to paint fall trees. I have never personally experienced fall because we don't have four seasons where I live. I reside in Malaysia, which is a tropical country. It is located close to the Equator (the imaginary line that is right in the middle, between the North and South Poles. Hence, we don't have four seasons and instead we experience sunny and rainfall all year long. Though I have not experienced the fall season, I have seen how it looks like on pictures and I think it looks beautiful and I wanted to make at least one painting on the fall season.

Tools and Materials

• A good quality artblock that can absorb water
• Buncho water colours
• Paint brushes
• 2 containers of water (one to mix paint and one to clean brush)
• A tissue paper to absorb excess paint / water
  
  

Step by Step Tutorial

First of all, I used the wet on wet technique by using a large flat brush and picked some water and gave a light wash on my paper. When you do this, be careful not to apply too much of water. A thin layer of water will do. In the event where you have accidentally applied too much of water, just use a tissue paper and absorb the excess water. Then, I used a medium round brush and picked up some sky blue paint. I just touched the areas of water and the paint spread on its own and for some areas I just applied it in the directions that I wanted. Mix your paint a tiny bit darker than how you would like it to appear because water colour appears lighter after drying. I painted only half of the paper blue and kept it light on two thirds of my paper because I didn't want it to interfere too much with the other colours later especially yellow because then it might turn into green.

Then, I added some light green and light blue on the areas that you can see. The green is for the ground and this is only the first layer. I will be building it up and perhaps make it warmer with another colour. On the other hand, the light blue is to depict a river. Though I would like the river to be darker, there is a reason I am keeping it light for now.

I drew the basic structure of trees and branches using a small round brush and a reddish brown colour. Don't worry too much about how it looks, you can add details later on. This is just for a basic guide so that we can know where the crown and leaves will be appearing.

Then, I painted the crown of the trees with various warm fall colours. I used red, orange, yellow, dark green and light green. The dark green that I have is on the cooler side of the colour wheel as it is closer to cobalt green. So, I mixed some brown and black to make it a warmer and a darker shade of green. I also mixed and played around the colours of red, orange, green and brown to see what I like best.

I added more colours on top of the first layer. The branches did look less visible as I painted over them but it is alright. A little tip is to keep the bottom part of the crown darker and the top part lighter.

I wanted to change the appearance of one of the trees to make the crown appear larger with a shape close to an inverted cone. Hence, I added some red, orange and brown over the green that is in the background. If you change your mind on similar details of your painting, you can do the same. If it is not working very well, use the lifting technique to lift the paint on the area you would like to change. Just take a clean wet brush and paint over the part that you would like to change. Then, quickly use a tissue to absorb the paint in the area. Let it dry and then you can paint on it the way you normally would. I also drew some branches on the biggest tree just to see how it would look like in the end. After that, I added some diluted green on the ground.

I added more lighter and darker shades wherever I thought it is necessary to add more dimension to the trees. I also painted on the ground with some light green mixed with some golden brown to make it a warmer shade of green. I added more yellow and used a tapping motion gently on the areas where I wanted my highlights to be. I also used the darker shades such as red, brown and dark green mixed with some black for my shadowy areas.

I waited for it to dry and then I added some branches and twigs on the crown of the tree. I also added more details on the tree trunks so that they appear more defined.

This was not a part of my plan for this artwork, but I decided to add the reflection of the trees on the surface of the river. In order to do that, I used the lifting technique to activate and lift some of the blue paint off the river. This is so that the paints don't get mixed up and turn muddy when I add the other colours. So, I used a clean wet brush and painted over the parts I wanted my reflection to be and quickly used a tissue to absorb the excess paint.

I added the reflection of the trees on the surface of river. I painted the reflection in a wiggly style because I am going for a flowing river.

I made more wiggly motion on the reflection. Then, I painted the rest of the river in a more vibrant shade of blue with less water mixed so that it will be a little more saturated compared to the previous layer. By the way, the sky blue seemed too light so mixed some dark blue which had an appearance close to phthalo blue. I added a slightly darker shade of blue on the edges to create a border and so the river will appear to have some depth. At last, I added shadows to the fall trees positioned in the front area to complete the artwork. I hope that you enjoyed reading this tutorial and I will be more than happy if it is helpful to you. Thank you for reading and happy painting!

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I'm a chill, happy go lucky person. I am a feminist. I love food, art, books, numbers, psychology and occult science. I am in the process of healing and diving into spirituality. I think life is a gift and we should appreciate the little things of life more. Everything that I post is a little piece of my life. I believe that everyone is carrying their own cross, so don't judge anyone and be kind!

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