A Simple Trick for Painting Beautiful Autumn Trees | Beginner Watercolor, by The joy of Art on YouTube. 10 min 5 s.
- Video length
- 10 min 5 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Tape your watercolor paper to a board or use a paper block so it stays flat and does not buckle when wet.
Mix a light yellow-orange wash and paint a soft band across the top third of the paper for the sky. Leave it to dry slightly.
Load a round brush with orange or red paint and tap or dab loose clusters where you want the tree crowns. Keep the shapes uneven.
While the paint is still damp, drop in a darker red or brown at the bottom edge of each crown so the color spreads and blends.
Add a few small gaps in each crown by lifting paint with a clean damp brush or a paper towel corner.
Paint thin brown trunks and branches from the bottom of each crown down toward the ground. Vary the height and angle.
Add a light green-brown wash along the bottom for grass, then dot in a few fallen leaves in orange and red.
Let the painting dry completely, then remove the tape slowly by pulling it away from the paper at a low angle.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep the paint wet enough to blend but not so wet that it runs off the crown shape.
Work on several trees at once so you can drop dark color into damp paint before it dries.
Test colors on a scrap of the same paper first, since watercolor looks lighter when dry.
Do not overwork a crown. A few dabs look more like leaves than many small strokes.
Questions
Do I need special watercolor paper?
Cold press watercolor paper handles water best. Thin drawing paper will buckle and the washes will not blend well.
How do I stop the trees looking like blobs?
Leave uneven edges and gaps in each crown, and vary the size and height of the trees. Add thin branches to break up the shape.
Can I use student-grade paints?
Yes. A basic set with yellow, orange, red, brown and blue is enough for this exercise.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
