Good Wednesday morning and welcome to the CLASSroom. Hey, look at me! No dies anywhere to be seen. For my project today I challenged myself to create a freehand tree with watercolor pencils. I searched on Google and found How to Paint a Tree with Watercolor Pencils on the Paint Academy You Tube channel. I was intrigued and thought I would give it a try. I was fearful about doing this tutorial for the CLASSroom because I have never been good with colored pencils. I figured you wouldn’t mind following along with me to see what could come up with. My tree is nowhere as detailed as the tree in the video but I have to admit I was more than surprised that it was even presentable. I couldn’t quite figure out how to get clear leaf details so I used a “scribble technique”. LOL!
Begin by drawing in a faint tree trunk and then applying the lightest green color to form the outline of the tree.
Apply a medium green to fill in spaces.
Apply a darker green to fill in.
Choose a dark blue green and fill in to create more shading and depth.
Finish the darker shading using a purple pencil.
Fill in the blank spaces of the tree using a bright yellow/green pencil. Apply more the light color on the right side of the tree.
Fill in a portion of the trunk using a brown pencil.
Sketch in a few branches in the lighter sections of the tree using the brown pencil.
Apply dark violet to create the shady side of the trunk.
Apply dark yellow to fill in the trunk.
Using a medium wet brush I lightly brushed over the tree image to wet the color to create a painted appearance.
I tried to be careful about over blending the darker colors into the lighter colors and creating a murky
My final step was to scribble green pencil on the ground area. Looking back I probably should have tried to add a bit of shadow on the ground area on the darker side of the tree. Maybe I’ll do be next try.
I finished by layering my picture on brown and green cardstock and adding Julie’s “no words” sentiment from the Essentials by Ellen Lovely set.
Thanks for joining me today and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Card size: 5 inch square
