The following techniques on painting should help you to create beautiful artwork. I suggest that you practice on something other than your final painting. A pad of canvas paper works great for practice space. Yes, you will make mistakes and paintings that you simply are not happy with. The goal of this article is to give you some techniques on painting so that you can make fewer of those mistakes and that you will love all of your paintings! You'll find as you practice just how easy it is to make images using acrylic paints and a brush.
Tips for painting trees
When painting trees and tree branches, I first use a round brush to paint in the main trunk; then I use a smaller brush to add branches and finally a script liner to add the smallest branches. Some of the branches should overlap each other. If you are adding leaves or foliage, do not stress over the branches because many of them will be covered up anyways. Always remember that you are painting the "indication" of items in a painting. So when it comes to branches, just paint the indication of them!
To paint pine trees, use a fan brush. Start by holding the fan brush vertically to dab in the trunk of the tree. One reason that I do this is so that I have a nice vertical point to base my tree on. Then use the flat side of the fan brush to dab in branches. The branches do not need to be even or symmetrical and will actually look unreal if they are too perfect.
Other techniques on painting nature
To paint rocks, start with a solid under-painting. Purples, blues, and some burnt sienna or browns work well. Round the tops of the rocks and keep the bases flat. Now with a dirty white color, paint over some of the under-painting. Let some of the dark show through. You can add just a tiny touch of orange or yellows for highlights as well.
Painting birds requires nothing more than a small amount of paint on a small detail brush and then small, v-shaped objects. Because these birds are often added as finishing detail to the background, the birds themselves do not require much detail at all. They can be made using whatever blend of colors complements the picture you are painting
For dew or rain drops, with a color slightly lighter than the petal or leaf, paint an oval. This will be the center of the drop. With a color slightly darker than the petal or leaf, paint a half moon in the top portion of the oval and a half moon under the oval. With pure white add just a touch of highlight on the top of the oval. On the drops that are just about to drip, do not paint the bottom oval. With pure white, pull down a couple tiny little rays of light.
When painting grass, under-paint the area where you will have the grass in a darker shade of green. Fill your brush with the green paint and use upward brush strokes. Use your No. 10 or No. 6 bristle brush. Add individual blades of grass in a lighter green shade (mix green with white or yellow to attain your desired color) and use a thinner brush or script brush to paint in blades of grass using upward strokes.
To add shadows: whenever you are painting a picture, even if there is no sun or light source represented in the painting, you need to consider what direction the light would be coming from. The surfaces of the objects in your paintings that would be hit by the light should be lighter, while the parts of the object in shadow should be darker.
These are just a few techniques on painting and painting tips that may help you develop wonderful artwork. I hope your paintings benefit from it.
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