Use illusions to paint realistic-looking evergreen trees.
Painting evergreen trees with any kind of paint is a similar process. The key to producing realistic-looking trees is not to paint the trees exactly how they look, but rather to give the illusion of a well-formed tree. The easiest way to do this is to use a dark color of paint and a fan brush to create the trees. Depending on the other colors in the paint, you can make the trees black, green, blue, purple or even yellow. Experiment with colors and techniques on a scrap canvas or paper to perfect the technique before painting trees onto the actual painting.
Instructions
1. Mix about one third blue, one third black and one third green paint to make the best color for evergreen trees.
2. Load a lot of paint on about half of the brush. Draw a long thin line down the canvas or page. Shake the brush a little as you make the line to give the illusion of bark on the tree.
3. Leave a small section of exposed trunk at the top of the tree before you start making branches. Stipple the corner of the brush down the line to simulate branches of an evergreen tree. Start with small pushes with the brush, then gradually make the dots wider to make the triangle tree shape. Leave space between some branches for a realistic-looking tree.
4. Overlap the bottoms of the trees to make a forest. Don't make all of the lines straight, as not all trees grow straight up and down, especially on a hill or in a forest. Go over any sections of the tree with some more paint if you feel the brush coverage is too thin.
5. Add some highlighting to the trees with a gold-colored paint. Use the same motion you did to make the branches themselves, but only apply the gold paint along the tree where the light from the painting would hit, such as all along the left side of the trees. You can also add a few tiny brown dots for pine cones.
