Draw a preliminary sketch before you apply any paint.
Techniques for a pine tree background in an oil painting use the most of the medium's luminous quality and versatility. According to Susan Jones of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, artists in the Netherlands began to adopt the medium in the fifteenth century and then it spread to the rest of Europe. Different techniques help each artist compose the overall painting.
Background
Paint the pine tree background, which is the top third of the painting, first. After you sketch the overall composition, apply paint to the sky, which is at the very top of the canvas. Start with a blue color and add any clouds. Consider the colors of the distant background which is below the sky. Add brown to the pine tree trunks and branches, and then add green to the pine needles. Work over a first layer over the background and add some details before working on the rest of the painting. After you work on the foreground layer, go back and glaze the background to bring out the richness of the pine trees.
Blocking
Applying paint in large sections all over the canvas creates an overall color plan. Blocking in color is considered by some artists to be an efficient way to bring unity to an oil painting. A larger brush is utilized and basic colors are added in one thin layer everywhere on the canvas. Some artists block using only warm tones, which are reds and oranges, and cool tones, which are blues and violets, rather than the final paint colors. Decide if the pine trees in the background are warm or cool tones. Cool tones typically recede to the back, while warm tones pop out of a painting. Use larger brushstrokes to form your trees and any sky, and add turpentine to the paint to thin it out.
Foreground
Another technique to paint a pine tree background is to work on the foreground first, which is the bottom and center area of the canvas. By figuring out the first few layers of the foreground, an artist understands how subtle or bold the background needs to be to create the overall composition. Paint the basic shapes and colors of the main focal point first and let it lead to working on the pine tree background. After it is all painted, go back and add glazes or more oil paints.
Considerations
Most oil paintings only use preliminary sketches and drawings as a guide. Paintings take on their own personalities once an artist starts to apply paint. The first layers use more paint thinner or turpentine and the subsequent layers must use more oil from the paint itself or from glazes. Otherwise, the painting will crack. The different techniques are personal styles and each has its own merits. All painters need to step back from their canvases every so often to be sure the overall composition is working for the painting. Oil painting is slow drying, which allows artists to make any necessary changes during the painting process.
