06-13-2011, 10:39 PM
Now stipple medium olive onto a tree. Start with one of the trees that seems to be behind the others. Leave some of the tree trunk showing through. Here, we are working on the tree in the red box.
Use the hair dryer, then stipple light olive, starting at the top and working down. This is where the proper stippling technique is crucial. You want tiny little spots representing leaves. Also, the lighter colors should mainly be where the sun would hit. What we are creating is the shadows and highlights - the areas in bright sun, and the areas in dark shade. Study photos of real trees. Go out and view nature, and take photos. Print them out and study them. Not saying I have got this stuff down to a tee, but I'm getting there (I hope).
Continue on to other trees, varying the colors, even mix some paint together to create new colors. Always use the hair dryer when changing colors, otherwise the backdrop becomes a mass of a monotonous color.
Here's a photo of stippling, lightly dabbing a loaded brush onto the backdrop. Go straight in, perpendicular to the backdrop.
Added more lighter stippling up around the top areas. The trees left of the red line is finished. As you can see, another possibility would be to do minimal extra stippling, as the right side of the red line looks somewhat acceptable for more sparsely leaved trees.
Further away:
Will also take a black wash and darken the tree trunks quite a bit. I'll still be putting some bushes along the lower section, so this area is not complete yet.
Use the hair dryer, then stipple light olive, starting at the top and working down. This is where the proper stippling technique is crucial. You want tiny little spots representing leaves. Also, the lighter colors should mainly be where the sun would hit. What we are creating is the shadows and highlights - the areas in bright sun, and the areas in dark shade. Study photos of real trees. Go out and view nature, and take photos. Print them out and study them. Not saying I have got this stuff down to a tee, but I'm getting there (I hope).
Continue on to other trees, varying the colors, even mix some paint together to create new colors. Always use the hair dryer when changing colors, otherwise the backdrop becomes a mass of a monotonous color.
Here's a photo of stippling, lightly dabbing a loaded brush onto the backdrop. Go straight in, perpendicular to the backdrop.
Added more lighter stippling up around the top areas. The trees left of the red line is finished. As you can see, another possibility would be to do minimal extra stippling, as the right side of the red line looks somewhat acceptable for more sparsely leaved trees.
Further away:
Will also take a black wash and darken the tree trunks quite a bit. I'll still be putting some bushes along the lower section, so this area is not complete yet.