A Brush With Art.pdf

Exeter QuayPainting treesExeter Quay presented me with an excellentopportunity to paint two of my favouritewatercolour subjects: trees and water. 1 lovepainting trees but I know they worry a lot ofpeople, so let's have a look at how to paint themsimply. I've shown you how to paint them in themiddle distance, not close up. Like all subjects,you must observe them carefully in order to drawand simplify them.One golden rule to follow when you aredrawing or painting trees without leaves (seeFig. A) is to always work from the bottom of thetree upwards and outwards in the naturaldirection that the branches grow. Branches getthinner as they reach the top, so never start at thetop of a branch and work downwards. A naturalbrush stroke starts thick (because a full brush putsmost paint on to the paper and you use mostpressure when you first apply the brush). As youfinish the stroke, it gets thinner, particularly asyou start to relax pressure just before you lift thebrush off the paper.When you are painting trees in leaf (see Fig.B), let your brush strokes follow the fall of theleaves. Don't try to copy every branch or leaf - it'simpossible - aim for a feeling of character andshape. It's the overall impression of the tree thatyou are trying to achieve.62