Painting Trees en mass

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Painting a large mass of trees can be difficult and confusing to the beginner. It is easier to do when you develop the pattern of tree shapes as you process through the mass of trees. You will begin to see areas of dark, light. and mid tone values and it also helps if you get a good feel for the changes in color temperature in the tree masses. Here in the south it also helps to use the Spanish Moss and large tree limbs and trunks as markers throughout the painting to give you an idea of where you are. It is easy to be completely overwhelmed by the various shades of green and multiple shapes and values, so it's a good idea to do a couple of value maps of the scene before you begin. Here in Florida you are liable to see this kind of scenery everywhere, dense, jungles of various textures and lots of subtle differences in color temperatures throughout.

One thing to be careful of is not overdeveloping the sky and land mass around the trees unless you want to negate the trees as the area of interest. Since the tree masses were the area of interest for me in this scene, I left the grasses very simple, and muted the cloud formations in the sky.