Tree Technique: Acrylic Gouache
Paint an apple tree with me in Acrylic Gouache
Hello and I hope the new year is starting off great for you!
I just never felt like I was done with trees from November, so in today’s demo I’m going to show you how I painted an apple tree we found last fall while apple picking in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. I’ve added the image we are working from below. And you can find more tree reference images in black and white in the trees post from November!
This paint-along works for all levels, and we start out with a test of some color mixing and painting to warm up! It’s a 20-minute relaxing painting with no sketching so it can turn out in many different ways.
We first add some medium values, then follow up with lights and darks to mimic the light that can hit so many leaves at once and create the uneven and complex texture in a tree. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will respond :)
Materials (you can use any equivalents you have):
• Round brush #6 (I used Princeton Velvetouch)
• A small piece of mixed-media/watercolor/cardstock paper—The size of one page in my tree zine is 3.5” x 5.5” (pretty small!)
• D894 Primary White
• D139 Super Opaque Black
• D135 Sepia
• D131 Burnt Sienna
• D012 Vermilion
• D070 Leaf Green
• D061 Green
• D093 Cobalt Blue
Reference:
