Painting Aspen Trees

I was looking for more applications for the tissue paper texture technique I described in my last post.....thinking about what the texture reminded me of,..... when I thought tree bark.

So here is the result. Please click on the picture for a close up view.

Now you could easily vary the background and do it in a variety of mediums...pastel, colored pencil, colored paper collage..etc.

Here is this version.




Materials Required:

tissue textured paper as described in this post
watercolor paper
watercolor of tempera paint
paintbrush
scissors
glue
pencil
masking fluid (optional)






Prepare a tissue textured piece of watercolor paper following the directions in the previous post.


Let dry.










Turn over and draw some tree trunk shapes in pencil running down the length of the paper.

Now Aspen trunks tend to be narrow and fairly straight...no big curves.















Cut out your trunks.










Take a piece of watercolor paper for your background and tape off. Add a few pieces of tape to your tree trunk....this is just temporary so you can trace in where the trunk will be. Don't worry if the trunk is too long for your paper we'll deal with that.







Using pencil lightly trace where you have put your trunk...before you lift it off the paper....mark cutting lines at the top and bottom of the trunk. Trim to fit.







Also mark on the back of the tree its location and put a corresponding mark on the background. This makes it easier later on when you're gluing the trunks on the background.








Try to make a nice placement without them looking perfectly lined up....I placed them a little off kilter.











Paint your sky.







While the sky is drying I painted in my foreground...paint right over where the trees are going in. I also added some mask at this time..I wanted some aspen trees in the distance so I masked out some fine lines for the trunks.


Let dry.






While the background and mask is drying you can start painting your tree trunks...I placed 1/2 the trunk in shadow using some blue and brown mixed together.








Add some dark scarring on the trunk...some fine lines..make them a bit concave to depict the roundness of the trunk.








You can also add some splatter.

Click on picture for closer look.








I placed my trunk on the picture to get an idea of where I wanted some supplementary branches.






Make sure you carry the branch into the trunk area marked off on your background...you don't want to have any gaps.

When everything is dry you can remove the mask..add a little extra shading in the masked area if needed.

Remove the tape around the edges.

Now you are going to glue down your tissue textured tree trunks...say that fast 3 times!!!

I'm using tacky glue but you could also use acrylic gel medium. Do Not Use A Glue Stick...it won't stay stuck.

With the tacky glue I'm scraping it with an old plastic card to make sure I get it to the edges and only have a very thin layer.

Carefully put into position.

When your trunks are in place you can place a piece of wax paper over your painting......

And then place some books to compress it flat while it is drying.

That's it....I think it turned out pretty good...now I considering all the possibilities for this technique.

At school I can easily see myself doing this with the kids..I might just change the background.

Give it a go and I'll see you next time.

gail