Painting Trees in Gouache

I had to hastily paint a couple of birds for the next batch of birdwatching logbooks, and I find the whole process of committing to printing quite stressful! I have quite a quiet week this week now the PDFs are with the printer and it’s too late to make any more changes…

I came across a nice account on YouTube whilst scrolling for something new, and I saw a tutorial on painting autumn trees in gouache. I am rubbish at trees, and although Tina’s style is far more photorealistic than mine – a great attribute of gouache, by the way – I wanted to have a go, just as a distraction from the two solid days of peering at my computer screen and swearing.

My first attempt was really fun, although I misread the paint colour on the palette and the misty background came out far too dark. Gouache is slightly odd in that dark colours dry lighter and light colours dry darker, and what can look very slightly off-white when fresh, dries to a strong colour, and a deep brown can look quite soft and muted on the paper. This is the first time I have worked from light to dark though, and my first considered go at trees though, and it was so much fun to be absorbed, although I had to keep flitting back to the video.

Here is the reference image and my sketchbook page. The washi tape stuck, rather defeating the point of the crisp edge but hey ho.

Yesterday afternoon I took my dog out for a walk and decided to try some potential shots I could use as my own references, given that it’s autumn, and I’m fortunate to be able to walk along the most glorious leafy walk. I maxed the Vivid Warm filter and adjusted all the settings to make the photos suitably contrasty. I did my best to remember the techniques from the night before, and relaxed with a podcast or two as I worked so got quite flow-state-y which was lovely after a day of having to be really pernickety and precise.

I need to be braver with my contrast, and I could have gone with a brighter blue in the top left corner, but I so enjoyed it, and the nice thing about landscapes (as opposed to illustrations) is you can just make stuff up. I was going to add some more darks once I could see it in daylight but instead I am going to tackle another one this evening so I get more practise anyway.

Are you trying anything new at the moment?