Part two of things it took me ages to work out A simple tree

So today is a day we don't see, very often a day we wait 4 years for.

I read these words from the amazing poet Donna Ashworth this morning and they resonated.

Donna Ashworth

So as February turns into March, and hopefully here in the UK the darkest days are behind us, look out for sparks of joy....

Spring flowers bursting into bloom

And here is another little tip ...

Do you remember last week  I showed you how to paint a wave?

Well, today I'm going to show you how I paint a tree and you can use these trees in the background perhaps on  a hill far away. You could do them in one colour if you wanted them to look a long way away, and obviously change the size according to where they are in the landscape .Anyway, this is how I paint a very simple tree.

I've chosen colours to show spring growth because I'm hoping spring isn't very far away, but you can use autumnal colours. Different greens, different shapes of tree. This is just a simple technique that I use a lot.

The paper is dry. I get some paint on to my brush on this piece. There is lemon yellow and a tiny bit of sap green mixed together. I then hold my brush horizontally and sort of roll it over the paper to get these lovely jagged edges that look like foliage.

And while that's still wet. I pop in some darker green which I make with. sap green and a drop of Indigo and a tiny tiny bit of red. I always add a tiny spot of red to my greens to knock them back a bit.

So can you see how wet the foliage is. A tap a bit of water on the top so you've got the light hitting the top, then it's darker underneath.

Then I wet the line that the tree is going to grow out of and join the two up with some burnt umber. And that makes it look like the trees growing out of the ground.

Add a few or as many branches as you like, but remember there behind the foliage and in amongst the foliage that you wouldn't see every bit of the branch.

And there you go more magic, you have a little tree.