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Don Andrews UNDER THE UMBRELLA THORN TREE
“UNDER THE UMBRELLA THORN TREE” is one of the few paintings I’ve done where the trees are the main focus of the painting. It was painted as a wedding gift for my son and daughter-in-law who were married in Kruger Park, South Africa. In the vast majority of my landscape paintings trees are relegated to a supporting role rather than the main character. Most of the time trees are used to help describe location and show off other more dominant objects, not call attention to themselves.
But trees are busy, detailed objects, and busy detailed objects are visually demanding. When we paint all the many light and dark details seen in the tree trunk, branches and leaves, the painted trees call for too much attention. Each detail becomes a distraction by pulling your eye away from more important objects in your painting. The good news is, with a better understanding of how to describe trees as support characters, trees are easy to paint and will be a positive addition in your art work.
“Under the Umbrella Thorn Tree” 140# Arches cold-press 22”x30”
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the New Palette #63
Here lies the problem. The overall shape of the scrub oak is handsome but our eyes are drawn to
the multitude of busy lights and darks in the body of the tree.
LOOK AT THE SILHOUETTE Like most things in life the key to success is simplicity. First, I study the trees’ outer silhouette shape. The silhouette is the trees’ simplest form, it tells anatomy, species and location, in other words, the silhouette tells us what kind of tree it is and where it’s located.
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Once the silhouette is captured I then add darker values of the same colors in the shadows, and if necessary, paint a few leaf textures along the outside edges, a branch or two and the job is done.
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MAKE TREE SYMBOLS With a one inch flat or large round brush (I highly recommend American Journey brushes, they’re great!) I paint a tree symbol with as few strokes as possible. I try to interpret the tree silhouette into a symbol that explains the most basic information. This is a fir tree, so the symbol I paint is
large, simple and easy to identify. Rather than painting the trees many busy details, I paint a silhouette symbol that mimics a particular kind of tree. Then I add the trunk, branches and shadow shapes and if I need light holes or leaves at all, they are minimized.
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the New Palette #63 RULE NUMBER ONE Never paint a tree in your painting that you would cut down if it were growing in your front yard! There are lots of beautiful trees no matter where you go, but consider there are lots of ugly ones out there too.
You’re never obligated to paint reality if there are trees with poor shapes or other problems where you set up your easel or are in your photograph. Look around first and find some handsome ones around or behind you. Chances are no one is going to take your painting to the painting location to see if you got the trees right!
The barn perched on the hill along the California However, just across the road was a beautiful Coast appealed to me as a painting subject but the stand of Cypress trees. “Winding Road....” below is lone tree near the barn doesn’t have a definitive shape. my painting combining the two elements above.
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“Winding Road on the California Coast” 140# Arches cold-press 15”x22”
the New Palette #63 SHADOWS UNITE
Shadows link trees to the ground and to other objects in the picture plane. Allow the color and value painted in the shadows on the underside of the tree and trunk to continue as shadow shapes on the ground and into other objects in the scene. This
continuous shadow linkage welds the trees to the other objects which establish unity. Don’t be honest with shadow shapes; make them go where you want. Oblique, interestingly thicker and thinner shadow shapes unify the objects in your painting.
OVERLAP TREE SHAPES
We seldom see one tree completely standing alone. Rather than painting separate individual trees’ paint groupings where one tree shape overlaps another. These overlapped shapes suggest a stand of
trees that are simple and unified. Then with a deeper value of the same colors go back and darken a few of the closer ones and your tree stand will take on a three dimensional quality. See painting on page 8.
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the New Palette #63
“Joe’s Country” 140 # Arches cold-press 15”x 22” (Overlapping tree shapes)
Detail of overlapped tree shapes
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the New Palette #63 TREE TRUNKS It’s hard to paint a tree trunk too thick. They look good thick and the thicker you paint them the better they look. On the other hand, you can sure paint them too thin. They become boring geometric fishing poles. Did you know a palm tree with a dramatically crooked trunk is more expensive than a straight one, why? Because the crooked trunk has more character, it’s more visually interesting.
All art is exaggeration. Try dramatically exaggerating the girth of the tree trunks you’re painting, each one a readably different width creating visual tension. This tension is amplified when the distances or negative spaces between the trunks is obviously unequal. An artist is a story teller, not a reporter. We alter, exaggerate, change and invent our own reality, that’s where the fun is. Remember, Mark Twain said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
“Margie and Louis at My Beach” 140# Arches cold-press 22”x 30”
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the New Palette #63 ARE ALL TREES GREEN?
Consider identifying an object by its shape not its color. Don’t reach for Hooker’s Green just because you’re about to paint trees. You want the trees to blend in, not stand out from the other elements in your painting. If your painting is dominantly warm yellows, violets and grays, incorporate these colors when painting the trees. Because you’re making tree
shapes with these warm colors the viewer will easily identify these shapes as trees. If you want to paint trees green, mix the greens with the blues and yellows you have used in other areas of your painting, and make sure the mixed green color you’re using in the trees is repeated elsewhere to establish balance and unity.
“Paradise Found” 140# Arches cold-press 11”x 15” The colors used in the palm trees are repeated in the background rocky shore and the foreground plants and flowers. My goal was unity, not honesty.
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the New Palette #63 PAINTING TREES
“Quiet Mood” Arches 140# cold-press 15”x 22”
Trees have a specific job to do or a role to play in your painting. That job is almost always support. They help identify location and enhance other objects.
Painting silhouette symbols with a minimum of detail, using the colors echoed in the rest of the landscape, make trees easy to paint and they become a useful asset in your landscape painting.
ABOUT DON
Don Andrews is a nationally known watercolor artist and workshop instructor. He is a graduate of Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and a resident of Bastrop, Texas. Don is an active member and past Board Director of the American Watercolor Society. His paintings have received numerous awards in national watercolor competitions including three awards from the American Watercolor Society. Don has conducted painting workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe for over 30 years. Don is the author of the books, “Interpreting the Figure in Watercolor”, “Interpreting the Landscape in Watercolor” and “Rough Sketches: Short Stories of a Traveling Artist”. He has also created two DVD sets that follow his figure and landscape workshop curriculum. Don is featured in the Watson Guptill publication “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Watercolor” and the Northlight book, “Confident Color”. He has had numerous feature articles published in American Artist magazine and the Watercolor issue of American Artist. Don is currently working on a new set of videos exploring design possibilities in landscape painting titled “Designing Nature” due out in 2018.
If you or your group would like to schedule a three, four or five day workshop please contact Don at: 512-629-7003 Email: donandrewsaws@yahoo.com Website: www.DonAndrewsStudio.com
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