ColourCraft: Autumn Trees by Rebecca Yoxall

Hey everyone!

Hope you are well on this fine Friday. I absolutely love the colour of Autumn trees and couldn't resist creating this Brusho painting.

Painting trees is so easy with Brusho, it lends itself perfectly for the wonderful copper, gold and scarlet leaf colours.

Using a sheet of good quality watercolour paper I drew out the trunk and main branches of the tree on the right hand side and suggested at distant trees, a field and water in the foreground.

I also wanted to make sure to keep lots of light through the foliage so decided to use wax resist. I drew with a wax stick in scribbles through the tree and added some grasses in the foreground as well as down the left hand side of the tree trunk. These will show up in later pictures.

Using a spray bottle I gently covered the foliage area of the tree with water and began sprinkling the Brusho directly on the paper. I used Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Orange, Crimson and Purple.

Just a small amount of each colour so that plenty of white paper can still be seen.

I then made a diluted mixture of Yellow Ochre and Light Brown Brusho in a palette and using a small round brush I painted in the distant trees and the field in a smooth wash.

I used even more water to paint in the foreground and then once again sprinkled Brusho directly onto the wet area. I used Light Brown and Dark Brown.

Once the paper was dry I used Cobolt Blue to paint in the sky and the small pond area.

Only a small amount of Brusho is needed to create a soft gentle shade of blue.

I also painted another layer in the foreground. It is here you can now see the drawn wax lines for grasses.

I mixed up Dark Brown Brusho on my palette with a little crimson and coasted the trunk of the tree continuing up to develop some of the larger branches. Whilst this wash was still damp I painted a yellow on the left side of the trunk to further enhance the effect of light.

Smaller branches were added using a fine brush or rigger brush, placing them in between areas of foliage to create the impression of intertwining around the leaves.