I need tips on texturing leaves on trees for an oil piantin?

Question

I need tips on texturing leaves on trees for an oil piantin, preferably not Pine Needles, looking more at oak. Anyone else that uses oil on canvas offer some good advice. Distance of trees varries, but the ones i am looking to texture are about 15 yards away.

Answer 1

Here is a home I painted…
http://www.jrcenterprises.homestead.com/Harris.html

Paint the tree trunk and branches etc to set the structure of the tree… This gives you the patterns to follow for how to lay out your leaves… You don’t need to paint a LOT of branches or even the WHOLE branch.

Take black paint and mix it with a little prussian blue to make it a true black… Paint blotches of blacks in the correct flow of the leaves. (If you ever study a tree you notice there is quite a lot of light that flows through the leaves and branches usually. Also the leaves have a somewhat elliptical ark to the flow.

After the black dries a bit, (almost to the touch), or if it is a stiff black that can be painted over easily without cleaning your brush a lot. Then go over some of the black areas with a sap green with a TAD bit of yellow hue.. Usually I do this with a small brush depending on the canvas size etc… You want to leave some light coming through unless it is a VERY thick tree…

After the green/yellow mixture add a little more yellow to the mixture and highlight only some of the areas of the leaves or areas where light might be reflecting or coming through…


If this is more of a traditional style of painting you want to do then make sure to add some of your sky colour to all the mixtures above.. This takes a little practice but adds more harmony to the overall painting…. Linseed oil can be used to fatten the paints up etc…. But slows drying time..

Answer 2

Using a pointed round brush, dab on paint that has no medium mixed with it to get a nice raised texture. Your underneath layer should be the darkest, then move up to middle value and highlights last - this will make them look 3-dimensional.

Experiment with a stiff fan brush and a ragged flat brush too, til you get the texture just right.

Remember, more detail in the foreground, less in the background.

Have fun!

Answer 3

Alternate the brushes that you use to help create texture in your work, giving it more of a sense of depth. You can also add to this by waiting for the initial paint to dry slightly and painting over some of what you've already painted, creating multiple layers.

Answer 4

Hmmmmm I wish I could help