This is the second part of my Christmas Tissue Box post.  Painting the Evergreens.

This is to show you how I paint little Evergreen trees.  (Remember, I’m no artist)  There are several ways that I do them & I’ll show you how.  These are easier to paint than you might think.  This is along the lines of folk art & they are never perfect. (Nothing in nature is perfect)  These are meant to be fun, & if you mess it up, it’s just paint, paint over it and start over again.

First Tree

The first tree is made by using a fan brush.  This is one of my favorite brushes because it does so many things.

Dip your brush into the green paints, and paint off any excess paint from the brush, using the plate.  You want a lighter coat of paint on the bristles to get a more defined stroke.

These trees are made by holding the brush so that the fan is up & down, then slightly turning the brush towards the top.

Here you can see the way the strokes are curved towards the top.

Do the same on the other side of the tree.

A view of how the brush is held.

Once the tree is finished, you’ll want to add the snow.  Just add some white paint to the very tips of the fan brush.

Using the brush with the white on the tips of the bristles, go over your green strokes.  This adds the snow to the ‘branches’.

Repeat on all of your trees.

First tree done.  On to the next!

Second Tree

Make a base for your tree using a brown paint.  And no, it doesn’t have to be perfect.  This is just to give you some direction for the next step.

Using the fan brush again, make little strokes on each branch to make the needles.

Keep adding needles to the branches until all of the branches are covered.  Then add a few strokes to the tree trunk base to imitate grass.

Now for the snow.  Add white paint to the very tips of the fan brush.

Now go over the green stokes that you just added.  This is my favorite tree, as you’ll see in another project that I’m working on.  That’s to come later & I think you’ll want to try it.

Third Tree

This one is probably the easiest one to make.  All you need is some green paint, some white paint & a flat brush.

Dip one corner of the brush into the green paint & the other corner of the brush into the white paint.

Now, stroke the brush on the plate to blend the colors, going forward & back down, but make sure that you keep the same colors on the same side of the brush.

Next, with the white side of the brush facing the bottom, make little C strokes.

Once you have the base as wide as you want it, make a second layer of C Strokes, just a little smaller in width than the first row.  Add more paint to the brush as needed.

Repeat with more rows of C Strokes until you get to where you want your top to be.

Adding the top, make a tiny C stroke with the white on the top, then add a C stroke to just under that with the white on the bottom.

He looked lonely, so I gave him a friend.

Fourth Tree

Using a detail brush, and the same paint that you used in the above tree, give the tree a trunk

Load your detail brush with green paint on one side & white paint on the other side, make sideways strokes.  Keep the white side of the brush towards the bottom & make each stroke slightly smaller that the previous stroke, until you’ve reached the top of you tree.

There isn’t much detail in this kind of tree, but it does make a nice filler tree.

Next post is an easy way to make snow people.

Happy Creating everyone!