Learn The Tricks to Painting Digital Trees!

Painting digital trees can be easy or hard depending on how comfortable you are with your digital art program. While I can not teach you what optimal settings to use since each program is slightly different, I can teach you what to look for.

If you have a serious digital art program, then then chances are likely you will have the settings needed to paint the trees. If not, you can always do it manually (not that there is anything wrong with that).

The tree can be easily done in three layers or so. You need one for the trunk, the leaves in the back, and the leaves in the front. It's a simple setup but will help you focus on creating your trees without much hassle.

Are you ready to get started?

1. The trunk phase

The first step, for painting digital trees, is to set up the trunk. The trunk gives an outline of the entire shape of the tree. Basically, where the branches are, that is where the leaves are.

So on your first layer, start to paint the trunk with your digital brushes. For now, focus on the shape of the trunk and how each of the branches will evolve from it. As you reach the top of the tree, spread the branches out.

You can use angular lines or smooth lines. The goal is to make random and natural divisions. Careful of patterns! Our minds tend to want to do each section in a similar pattern. However, we do not want patters. We want natural and random branches.

Once the branches are done, you can work on shadowing and texture. I would focus on the bottom half of the trunk since the top half will be covered by the leaves.

2. The background leaves phase

This is where painting digital trees can be quick/fun or slow/time consuming. The latter being not able to take advantage of your digital program and doing every section manually. Having said that, hopefully, you have played with your brush settings enough to notice there is usually a scatter option.

What the scatter option does is break up your designated brush shape and scatters them around an area. To control it, I recommend setting the scatter to your pen's pressure sensitivity so you can control how much is scattered in one direction.

With that in mind, begin painting the leaves on a new layer behind your trunk layer. Depending on your tree type, it would be nice to leave a few open white spots. In other words, don't always fill in a whole bunch of leaves. Think about the trees in the natural world.

Other neat things you can do is set the color variations to the brush sensitivity as well. Doing so will give a wide range of colors as well as the scattering effect. You can use this opportunity to preserve the layer's transparency and begin working on simple light and shadow.

3. The foreground leaves phase

First, begin a new layer. Second, select a lighter color than your background leaves. This will give the illusion of depth. Focus most of the new patches near the top of the tree. It is this area that where most of the light will hit. The background tree layer will give a suggestion of where the light can not enter.

Try not to paint the whole tree whenever possible. Hence, you have to be reserved. You should leave more white spots compared to your background leaves. What you should be focusing on is where the branches bundle up. More branches means more leaves.

At the same time, adding more leaves to a non branched area suggests there are branches there that are covered or can't be seen due to the current perspective. Try to be a bit creative.

4. The finishing touches

Painting digital trees in its final steps require a good eye and imagination. Since 80% of the work is done already, your next task is to refine what you have left.

That means doing more leaves, if necessary, to fill out unnatural spots. Use your eraser and set the scattering options in that to create more natural white patches. If need be, use any type of sharpening tools to highlight the edges of the leaves. You can even redo or refine some of the branches that are showing.

Aren't you glad you did this on separate layers? Doing so gives each access so you can work on the individual elements to add to the bottom line.

Perhaps you can think about the background as well. How will your tree interact with the background? Remember to preserve the transparencies of the layers so you can work on lighting and shadow to create the perfect ambiance.

The rest is up to your imagination and using the basic skill foundations you have developed over time. Good luck and I hope that you will enjoy learning and practicing the basic guidelines that this lesson has laid out!

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