Tree Painting Bundle – Watercolor & Mixed Media

🌳 Two Ways to Paint Trees

A watercolor bundle for both structure and expressive freedom. Includes Tree Class (November 2024) + Colorful Trees (Prerecorded Class)

This special bundle brings together two distinct and complementary classes, each centered on the beauty and energy of trees — one grounded in careful structure, the other in playful color and texture.

🍂 Colorful Trees

This recorded class from the essentials course “Watercolor and Mixed Media Sketching” — now available as a stand-alone module.

Ready to explore watercolor in a fun, expressive way? In this vibrant class, we’ll play with flowing paint, bold textures, and joyful color palettes—while learning essential artistic tools that will serve you far beyond this one project.

This module is all about painting trees—but not in the usual way. You’ll create two versions of semi-abstract trees, each in a different color scheme, using spraying, sprinkling, and flowing paint to bring your compositions to life.

In this semi-abstract class, you’ll explore bold brushwork, granulated paints, and flowing textures. We work with expressive techniques like splashes, sprinkles, and layering, while building compositions based on the Golden Ratio. You’ll paint two large artworks using different color harmonies and learn how to create strong contrast through both tone and texture.

This class is designed to open up your creative process and help you paint with more freedom and confidence.

🌿 What You’ll Learn:

• Composition with the Golden Ratio
  You’ll start with mini-compositional sketches and discover how to use the Golden Ratio to create balanced, dynamic paintings.
• Color & Texture Contrast
  We’ll explore granulating watercolors and the difference between opaque and transparent paints—key tools for expressive, textured landscapes.
• Techniques That Set You Free
  Learn how to make dynamic lines using just your brush, plus create beautiful textures with spraying, splashing, and sprinkling.
• Color Harmony & Final Project
  Once you’ve explored tools and techniques, you’ll choose your palette and bring your colorful tree painting to life—with my full guidance, step by step. 

✦ My Teaching Approach:

I share my entire thinking and painting process step by step, so you not only see how to paint a tree—but also why I make each decision. My goal is to help you become more confident in your own process, giving you the skills and mindset to paint trees that feel personal, natural, and expressive.

🌳 Tree Class

In this recorded live class, we explore the beauty and structure of trees through expressive watercolor and mixed media. I guide you through my full creative process—from observation and composition to final painting—so you can confidently paint trees with texture, volume, and character.

My goal in this class is not just to teach techniques, but to show you how I think, decide, and paint, so you can develop your own approach and create personal, expressive tree paintings from both reference and imagination.

✦ What’s Included:

Total Duration: 3 hours

We create 4 small studies + 1 large final artwork.

Part 1: Understanding Trees & Finding Composition

We begin with exploring how to paint different tree types:

 • How to observe and simplify various tree trunk shapes.

 • How to plan a strong composition, including the use of the golden ratio for balance and visual flow.

 • Sketching and compositional planning to prepare for painting.

Part 2: Tree Studies – Techniques & Practice

We create 4 small watercolor studies (A4 / 8x10”):

 • Practice different types of tree trunks and how to express their volume and texture.

 • Learn to use watercolor techniques, fountain pens, drawing pens, and watercolor pencils for layered, mixed media effects.

 • Explore contrast, edges, line work, and color to make your trees feel natural and three-dimensional.

Part 3: Final Improvisational Painting – Large Artwork

We end the class with a larger final painting (A3 / 12x16”):

 • Apply everything you’ve learned in an expressive, improvisational session.

 • Watch how I bring together composition, texture, and mixed media effects in real time.

 • See how I stay loose and confident while still making intentional decisions.

✦ Core Techniques You’ll Learn:

 • Painting a variety of tree forms and textures with confidence.

 • Using composition principles like the golden ratio to structure your artwork.

 • Creating volume and depth using watercolor and drawing tools together.

 • Developing a loose but intentional painting style.

 • Making creative decisions throughout the process, from planning to finishing touches.

MATERIALS WE ARE GOING TO USE IN A CLASS: 

Paints:

Your usual watercolor paints set

Colors - complete freedom of creativity, the class is not limited to specific colors.

All the colors that I use could be replaced with others.

I would talk about and explain my general approach to colors choice and explain why it is not so important to have exactly the same colors.

However for your convenience you will find colors that I use almost in all my paintings in attached file after registration.

For the Colorful Trees:

Maple Tree (Tree n.1)

Analogous Color Harmony Transparent: Qiunacridone Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Dark Olive Green, Azo Yellow
Semi: Transparent: Olive Green
Opaque: Bismuth Yellow (DS), Spring Green 211 (Rockwell), Cadmium Orange

Autumnal Tree (Tree n.2)

Complementary Harmony
EM 225 and EM 407 for tree crown
Ultramarine Blue and Sepia for the trunks
Brown and Bluish Grey Granulated colors by Rockwell, while brown splits to couple of colors yellows, browns and oranges and also has grey cold particles in content.
You are welcome to use your choice of colors.
Important points you have to pay attention to:
• Check the mixes to be sure you get darkest dark tonal value in mix or as pure one of one of the colors.
• Check if you have both cold and warm colors or can make your colors warmer and colder.
• Check if you could get any kinds of neutrals or grays from the colors you've chosen 

EM 225 and EM 407 for tree crown could be replaced with any other paints with granulation

Brushes:

• A Hake brush with a wide soft hair for wetting the paper.
• Also your usual work kit: it is important that you have brushes that are convenient for you to work with in several sizes - both for large washes and for details
• It is advisable to have a liner brush with a small diameter and a long hair.
• It can be a classic liner or you could use Chinese calligraphy brushes of different sizes.

Paper:

• paper for sketching - you usual sketchbook or loose sheets (90-100 gsm for sketching)
• 4 sheets of watercolor paper 100% cotton cold press in size A4/ 9x12'' for quick studies and 3 larger sheets of the same paper - could be about 12x16'' /A3

Other tools:

• Water bowl x2
• Spray bottle with clean water
• Graphite pencil 2B/4B or charcoal for sketches and eraser
• Medium or coarse salt
• Fountain pen or liner pens
• Palette knife
• A piece of thick cardboard about 3x10 cm.
• Watercolor pencils in several natural shades - brown, gray, green.
• You don't need a lot, 3-4 pieces will be enough.
• (At class I would show both watercolor pencils and additional tools that can be used in work, but you definitely could work without them)
• It is also not necessary, but you can prepare a bamboo pen (a sharpened stick of bamboo sold in art stores) or replace it with a dry twig of a tree by sharpening it with a stationery knife.