Painting Lesson : Painting a Green Tree

Green trees, huh? Sounds easy... all you have to do is slap on some green paint & you're there. You look at the forest you're painting. Only colors you see are green & brown. So you paint the painting green & brown & you end up with a muddy, blotchy mess that has no depth & looks nothing like a forest scene.
First mistake - you may only see green & brown, but there have got to be some other colors in there - red, blue, black are safe bets - and trees generally have yellowish highlights somewhere. So emphasize these, not just greens.

You can't see the forest if you can't see the trees. The trick is, not every tree, just a few. Paint in layers, blurring an individual tree in and out of focus, merging it with its neighbors. Use negative painting (outline the object you're painting with a wash).

Good green tree pigments: Aureolin Quinacridone Gold Pthalo Green Pthalo Blue Ultramarine Blue Burnt Sienna Use these only as possibilities - don't let your imagination have boundaries!