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Acrylic Painting Tutorials

How to Paint Trees for Beginners Part 2

Add sky holes and refine your tree painting with this easy acrylic landscape lesson for beginners. Simplify shapes, balance color, and control edges.

Robert Joyner | Garage Studio Artist & Art Educator

Robert Joyner | Garage Studio Artist & Art Educator

— 3 min read
How to Paint Trees for Beginners Part 2 hero image

In the first tree painting lesson, we learned how to simplify a tree into large shapes and balance sky holes without over-rendering. In this session, we’ll keep building on that idea — adding sky color, refining the ground plane, and adjusting the tree’s vertical planes to bring more depth and variety to your acrylic tree painting.

This lesson is part of the Acrylic Landscape Painting Fundamentals Course

Adding the Sky and Sky Holes

Now that the tree is blocked in, it’s time to paint around it and establish the sky.
I start by mixing a light, neutral blue — using Cobalt Blue and a touch of Viridian — to create a clean base color.

As you paint the sky, remember this: the sky is never flat. I like to push a little gradation, deepening the blue toward the top of the composition and softening it near the horizon. This gives your tree room to breathe and keeps the painting from feeling static.

You can even drag a bit of that blue into some of the sky holes we created earlier. Think of this as negative painting — defining the edges of your leaves and branches by carefully painting the space around them.

Acrylic tree painting tutorial showing the block-in stage with background sky, mountains, and ground plane, part of a beginner lesson on how to paint trees.

Keeping the Brushwork Dry and Controlled

When learning how to paint trees for beginners, brush control makes a big difference.

I use a fairly dry brush here so the paint doesn’t get shiny or slippery. It’s easy to lose control if your paint is too slick, so use a touch of medium if needed but keep it minimal.

Dry brushwork also adds a bit of natural texture that helps suggest foliage.

Simplifying the Background

Once the sky is established, I simplify the background shapes.

In the early sketch, there were a few distant trees and hills, but now I reduce them to a single, soft ground plane. A busy background can distract from your main tree, so think “less is more.”

I warm the lower area slightly by adding a bit of Cad Red Light into the mix — just enough to suggest soil or low vegetation without competing with the main form.

Ground Plane and Shadows

The ground plane helps anchor everything. I paint a light red-green mix into the base to show where the tree meets the ground.

Then I add a cast shadow — cool it slightly with blue or Viridian — to make the tree feel solid and connected to the earth.

Once that’s in, I darken the vertical plane of the tree just a touch. A few deeper values inside the canopy help separate light from shadow and add structure.

Refining the Block-In

At this stage, I’m not worrying about detail. This is still the block-in stage — just refined.

We’re shaping edges, pushing color temperatures, and gently redesigning the sky holes to improve rhythm. The goal isn’t realism; it’s readability.

Key Takeaways

  • Paint the sky and sky holes together for cleaner edges
  • Keep brushwork dry for better texture control
  • Simplify the background into a soft, unified plane
  • Warm and cool the ground plane for depth
  • Refine light and shadow, not details

Course Navigation

Next Lesson: How to Paint Trees or Beginners Part 3
Previous Lesson: How to Paint Trees Part 1
Continue the Course: Acrylic Landscape Painting for Beginners

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