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Acrylic Painting Tutorials

How to Paint Trees for Beginners – Part 3

Learn how to paint trees for beginners with a focus on sky holes and refraction. Discover how light, color, and edges make acrylic trees feel real.

Robert Joyner | Garage Studio Artist & Art Educator

Robert Joyner | Garage Studio Artist & Art Educator

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

In this lesson, we’ll dive deeper into one of the trickiest details when painting trees — sky holes and how refractionaffects them. This is where your tree starts to look believable, not pasted on top of the background.

If you’ve followed along from Parts 1 and 2, you already have your tree blocked in, the sky established, and the ground plane simplified. Now, let’s refine the painting and make those transitions feel natural.

This lesson is part of the Acrylic Landscape Painting Fundamentals Course

Understanding Sky Holes and Refraction

When learning how to paint trees for beginners, most painters make their sky holes too clean and too bright.

Here’s the problem: in nature, the light sky sits behind the dark mass of the tree. That darker mass slightly darkens the color of those sky holes — an optical effect called refraction.

So, if your sky is a bright blue, the blue inside the tree’s sky holes should actually be a little darker and softer. That small adjustment makes a huge difference in how your tree “sits” in the landscape.

Acrylic tree painting for beginners showing refined sky holes and soft background using refraction principles for a natural look.

Adjusting the Sky Hole Colors

I start by mixing a similar sky color — a mix of Cobalt Blue and a touch of Viridian Green — but then push it slightly darker.

Here’s the trick:

  • Large sky holes stay closer to the real sky color.
  • Small sky holes get darker and slightly warmer.

This variation prevents that “cookie cutter” look where every hole is identical. Each shape should be different in size and edge quality.

Refining the Tree Edges

After darkening a few sky holes, I go back in with my tree darks — usually a mix of green, red, and a touch of blue — and soften the edges where the tree meets the sky.

That subtle blending helps merge the two masses so the tree feels integrated. I’ll also chisel out a few branches while I’m there, just enough to keep things organic.

Adding Light and Shadow Details

Next, I touch up the lights inside the tree canopy — where sunlight hits a branch or peeks through a gap. These lighter notes should still respect the same rule of refraction: if light is filtering through a dark mass, it will appear slightly darker and more muted than the open sky.

For the ground shadows, the same logic applies. Any patch of light that passes through the tree canopy and hits the ground will be darker than the surrounding sunlight. That’s refraction again, just playing out on a different plane.

Background Adjustments

The idea of refraction also applies to distant hills or backgrounds that show through your tree. If a blue hill is visible through a small gap in the leaves, that bit of blue will appear slightly darker than the rest of the hill — because the tree mass over it influences the perceived light.

A small brush and careful value control go a long way here. You don’t need to over-blend; just soften the transitions so everything feels cohesive.

Key Takeaways

  • Vary sky hole size and shape — no cookie-cutter gaps
  • Smaller sky holes = darker and more muted color
  • Use refraction to make light and shadow believable
  • Soften tree edges to integrate with the background
  • Apply the same logic to hills, shadows, and ground planes

Course Navigation

Next Lesson: Master's Analysis for Trees - coming soon
Previous Lesson: How to Paint Trees for Beginners Part 2
Continue the Course: Acrylic Landscape Painting for Beginners

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