DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Monochromatic Acrylic Trees (Tutorial)

This relatively easy acrylic paint tutorial combines sketch and acrylic paint techniques to create the effect of a snow-covered forest landscape. We call these our tree "shadows," but really the painted parts of this piece are meant to represent the parts of these evergreens left uncovered by snow after a recent snowfall. Although we chose to opt for the monochromatic look, this piece is great for adapting and making your own!

Painting and drawing are great for those who enjoy creating things to share with loved ones, for those who love to learn new skills, or even for those who want more art hanging on their walls!

Materials

Acrylic Trees:

• any size canvas (we used a large-sized 30x40 inch canvas)
• a pencil (optional; if you prefer to sketch out your ideas beforehand)
• a sharpie (also optional)
• black acrylic paint

Instructions

• with pencil, gently sketch the outlines of the largest size tree "shadows" onto your canvas (TIP: practice drawing the shapes of your shadows on a piece of paper that you can later use as a reference image. You can also use the our example as reference for your piece)
• go over the outlines of your pencil-drawn shadows with a sharpie
• fill in the shapes with acrylic paint: we chose black paint, but I think this would also work well with many different colors
• allow your paint to dry fully
• add detail (TIP: add a range of medium to very small sized details [similar shapes to those you sketched for the large outlines] and add more detail where you want there to look like less of the tree is covered in snow)
• allow your paint to dry once more.

Video Tutorial for Instructions

Tips

• add less detail on one side to make the snowfall on your evergreen trees look windswept!
• connect some of the larger-sized "shadows" to add to the overall effect and shape of your trees.

Printable version of this tutorial