Branching out

Simplify trees into strong shapes and clean lines

First I’d like to say a massive thanks to you for being one of the 2,000+ subscribers. This is a crazy amount of people, and beyond my wildest expectations when I started this newsletter in January.

This week we’ll continue with trees—one of my favourite subjects to paint.

Also, I’m heading to Canberra later this week for my first-ever Plein Air Festival, so I needed a bit of tree practice to prepare.

Trees are a great subject, not just for their shapes and variety, but because they let us practice a bunch of core watercolour techniques: wet-in-wet, dry brush, calligraphic strokes, and thinking in terms of shape and volume.

They also come with a built-in challenge. Most of us carry around a “default tree” in our heads from childhood, and it’s easy to fall back on that symbol when we paint. The goal is to observe what’s really there—not just what we think a tree looks like.

---

Exercise 1: Tree silhouettes

Paint quick tree shapes, each with a different silhouette—round, columnar, flat-topped, irregular, umbrella-shaped, or whatever you like.

• Use a big brush.

• Keep it loose and fast—no detail.

• Focus on the overall shape first, and start with the canopy. Then connect it to the trunk

These should read as tree types, not specific species. You're training your eye to simplify and vary your shapes.

---

Exercise 2: Trunks & branches

Skip the leaves and focus on the structure.

• Choose one tree and paint just the trunk and branches.

• Start at the bottom and paint upwards, just like a tree grows

• Use a rigger for calligraphic lines

• Notice how the branches divide and what direction they move in

Think about how the tree grows rather than just how it looks. This one’s especially useful for winter trees or when you want to suggest structure under foliage.

You can combine this exercise with the gradient approach from my previous workout

Tree Demo

In this Youtube video you’ll learn how to avoid “lollipop” trees and think in terms of shapes and volume

---

Why trees?

• They let you practise core watercolour techniques—wet-in-wet, dry brush, calligraphic strokes—all in one subject.

• They teach you to simplify complex shapes and suggest detail without overworking.

• They challenge you to paint what you see, not the tree you’ve been drawing since primary school.

To branching out,
Patrick

---

Premium extras this week:

Video Demos

Turn on the audio for these 🎧

1. Tree variations

---

2. Trunks and branches

---

3. Palm Trees

---

Master Artists

Toshimichi Kizawa

I follow this artist on instagram, and he is one heck of an inspiration for me. Most of his paintings are painted on location. There is no information about him on his profile, and I don’t know anything about him. But check out his work for some great examples for painting trees.

---

James Fletcher-Watson (1913–2004)

A British watercolorist known for his beautifully composed rural landscapes, James Fletcher-Watson had a particular gift for painting trees with structure, grace, and economy. He studied at the Royal Academy and was influenced by traditional English landscape painting, but his watercolours are anything but fussy—he used confident, fluid brushwork and strong design to simplify complex scenes.

Advanced Practice

1. Tree as Focal Point
Paint a landscape where a single tree (or small cluster) is clearly the focal point. Use contrast, placement, and simplification to make it stand out without over-detailing. Even try to copy the above examples.

2. Edge Variety
Paint a tree study where you focus purely on edge work—combine hard, soft, and lost edges intentionally within the canopy and trunk. Avoid any linework; suggest form through edges alone.

---

Just a reminder as a premium subscriber you can comment on this post, send me a message or chat to me in the Substack app. I’d love to hear from you, answer any questions or take requests for future posts.