To get you started, here’s a link to a whole bunch of free pine tree images you can use to help you to learn how to paint pine trees. The goal is to try different brushes over and over so you can figure out which brush is going to get you the results you’re looking for.
Painting Happy Evergreen Trees
You won’t believe how easy it is to paint a happy evergreen tree using the Foliage and Trees brush from the Mystic Mountain brush pack. This highly pressure sensitive brush will create subtle branches with a light touch and full foliage with hard pressure. Build your base and then add interesting highlights or snow covered branches.
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Paint Like Bob Ross
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- Reviewing the Painter toolbox
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- Working with Color
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Tools You Need
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Delve into our wide range of artistic effects, techniques, and themes using this incredible bundle of 510 unique brushes in 34 separate packs.
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Capture the essence of traditional painting techniques with this expansive assortment of 510 phenomenal brushes combined into 34 separate packs.
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Download your FREE 15-day trial for Windows or Mac and venture outside the lines with realistic brushes, exciting media, and an array of versatile tools.
Easily Paint A Whole Pine Forest When You Find The Perfect Paintbrush
In just 5 easy steps, you’ll learn how to paint pine trees like a pro! Not only that, but you’ll also know exactly which type of paintbrush is going to give you the kind of pine tree you’re looking for.
In fact, more often than not, you’ll be told to use a fan brush and, for some, that works out just fine. If you aren’t one of those people, don’t despair, my friend! I’m here to tell you that there is more than one brush you can use to paint pine trees.
From wooded landscapes to handmade holiday cards, knowing how to easily paint amazing pine trees is a very versatile skill to learn. So let’s get down to it!
Quick Guide To Painting A Pine Tree
We’ll go more in-depth about how to paint pine trees in just a minute but, first, let’s take a quick look at the steps.
To paint a pine tree:
- Paint the trunk
- Load your brush with green paint
- Lightly tap your chosen paintbrush just above the top of the pine tree trunk
- Tap your way down the trunk in a zig-zag pattern, moving further out from the trunk as you paint downward
- Go back in and add more taps, here and there, to break things up so your pine tree doesn’t look too structured (messy and misshapen is your bestie!)
Extra Tips:
- Don’t get too fussy about making your pine trees look perfectly symmetrical. Mother Nature knows what she’s doing and perfectly imperfect is so in!
- In nature, trees are rarely tightly structured
- Trunks can have lots of knots, broken branches, curves, and bends
- Branches can be full on one side and sparse on the other and they can also be really short in places and long in others (some may even have branches that hang in a more up and down position than others)
- Add a bit of your green paint to yellow and mix with a bit of white to create a highlight color
- To add highlights, follow the same steps as above but use less paint so you don’t cover up all of the darker parts of the pine tree
- If you’re painting a landscape with a forest of pines, make sure to use a lighter color for your background trees and continue to use darker/more vibrant green paint as you work toward the foreground of the painting (this will help to create depth)
Five Brushes You Can Use To Paint Amazing Pine Trees
If you happen to be painting along with a YouTube tutorial where the instructor is using a fan brush to paint a forest of pine trees but you don’t have one (or don’t like using them), no worries!
Let’s look at some of the paintbrushes you can use to paint pines and see the different effects you can make depending on the brush you choose to paint with.
Angle Brush
This is my favorite brush to use to paint pine trees because I’m really comfortable with an angle brush and I love the slightly structured look of the branches. We’re talkin’ just a tiny bit structured.
Having some structure is absolutely fine but you don’t want it so symmetrical that you can see an obvious pattern. When learning how to paint pine trees, it’s important to walk that fine line between “wow, that looks like one of those fake trees from the dollar store” to “uhhhhh, that’s a lovely blob of paint with spikey bits”.
Living in a place where I see pine trees all of the time, the shape I get when using an angle brush is what I’m used to seeing in nature.
UPDATE: Don’t get me wrong, I still love using an angle brush to paint pine trees but it’s moved to second place in my personal painting practice. Keep reading to see which one is my fave now!
Round Brush
I find the round brush to be a bit more challenging for me but way easier than using a fan brush, in my opinion. I think if you’re used to using round brushes, you’ll probably find this to be the easiest for you. I do like the lacy quality of this pine tree, though.
UPDATE: I never thought, in a million years, I’d be saying this but, the round brush is my absolute favorite brush to use to paint pine trees! Once I loosened up my grip and held it back further on the handle, I found that I could make the most realistic looking trees. This type of brush is especially awesome if you want to add snow to the tree.
Filbert
This is such a fun and quirky looking tree! Because the filbert has a rounded head, you can really play with it and experiment to get different shapes. I like how this pine tree is like a mix of the angle brush and the round brush pine trees.
Flat Brush
This is my second favorite brush to paint pine trees, which makes sense since this is basically an angle brush before the bristles were cut.
Pine trees, in nature, have defined edges and lots of pokey bits which makes the flat brush perfect for painting pine trees.
UPDATE: I guess the flat brush is now in third place. It’s still an excellent choice to use when painting pine trees so don’t despair if it’s all you have. It’s an all-around great brush to have in your tool kit.
Fan Brush
Oy vey… As you can see, I really struggled to make the fan brush do what I wanted it to and, full disclosure, I’ve been doing this for years!
For this reason, this is my least favorite brush to use to paint pine trees. I find the branches are too wispy for my liking and I had a hard time figuring out how to load the paint on the brush without having the bristles clump together. I, also, couldn’t get the hang of holding the brush so that the branches were more natural looking.
If you are an expert at the fan brush, kudos to you, friend! I have much to learn when it comes to using this particular brush.
If you do want to give the fan brush a go, make sure that the bristles are fairly stiff. A hog hair fan brush will work nicely but, keep in mind, the natural bristles do tend to hold on to water so you’ll want to make sure to wipe it on a piece of paper towel after rinsing and before loading with paint.
