Aspen Tree Tutorial
by Kathie Spitz
(Oklahoma City, OK)
I have done several aspen trees over the past couple of years. People always say: That must be HARD.... But if YOU follow these steps, you can do one too! The biggest "SECRET" or "TRICK" here is to allow the painting to DRY completely between the steps. I use a hair dryer, except for drying the MASKING FLUID....
If you don't let it DRY, then when you add colors....you'll get MUD......
To start with, I need something to look at....I'm not going to copy it brush stroke by brush stroke, but I need a visual to work from. I found two pictures of Aspen Trees that I liked....then made my own composition....I lightly sketched them out....then masked the tree trunks. A tip for using masking fluid, I use that rubber tipped tool to spread my mask....I also roll one of my brushes, not the BEST brushes, but one of the other ones in liquid soap....that keeps the mask from drying and ruining the brush. WASH the brush immediately when you are done......
Besides masking the tree trunks, I also spatter a bit of the mask over the rest of the painting area....LIGHTLY! I will also put some where I think masses of leaves will be....
I mix up quite a bit of greens, yellows...and some blues....I make quite a bit of it and then I "smoosh" them about.....thinking about where I want the background, middle ground and foreground to be.....
Your colors tend to dry lighter than you would think.....so make them a bit darker than you'd want them to be....
Now the "base" of the painting is done...and time to add definition to it....
Make sure that you DRY THE PAINTING COMPLETELY after EACH ADDITION of spattered color/clear water....otherwise you get MUD!!!
See the bright white in the leaf area? That's where the spattered mask was....it will add a "sparkle" to the finished painting....
FUB is French Ultramarine Blue.....
....but that takes so long to type out! 
"Frank's Brush"....that would be Frank Clarke's liner brush, but use any liner that YOU have...
Another one of the "SECRETS" is to not make your color FLAT....mixes of a bit of this, and a touch of that make your painting more interesting....instead of JUST burnt umber.....it' makes the colors look deeper....
I look forward to seeing what YOU make of this tutorial....if you should use my composition, I'd appreciate a comment attributing the design to me......and feel free to share this tutorial, but please mention my name.....
....thanks so much!Kathie Spitz....katmom!