First Steps of Painting Trees and Grass in Your Acrylic Portrait

 It’s important to know how to paint greenery in your acrylic portrait.

You’ll probably be asked to do it at some point or just desire to, because it’s in your reference photo and looks beautiful! Let me show you how to it, using the acrylic glazing technique, in this video. I also have a step-by-step process you can follow, below. 🙂

How to Paint Foliage (Trees, Grass, Shrubs, etc) in the Background of Your Acrylic Portrait

1. Sketch in the major dark value (shadow) shapes first.

2. Go over those shapes with a glaze of raw umber dark, ultramarine blue and a bit of raw sienna (less chromatically intense mixture)

3. Apply a glaze of phthalo blue, raw sienna, and Indian yellow over the entire area of foliage (this will be your mid tone)

4. Bridge the shadows into the mid tone by using a color that is a mix of steps 2 and 3, and overlapping out of the boundaries of the shadows.

5. Continue adding more layers like this, and finally add highlights using phthalo blue, titanium white and indian yellow Keep in mind the actual color mixture might vary based on the specific kind of foliage you are painting, the lighting scenario (is it sunlit or cloudy) and how far away the foliage is. Remember, cool colors recede, warmer colors come forward. Foliage that is far away will usually be lighter in value and more bluish in color.

Watch my tutorial to learn more about what would be the first steps of painting trees and grass in your acrylic portrait.

LEARN MORE

• Adding highlights to your acrylic painting
• 5 Excellent Reasons to Use Aluminum Foil
• Paint Realistic Wrinkles in Acrylic
• Painting Clothing in an Acrylic Portrait
• Paint a Cloudy Sky Acrylic  
•  How to add Semi-Opaque Highlights
• How to Enhance the Contrast in Your Acrylic
• How to Add Glaze to Your Acrylic Painting
• Paint Realistic Reflections on Eyeglasses in an Acrylic Portrait
• Build Up Depth on Your Acrylic Portrait Backgrounds
• How Do You Do Layers With the Glazing Technique?
• Learn How to Paint Wrinkles in Acrylic

Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this video. Please share it with your friends and family. Let me know if you have any further questions. I’ll greatly help you.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read this tutorial and watch the video. That means a lot to me.  I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting.  

Yours for Better Portraits,

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!