• Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial

    This is that project that will make convince anyone who thinks s/he cannot create art of the contrary. Making spatter watercolor trees really is fun and super easy! I loved making these trees so much that I’m giving away one of my handmade postcards to you … read details at the end of the post.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Sometimes, it’s nice to have a project that doesn’t require a lot of precision or concentration. These spatter watercolor trees fit the bill — there’s no frustration, and you still get a great result! I decided to make postcards out of the trees, but they would also make for great art to hang in your home.

    To make my watercolor tree postcards, I cut three pieces of 4″x6″ watercolor paper. You could get away with making your trees on regular mixed media paper or card stock; but watercolor paper is best because of its low absorbency.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, I moistened the “leaf” colors in my watercolor palette. Since I’m going to be spattering the colors, it’s nice to have them in a somewhat liquid state.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I prepared my first tools: a chopstick and a paintbrush.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And you’re thinking “… Why a chopstick?” I chose it because I thought it would be a nice thing to hit my brush against to make spatters. Of course, you could use virtually anything: a pen/pencil, another brush, a screwdriver, whatever, really.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, I saturated my brush with green.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And then I hit the brush against the chopstick to make spatters all over my postcard.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I continued with this technique …

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And then I decided to add some strategically-placed paint runs. To accomplish this, I placed blobs of paint in certain spots on the tree.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then I blew on them to make them go downward.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, I pulled out my trusty art toothbrush.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    The point of the toothbrush is to apply a fine mist of paint to the art piece. To achieve this, you simply apply some paint to the toothbrush, then use your thumb to stroke the bristles, like so:

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And voilà — the beginning of a tree form! This one is coniferous.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    For the next tree, I started with the toothbrush spatter …

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    … and finished up with the chopstick hitting technique.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I repeated this with the third tree as well.

    Spatter Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Here comes the fun part: painting in the watercolor tree trunks! I readied my tools, two little paint brushes.

    Spatter Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then I painted a simple trunk.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I added random branches {basically, abstract “y”-looking forms} to make the tree seem more realistic.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then I painted in more green to give the tree a bit of depth — which is a totally unnecessary step.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I went on to tackle my next tree by repeating these steps, minus the shading.

    Spatter Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    {I love how this one turned out!}

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And the third watercolor tree — the coniferous — didn’t take any work at all!

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Here are all three of them:

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    In the way of postcards, these were looking a little plain to me, so I decided to jazz them up with some calligraphy and doodles.

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Spatter Watercolor Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then, I added postcard elements to the back for ease of sending.

    Spatter Tree Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I really like how these turned out, and am giving them away at the end of the month to three participants of the TPK Challenge. There are three ways to enter to win one:

    • Share a photo of your outgoing mail/August snail mail challenge piece on Instagram with hashtag #tpkchallenge.
    • Tweet a photo of your outgoing piece of snail mail with hashtag #tpkchallenge.
    • Share a photo of your outgoing piece of mail on the TPK Facebook wall.

    Winners will be chosen at random at the end of the month. Thanks again for reading; may your weekend be filled with fun projects and lots of R&R.!

    XO,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock