Paul Clark: Trees

 More about Paul Clark, and his tree methods.

In his videos, you'll see Paul Clark using the end of a paint brush to make smaller branches and to scratch texture into a trunk.  There are a few things about this technique that you need to know before you try it.

1. Sharpening the end of a paint brush. OK, I didn't want to ruin a brush doing this, so I tried it on some of my older wooden handle brushes. You have to sharpen it and then sand the end down to round it a bit. Must be wood. It doesn't work as well with smaller brush handles -- you need about a size 12 for it to work well.

Also, I practiced a LOT trying to make this work for me. I also tried other items: a palette knife, a credit card, a stick, etc. In the end I found that the point of my silicone shapers  (https://www.hobbylobby.com/Art-Supplies/Brushes/Silicone-Shaper-Paint-Brushes---Size-6/p/81072215 ) works the best for me. One student had Winsor Newton brushes that came to a nice point on the handles, and that worked well also. If you watch Karen Rice she uses a sharpened stick. 

2. The paint you lay down on the trunk must be very wet in order to use your device to make small branches. He doesn't stress this, but he continues to add paint to the trunk in small puddles in order to draw the paint out. If your paint dries out too soon, you won't be able to use a stick or something to pull the paint out. 

The link in the previous blog has one exercise on a tree with a background.

Here he tells several methods for simplified trees. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygV5PuvzjE4

The middle of this video has a cool African tree in a sunset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5bR1PeS9d8

This is another by Paul Clark. This one contains the abstract credit card method we did in class. It also has some details from a more complex tree, including lifting to bring some branches forward. He also demos a palm tree and fir trees. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMVEuCfSVbs

There are many very good tree tutorials. Karen Rice has a very good one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIo6FnX9KE  Here is a very loose video from Eric Yi Lin. He is even more loose than Paul Clark. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j3CSYZZMbQ&t=1249s