Step 9: Birch Trunk Detail

After the base has dried completely, we place the texture effects onto the silver birch. This is achieved using Paynes Grey almost straight from the tube with only a little drop of water, or if you use paint in pans, make it thick because you're attempting to paint a dry brush effect, were the paint just drags over the surface leaving lots of white paper.

NOTE: Try some sample effects on scrap before painting your tree.

Place the dry brush effects on the left of the tree and vary the shapes you place on so they are not to similar to one another. On the right side of the tree you want to show only tiny single line marks that are slightly curved downwards. This gives the suggestion that the tree is rounded. Now add some branches using a more watery Paynes Grey, placing your branches amongst the background area spaces and twining them amongst the foliage on the first tree.