How to Paint a Simple Christmas Tree Step by Step

Learn how to paint a simple Christmas tree step by step in this online art tutorial. Discover the best way to paint a quick Christmas tree in watercolor.

Practice painting Christmas trees and find tips and tricks for making watercolor painting easy and fun! This step-by-step art class will lead you through everything you need to know.

A watercolor painting of a Christmas tree with colorful ornaments and patches of snow.

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Materials
Paint a Christmas Tree Step by Step Video
Transcript
How to Paint a Christmas Tree Art Lesson
Variations
Tips and Tricks
Christmas Tree Painting Easy (Sharable Directions)
Lesson Downloads
Frequently Asked Questions
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Create an evergreen tree that is perfectly decorated for the holiday season using paint and a brush. Practice the basic technique of layering colors to make your tree look more realistic without painting every single branch.

Discovering how to paint a Christmas tree for beginners or more advanced artists is surprisingly easy. This is a perfect painting lesson for everyone, kids and adults.

Creating a Christmas tree painting, easy, is a fun and relaxing holiday painting idea.

Materials

Watercolor paper - I am using Strathmore 400 Series, cold press, watercolor paper, 140 lb., cut down to 6 by 4.5 inches
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints. You can use whatever colors that you have on hand. For this lesson I use: Cadmium Yellow,
Prussian Blue, Black, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, and ultramarine blue
Paint brushes - I am using a #8 round brush.
Water
Paper towels

Paint a Christmas Tree Step by Step Video

Transcript

Read Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome. In this art tutorial, we are going to paint a quick and easy Christmas tree. Let's get started. I'm going to start by lightly sketching in my tree. Try to keep your lines nice and light so that the paint will cover them up.

Now, I'm adding in the decorations. Then I'm going to add in a few dabs of snow where there is snow piled up on the branches.

All of these little areas I'm going to paint around. I'm going to leave them white so I can go back in later and add the color. And some snow right down the middle there.

Now, I've mixed a light green. It is Prussian blue and yellow mixed together. I'm adding in a few branches just to give this tree a little bit more structure and shape.

Then I'm going to go in and carefully paint around the dabs of snow and the decorations, I'm just going to go ahead and fill in the rest of this tree with this light green color.

Make sure to keep your strokes nice and loose.Don't worry about the color being a little bit uneven we're going to go back in and layer and add a lot more color to it.

All right, now I've mixed together a middle green. It is yellow mixed with Prussian blue. I could even add in a little dab of black if I wanted to darken it up. So I'm going back in, in some areas, and just adding middle green.

I am not covering up all of this yellow color, just going in, in a few areas. I'm thinking about the undersides of the branches or some of the darker areas.

I can add a few more branches if I like. Again making sure to go around the little dabs of white snow and around my decorations.

Now I'm going in with a dark green, this is Prussian Blue, just a tiny dab of the yellow, and some black for a nice dark green. And so going in, hitting all these shadowy areas, maybe a few branches hanging down in the back, maybe a few scraggly little twigs sticking out here and there.

The undersides of branches, maybe under some of those piles of snow. You can see we're getting starting to get some nice contrast. Add just a few more little areas here and there.

This dark color, I'm not just going over the middle green area. I'm going over some of the light green areas as well, to get lots of color.

Notice, I’ve only used three colors basically, but you can see the wide range of color that I'm getting on this tree because of the layering I've done.

After the tree is completely dry you can go back in and add a little bit of shadow here in the front and then work on the ornaments.

To add the shadow, I'm first painting with clean water, then adding just a little bit of cerulean blue down here in the front. It gives me just a nice kind of soft, snowy shadow.

I'm going to start with crimson and go around the outside of the ornaments with the paint and then I'm going to go back in later and drag that paint out a little bit for a nice gradient.

Okay, wipe off the extra paint and now drag that paint into the middle, but leave a nice little white highlight in the middle.

Now I'm going to repeat but this time with some orange. Painting around the outside of the light and then drawing the color back into the middle. And just adding a little bit more of the orange paint.

Finally, I'm going to use this ultramarine blue to add in a nice bright blue ornament. Add a little bit of the paint around the outside and then going back in and drag the color around to the rest of the ornament.

That's all there is to it please leave any questions or comments at artlooklearn.com, and thanks for watching.

How to Paint a Christmas Tree Art Lesson

A sketch of a Christmas tree, ready to paint, next to a watercolor palette. — Sketch a cone, ornaments and snow.

An artist's hand begining to paint a Christmas tree in watercolor. — Paint light green branches.

Lightly sketch a simple cone shape for the Christmas tree. Sketch some circles for ornaments or lights.
Sketch in some long narrow oval patches of snow. Include some where the outer branches will be and some in the main cone of the tree.
Include as many or as few ornaments and patches of snow as you would like. Keep in mind that you will paint around them, so fewer will be more simple. For a challenge sketch more ornaments and snow.

A Christmas tree painted with one layer light green watercolor paint. — Paint around the ornaments and snow.

A Christmas tree painted with two layers of watercolor paint, light green and medium green, next to a paint brush and palette. — Add some areas of middle green paint.

Combine cadmium yellow and a small amount of Prussian blue paint. Use this light green to paint some branches swooping down from the main cone of the tree.
Then fill in the rest of the tree with light green, keeping the strokes loose and easy. Carefully paint around the ornaments and patches of snow.
Mix together cadmium yellow, Prussian blue, and a tiny but of black paint to make a middle green. Use this color to paint a few more branches on the sides of the tree and some branch clusters in the middle.
Leave some of the light green visible, especially on the tops of the branches. Again painting around the white ornaments and snow.

A watercolor painting of a basic Christmas tree with an artist's hand. — Layer dark green in some areas.

A watercolor painting of a basic Christmas tree with an artist's hand adding a light blue shadow in the foreground. — Paint a light blue shadow, wet on wet.

Combine Prussian blue, black and a little bit of yellow to make dark green. Add this to the tree, mostly on the undersides of the branches and in shadowy patches around the tree.
Let the tree painting dry completely before adding the shadow and ornaments.
Brush some clear water on the paper below the tree. Let it soak in just a bit and then paint on some cerulean blue to indicate a light shadow that the tree is casting. When it dries the blue edges will softly blend out.

An artist's hand painting colorful ornaments on a Christmas tree in watercolor. — Paint outside of ornaments and drag paint to the middle, leaving a highlight.

A completed watercolor painting of a Christmas tree with colorful ornaments and patches of snow next to a paint palette. — Completed Christmas tree watercolor.

To paint the ornaments paint around the outside of each ornament then wipe the extra paint off the brush. Drag the paint toward the middle of the ornament living a small white highlight in the middle.
I used alizarin crimson, orange, and ultramarine blue for the ornaments but you could use what ever colors you want.

Variations

You could use masking fluid to cover the white ornaments and patches of snow, if you want. I find that large shapes, like these ornaments are easy enough to paint around without the use of masking fluid.
Paint the ornaments different colors of your choice.
Create multiple Christmas trees of different sizes for more practice.
This is a great image to use on a greeting card. Special watercolor greeting cards can be purchased at most arts and crafts stores, or fold your own.
Paint a background behind the tree, maybe other trees and snow drifts, the outside of a house, a living room, or an oval that is darker on the outside and transitions to white in the center.

Five watercolor paintings of Christmas trees randomly arranged together on a white background.

Tips and Tricks

Allow the paint strokes to be loose.
Keep the branches and light and dark shapes irregular, avoid painting in a pattern.
Overlapping the three shades of green in different ways gives you a wide variety color in your Christmas tree.
Watercolor paint will dry lighter than it is when wet.
Don’t overthink it! Christmas tree paintings can be as simple or detailed as you like.
Enjoy the process of painting!

Christmas Tree Painting Easy (Sharable Directions)

A watercolor painting of a Christmas tree next to a paintbrush and palette.

Learn How to Paint a SImple Christmas Tree Step by Step

Learn how to paint a simple Christmas tree step by step in this online art tutorial. Discover the best way to paint a quick Christmas tree in watercolor. Practice painting Christmas trees and find out tips and tricks to making watercolor painting easy and fun! This step-by-step art class will lead you through everything you need to know.

Pinterest Print

Equipment

Watercolor paper - I am using Strathmore 400 Series, cold press, watercolor paper, 140 lb., cut down to 6 by 4.5 inches
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints. You can use whatever colors that you have on hand. For this lesson I use: Cadmium Yellow, Prussian Blue, Black, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, and ultramarine blue
Paint brushes - I am using a #8 round brush.
Water
Paper towels

Instructions

Lightly sketch a simple cone shape for the Christmas tree. Sketch some circles for ornaments or lights.
Sketch in some long narrow oval patches of snow. Include some where the outer branches will be and some in the main cone of the tree.
Include as many or as few ornaments and patches of snow as you would like. Keep in mind that you will paint around them, so fewer will be more simple. For a challenge sketch more ornaments and snow.
Combine cadmium yellow and a small amount of Prussian blue paint. Use this light green to paint some branches swooping down from the main cone of the tree.
Then fill in the rest of the tree with light green, keeping the strokes loose and easy. Carefully paint around the ornaments and patches of snow.
Mix together cadmium yellow, Prussian blue, and a tiny but of black paint to make a middle green. Use this color to paint a few more branches on the sides of the tree and some branch clusters in the middle.
Leave some of the light green visible, especially on the tops of the branches. Again painting around the white ornaments and snow.
Combine Prussian blue, black and a little bit of yellow to make dark green. Add this to the tree, mostly on the undersides of the branches and in shadowy patches around the tree.
Let the tree painting dry completely before adding the shadow and ornaments.
Brush some clear water on the paper below the tree. Let it soak in just a bit and then paint on some cerulean blue to indicate a light shadow that the tree is casting. When it dries the blue edges will softly blend out.
To paint the ornaments paint around the outside of each ornament then wipe the extra paint off the brush. Drag the paint toward the middle of the ornament living a small white highlight in the middle.
I used alizarin crimson, orange, and ultramarine blue for the ornaments but you could use what ever colors you want.

Notes

Allow the paint strokes to be loose.
Keep the branches and light and dark shapes irregular, avoid painting in a pattern. Overlapping the three shades of green in different ways gives you a wide variety color in your Christmas tree.
Watercolor paint will dry lighter than it is when wet.
Don’t overthink it! Christmas tree paintings can be as simple or detailed as you like.
Enjoy the process of painting!

Lesson Downloads

Christmas Tree Template Download

Optional: download and print this Christmas tree template. When printed at 100% size, it should fit on 6-inch tall and 4.5-inch wide paper, like I used in the tutorial. You could enlarge it to paint a larger size Christmas tree if you want.

Place your printed tree on the watercolor paper and trace the image using graphite paper. Keep your traced lines very light so they do not show through the paint.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you paint a simple Christmas tree?

Sketch in a basic cone shape and ornaments. Paint branches in light green swooping out and down from the cone shape.

Add various green colors to the tree, starting with the lightest and working toward the darkest. Paint around the ornaments, leaving them white. Finally, paint the ornaments using bright colors.

How do you paint ornaments on a Christmas tree?

Paint the greenery of the tree first and let it dry. Paint around the outside of each ornament, then wipe the extra paint off the brush. Drag the paint on the paper toward the middle of the ornament leaving a small white highlight in the middle.

How do you paint snow on a Christmas tree?

To paint snow in watercolor, leave the snow the color of the paper. Sketch in the shape of the snow on the Christmas tree and then paint around it, leaving the snow white.

A watercolor painting of a Christmas tree at a foreshortened angle next to a paintbrush and palette.

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