How to Paint Dense Foliage with Background Gaps Between Leaves and Branches

An opening inside foliage is a negative shape: the space around or between the forms you are painting. Artist William Hagerman demonstrates this by painting the unoccupied spaces around a dark tree silhouette, allowing the remaining dark shapes to describe its limbs. His demonstration then moves into the interior openings. William Hagerman, “Negative Shape Painting”

Before mixing a gap color, identify what lies behind it. A high opening might reveal sky; a lower one might reveal distant foliage or ground. Follow the background already established in your reference. A pale blue mark placed where another tree should appear will describe a different scene.

Also distinguish a genuine opening from a lighter patch of foliage. Trace the patch’s boundary: does it reveal a recognizable background color, or does it remain part of a leaf cluster? When the reference is ambiguous, leave that small detail unresolved until the larger openings establish the structure.

For this exercise, choose a reference with a readable outer silhouette, a few visible branches, and several clearly identifiable gaps. Begin with the openings you can explain rather than every speck you can see.

Prepare a suitable acrylic painting surface, a medium flat brush, a smaller pointed brush, and separate mixing areas for the background and foliage. Mix a dark foliage color, a middle green, a lighter foliage color, and the main background color. Keep the initial palette simple enough that you can repeat mixtures while making corrections.

Sketch the canopy’s overall width and height, the trunk position, and the directions of its main branches. Block in the canopy as a connected dark shape. Pay attention to its proportions and outer contour before introducing texture. Virtual Art Academy’s tree demonstration follows this broad sequence: establish the dark foliage mass, then introduce sky holes. “How To Paint Trees: 3 Brushwork Tips For Creating Convincing Tree Foliage”

Next, lay middle-value green over selected parts of the dark mass to suggest overlapping clusters. Leave connected dark passages between them. Use your reference to decide which clusters receive light, rather than distributing the lighter mixture evenly.

At this stage, assess the painting from its intended viewing distance. The canopy should have a recognizable shape and a readable light direction. If either is unclear, correct the broad masses before adding gaps or leaf accents.

Look for the main divisions between foliage clusters. Doug Swinton recommends placing sky holes between groups of growth and near branches, linking the openings to the tree’s structure. Use that guidance as a prompt to study your reference, rather than as a fixed pattern to repeat. Doug Swinton, “Painting Secret #44 - Sky Holes in Trees”

Start with the largest clearly observed opening. Compare its height and width with the nearby trunk or branch, then place it relative to those landmarks. Add the next important gap and compare the distance between the two. Working through these relationships helps prevent a scatter of unrelated dots.

Use the background mixture to carve irregular shapes into the foliage. Vary the direction and length of their boundaries according to the surrounding clusters. One opening might be narrow beside a branch; another might widen beneath an overhanging group of leaves.

Protect the branch connections as you work. If two background marks accidentally join across a limb, repaint the connecting section before continuing. Hagerman’s demonstration is useful here: painting the surrounding spaces can define the branch without drawing a separate line along its full length. “Negative Shape Painting”

For a small practice study, begin with three differently sized openings. That number is simply an exercise constraint. Add another only when it clarifies an observed separation or improves the canopy’s structure.

Begin by comparing a gap with the background immediately beyond the canopy at the same height. Then judge the painted mark in context. A tiny opening surrounded by dark foliage can demand a different treatment from a broad, unobstructed view.

James Gurney illustrates this distinction with a photograph: a large opening reveals uninterrupted sky, while smaller apparent openings contain fine branches and leaves. He recommends painting those interrupted openings somewhat darker than the open sky. This supports a conditional adjustment, rather than a rule that every gap must receive the same darker mixture. James Gurney, “Skyholes”

Try the following comparison on a spare surface before changing the painting:

What the opening shows	Starting choice	What to assess
Broad, unobstructed sky	The adjacent sky mixture	Does the opening connect visually with the sky beyond?
Small opening interrupted by fine foliage	A slightly darker variation	Does it suggest partial screening without becoming a dark leaf patch?
Distant vegetation	The established distant vegetation mixture	Does it remain distinguishable from the foreground canopy?
Background changing across the opening	The corresponding local background colors	Does the change continue naturally through the gap?

Swinton proposes darker, duller, cooler mixtures for sky holes. Treat that as a useful test when a mark looks too prominent, then compare the result with your reference. Adjust one quality at a time so you can see which change helps. “Painting Secret #44 - Sky Holes in Trees”

Avoid defaulting to pure white for every opening. First ask whether the gap actually shows a white background, and whether that brightness belongs at that point in the composition.

After placing an opening, return to the foliage mixture and bring a few leaf shapes back across its boundary. Then use the background mixture to reopen selected notches. This exchange lets you adjust both the opening and the surrounding canopy.

Gurney describes a similar approach in his response beneath “Skyholes”: he usually establishes the overall tree mass, adds openings over it, and works between sky and foliage to integrate them. He also notes that a tree painted over an already finished sky calls for a different starting order. “Skyholes”

For this study, give each major opening a mixture of clear and interrupted boundaries. Keep an observed branch edge legible, and let selected leaf marks overlap the background. Leave some sections simple enough to read from a distance.

Use the corner, side, and flat face of your brush to vary those marks. Virtual Art Academy specifically recommends experimenting with brush orientation and pressure when developing foliage brushwork. Test the marks beside your study before using them on a prominent opening. “How To Paint Trees: 3 Brushwork Tips For Creating Convincing Tree Foliage”

If a fresh background stroke picks up green and becomes muddy, stop working that spot. Let it dry, remix the intended color with a clean brush, and repaint the shape. Repeated brushing makes it harder to assess the mixture you meant to place.

Once the main openings work, add a limited number of smaller foliage marks around them. Choose marks that explain an overlap, continue a branch direction, or identify a distinctive part of the silhouette.

Keep checking the connected canopy between the holes. If new openings leave isolated green fragments everywhere, close some with the foliage mixture. If leaf accents fill the important openings, restore their basic shapes before adding more detail.

Try this illustrative exercise on a small panel: paint one canopy with three large foliage groups, place three unequal openings between them, and add five smaller edge interruptions. These counts are constraints for practicing selection, not a formula for trees.

Pause after each stage and inspect the study from a few steps away. Ask whether each added mark makes a particular cluster or branch easier to understand. Where it merely adds texture, consider leaving the simpler version.

Use this sequence when the foliage feels unconvincing. Check shape first, placement second, color third, and detail last. It is easier to judge a color adjustment after the opening occupies the right place.

Symptom	First check	Practical correction
The canopy looks like a solid block	Are the main observed openings missing?	Add one structurally useful gap, then reassess.
The canopy looks perforated	Are openings too similar or evenly spaced?	Close several and reshape the remaining ones from the reference.
Bright spots dominate the painting	Are the gaps too large, light, or sharply enclosed?	Change one of those qualities at a time.
Branches seem disconnected	Did an opening cross a necessary connection?	Restore the branch and reshape the spaces beside it.
Gaps resemble decorative dots	Do they relate to nearby foliage groups?	Replace isolated dots with openings that describe those groups.
The background feels inconsistent	Does each gap show what belongs behind it?	Match it to the appropriate local background.

Finish when the canopy reads as a coherent form, the important branches connect, and the openings reveal a believable background. Make the last corrections to those relationships. A few well-shaped gaps can carry the structure, leaving you free to keep much of the foliage broad and painterly.

• William Hagerman, “Negative Shape Painting”.
• Virtual Art Academy, “How To Paint Trees: 3 Brushwork Tips For Creating Convincing Tree Foliage”.
• Doug Swinton, “Painting Secret #44 - Sky Holes in Trees”.
• James Gurney, “Skyholes”.