When you stencil a tree or plant, in fact anything that normally moves, you need shading.

Paint your stencil in the normal way making sure you hightlight/lowlight in the right places.

If your not sure what I mean place a real plant in the position where you want to put your stencil, try and do this on a nice sunny day.

Now really look at the plant, are all the leaves the same colour? Are there areas that look darker or lighter depending on where the sun hits the plant?

There are more shadows at the base and the sun tends to hit the leaves at the top. Now you have to recreate this effect in your stencil.

So you stencil as normal remembering to highlight the top and lowlight the base. Depending on the paint you use let the stencil dry to a non-smudge finish.

Re-apply your clean stencil but this time move it ½ an inch down and away from the sun. Not sure, put the real plant back and see where the shadow is.

All you need to do now is very lightly stipple a dark brown into the spaces on your stencil. Its not a train smash if you go over the edge of the leaves you've already painted but try not to overdo it.

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