Help with stencilling?

Question

I have a huge tree stencil that I want to put on the wall in the baby's room. It is basically just a leaves & a trunk. I also bought some letters & numbers that I will put in the tree.

My issue is that I have no experience with stencilling. I could do it easily with just a couple of colours but I want it too look semi-realistic (leaves & bark). There is a photo of it below.

Any suggestions on technique/tips would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The key to making it look realistic is to use several different shades of greens for the leaves and several shades of brown for the bark.  Also, stencil the paint in VERY LIGHTLY and leave places here and there that are white or very light.  There is no such thing as a solid colored leave.  Dab the paint in sparingly around the edges and add slowly.

Answer 2

Secure the stencil to the wall with tape. Select all the colors you want to use. If you do not have more than one stenciling brush, start with the lightest color and fill in the parts of the stencil you want. Then go to the next darker color. I go heavy on the edges and this makes them darker (even using the same color) than the center part which appears to be two colors instead of one.

Answer 3

get all different shades of green and brown and color the leaves in all different shades of green

for example dark green light green and yellow green then green apple

and for brown

dark brown light brown choclate and maybe just add a little black in there