Use two thin pieces of wood.  Drill completely through one piece of wood and then glue a blank piece on for the bottom of the hole.  Smooth bottom and no center divot.

My forstner bits say top speed is 800 rpm on some and the bigger ones state 750 rpm on them. 

Steve, the Fisch Wave Cutter chart shows 1000 RPM for hardwoods, with a 1 inch bit. I’ve been using the Southbend on it’s slowest setting, there’s 5 settings.

 

Plenty of advice on the drilling so I'll just offer my opinion on the wood. I think you'll find pine much less satisfactory than poplar. Cheap pine will have pitch and knots, and clear pine might cost more than the poplar. The grain on pine won't be a "tight" as the poplar, so the painting might not look as good. It won't drill any better either. But all this speculation, and it might be worthwhile to try a small piece and see how it goes.

Both pine and poplar are fairly soft so the grain raising is going to be a problem. One thing to try is an oil base paint. The water base is going to raise the grain. The harder the wood the better the finish so changing to a hard wood would be best. One possibility to try that is cheap hardwood would be pallets. 
Paul

37 minutes ago, Masonsailor said:

One thing to try is an oil base paint

...or maybe use something like shellac as a sealer. Just thinking out loud

since you are using a drill press and Forstner bit, just grind the center tip off the bit.  flat hole, done.  don't need it, as the bit won't wander if the work is held down well.

11 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Plenty of advice on the drilling so I'll just offer my opinion on the wood. I think you'll find pine much less satisfactory than poplar. Cheap pine will have pitch and knots, and clear pine might cost more than the poplar. The grain on pine won't be a "tight" as the poplar, so the painting might not look as good. It won't drill any better either. But all this speculation, and it might be worthwhile to try a small piece and see how it goes.

NOPE! Fred this is what I lacked the ability to put on paper, there are no reasons why pine would be a better choice than poplar. Thank you. In my inexperienced mind my thought was that pine being a softwood, might drill better, with less fuzzies. Not changing anything I’m doing, the Trees are coming out acceptable to me. I’m just trying to see how much better I can make them. Thank you.

Hey Artie, how about an update?  anything change? did you find a fix?

Haven’t had a chance to make any sawdust, did buy one of the flat bottom router bits, we’ll see how it cuts, and how easy/bad a set up will be. Think I’m not innerested in Pine.