Painting Winter Woods

reference photo of winter woods — Reference Photo

Using the above photo for reference, I made a light pencil drawing starting with the aspen tree trunks in the foreground. I paid close attention to their angles and spacing since they would determine the composition of the drawing. As I added the trees behind them, I focused on capturing the feel of the main shapes, lines and shadows.

Focusing on negative space helped to define the white trunks and branches.

More layers of color and detail are added.

More layers, more details, and a slight exageration of the colors in the tree trunks

Next, I used masking fluid to preserve some of the most important branches. Once the mask was dry, I blocked in the shadows in the background and some of the greens of the tree boughs. Then I focused on one small section at a time, paying attention to negative space, to create the smaller branches. Whenever I got stuck (or stale) I wandered off to another section and then went back. This first layer helped my subject emerge, making it a little easier to keep track of which branch belonged to which tree or how a branch might continue after another crossed in front of it.

Once the basic composition was defined, I added more layers to make the darks darker and to add more depth and detail to the branches. To finish off, I exagerated the colors and saturation level in the tree trunks and shadows to create more interest.