Branch

Acrylic on canvas | May 2022

Process

I did this one because I had a chunk of time to myself and wanted to produce something. At best the idea was "trees" and "lots of detail!" this is the output of that. Oh, and somehow I actually took process shots.

The first layer

As you can see, I had no idea where to go with this one early on. The tree to the left was the first and just does not have the vibe I was looking for. Eventually, I turned the canvas upside down to paint in the trees. That was the way to go. I also had this swampy idea brewing that I abandoned.

Foreground time

After finishing the backdrop and letting it dry it was time for the foreground. The main goal here was to get some texture going. I've always been a fan of building up those heavy body acrylics to where there's some dimension.

Almost done

Finally(ish) this is the last layer I could do with paint. I painted in all the branches I could with small brushes, then gave it a wash of grey to fade the background and add some texture. All the fine details were added in with a brush pen. I had aspirations to add detailed and complex roots too. But I opted to wrap it up and call it done.