The Tree Portrait

Tree Study, 8x8, pastel

Tree Study is my demo from my Monday class this morning. The focus was, obviously, on trees, or what I like to call a "tree portrait." Normally when I do this exercise, I choose a scene that has one main tree and then a few others around it. The challenge is then to use color vibrancy (bright/saturated vs. grey/muted) and color temperature (warms and cools) to bring some sections of tree foliage forward and push others back. Soft and hard edges also play a part in all this.

We also discussed creating the overall shape of the tree, creating pleasing abstract shapes, rather than creating an exact copy of the shape as shown in the reference photo.