Winter Tree, Winter Sky Painting

When it began to snow for the first time of the winter season, I knew that they grey sky would make for an excellent picture to paint. I walked down the sidewalk until I found a tree that had an interesting shape. I loved the silhouette that the two main branches in the picture below create, against the smokey sky, and chose it for my painting. My only fear was that the branches might be overwhelmingly complicated. Ultimately I only picked the most visible branches, simplifying the picture. Firstly, I painted the grey sky, mixing different amounts of white and black depending on the section, and variations in brush strokes which are more visibly seen in person. Something I learned from this project was the use of water with acrylics. Typically I avoid water because it tends to strip the paint, but for the level of detail required it was necessary. I chose an extremely dark brown, wanting to avoid black as usual. I tried to capture the character of the tree, including lumpy branches, and sharp angles between smaller ones. Overall I am happy with the final product, and look forward to including trees in future work, perhaps ones with foliage.