Lone Tree in the Snow

Ok, so today I have a series of pictures for you.  Trying to work wet in wet in the background, and dry brush in the foreground.

You can see in the first photo, I've got the tree sketched out, and have blocked in some colors.  I put just a little color in the sky.  Maybe the color from the distant hills is reflected in the sky just a bit.





This second one, I've got the tree in and some rocks and grass.  I tried leaving a little white here and there, especially on the ground where I think the light might be reflecting off the snow.

Adding details to the tree and to the grass.  The tree in the photo has some really deep grooves in it.  It's pretty wind warn and has a real ancient feel to it.  

 A few more details on the tree and a few more sprigs of winter grass and I'm just about done.  Not only did I use many shades of brown and red in the base color of the tree, but I'm not using a single color in all the shadows.  I think I've got 5 or six different colors.

Here it is framed and hanging on the wall.  I noticed after looking at it that there really wasn't enough differentiation between the near and far hills,  I went back and put just a touch of blue to create a hill.

I really like this painting, and the woman I painted it for really likes it.  It is currently hanging in her office.  It really makes me feel good to hand off a painting like this that someone really likes.  Hope you all like it as much as I do.  Thanks so much.