Evergreen Tree Mini Demo

'Majestic'                 9x12              pastel               ©Karen Margulis
available $175

Painting evergreen trees can be tricky. Our brains are quick to recognize their familiar shape and before we know it we have painted the perfect Christmas tree! But careful observation will show us that trees are rarely perfectly shaped. It is important that we don't allow our logical brain to substitute the regularly shaped evergreen tree! It is easy if we just look

Over on Patreon I recently did a complete photo demo of this painting from Alaska. I'd like to share a few of the steps here so you can see how I approach painting the evergreens. Below is my reference photo.

I use a piece of Wallis warm mist paper. I liked the brownish orange tone which would give some warmth to the cool greens of the trees. In the first step I blocked in the tree shapes with a spruce blue Nupastel. I used a lighter blue green to block in the more distant trees and mountain so I could create some depth. 

In the next step I block in the rest of the painting. I use pale pink for the sky and red violets for the ground. This will give a visual connection between these two areas. 

After the block in it is just a matter of continuing to layer and refine the details. I use a variety of greens to give the trees depth and form. I use my set of Terry Ludwig pastels exclusively for this painting. It is good for more than flowers!

Here is the finish! In the end I put in some pink wildflowers to provide a path into the painting and to further the earth sky connection.

You can see the entire demo over on Patreon. Please consider joining!! www.patreon.com/karenmargulis. It is just $4 a month!