Step Seven: So there you are
Make sure your paper and paints are absolutely dry. Take the natural rubber pick-up and using a gentle but strong stroking pressure roll off and pick-up ALL the frisketed areas on the painting. With the new white paper exposed things change, and you have a whole new set of parameters to play with.
Using a mix of burnt sienna, raw umber, dioxazine purple, and a touch of burnt umber and the 1 1/2" wash brush and my #6 round sable I made some gradations to the white trees in back and layered darker details of the same mix in the forest and trees.
I threw a quick wash of sap green over the newly exposed areas on either side of the tree's base. I had left some random dots in the clearing behind the tree for an indication of flowers. Using a #6 round sable I make a mixture of permanent rose and a slight bit of dioxazine purple and made a light pinkish lavendar color I used on the middle- and fore-ground flower forms.
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Step Eight: Flipflopping in negative space
I then turned my attention to the foreground tree. Using My 1" flat wash brush I mixed some dioxazine purple with some cobalt blue and burnt sienna, creating a fairly intense purple gray brown. I cut in the shadow areas on the left side of the tree taking care to drop in shadows for the textures and surface details of the tree and it's roots.
When that first shadow layer had dried I mixed a lighter tint of the same mixture and, holding my 1" brush nearly parallel with the paper, I dragged the flat side of the brush down the trunk, picking up a bunch of surface highlight textures that looks remarkably like bark. Pulling this same wash over the entire tree, leaving only the highlights.
After the area was dry again I moistened the entire tree with clean water. Using a #6 round and a strong mix of cobalt blue with a touch of lamp black on darker edges, I slashed in the diagonal tree branch shadows when the paper had dried enough to be of controllable dampness. I also pulled the intense blue wash over the textured shadows picking our the last few highlights as the paper dried.
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Step Nine: Getting a grip on things
Alternately using a #6 round and a #5 rigger, I gradually built up and intensifed the forms within the shadow of the tree trunk. This was done with a dioxazine purple, cobalt blue, and lamp black mix.
The linear flow of the bark was indicated with the rigger. In the lighter areas I used a lighter tone of the same mix as before with burnt sienna added for warmth.
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Step Ten: Polish and refine
Upon closer examination of the background trees I realized the white trees weren't finished at the bases. I mixed a close proximity of the colors I used before on these trees and added darker graded washes at their bases to root them (sorry) to the background. I then reworked the brush and debris at the base of the background trees.
With a mix of the darker purple grays I had puddled around, I used a #6 round and added texture to the ground at the base of the tree, drawing random shapes reminiscent of leaves.
I wanted to punch the big tree up a bit. The darks were not dark enough for my tastes. I made an extremely dark mix of hooker's green dark and alizarin crimson and using some fancy brushwork (a #6 round) "drew" the darks in again. I used the brush edge to pick out some heavy textures at the base of the tree.
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Step Eleven: All Done! (Click image to enlarge)
For some final touches I picked up the darkest colors laying around with a #5 rigger and picked out stray weed stems and ground debris in the foregound.
Next I re-introduced a few darker tree silhouettes in the background.
I warmed up the roots twisting to the left and repainted the shadows laying across those roots.
I thought about it a bit...
...then I decided I'd do more harm than good by continuing to pick at it so I declared this one "done" and mixed a dark red using alizarin crimson and pthalo green and signed the painting.
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Painting Trees with Liquid Frisket - Part 2
Step-by-Step Watercolor Paintings