Trees

                      "Maine Cottage in the Woods"

Many students have trouble painting believable trees.  I think that is because they are relying on their memory of trees or their preconceived ideas of trees leftover from elementary school.
 
Observe trees.  Draw trees from nature.  Look at the light and shadows on their trunks.  Are the trunks lighter or darker than their background?  Vary the colors on the trunks.  Use clumps or clusters of foliage rather than trying to paint individual leaves with little unconnected dots. 

Using trees to frame subjects is a common practice.  But sometimes the trees become the subject. Know what you want your viewers to look at, and then make it interesting with value and color.

Here is my little cottage in the Maine woods, trees and all.