Frozen Birches - A Work in Progress

This is an interesting exercise using a monochrome for the background and painting in the negative.

Using only Antwerp blue the entire background area with the exception of the center tree was painted with a light wash.

A little more pigment was added to the wash and the next layer was painted leaving the original tree as white paper and the next two closest trees with just the original wash.

Each layer was built up by adding a little more pigment to the wash to darken it and leaving a few more trees.

Each layer leaves the original trees untouched and leaving smaller and darker trees.

The painting was left to dry and using pure pigment with a small amount of water the "whip" marks were painted into the background birch trees as well as the smaller branches on the trees.

I will post this piece at a later date as more of it is completed.