Day 031 / Watercolor Tree #2

Watercolor is definitely a frustrating medium.  I learned the last time that its better to sometimes leave an area alone than it is to keep adding to it.  Seeing through to the paper below is half the charm of watercolor and it’s something that I’m striving for as well.  Unfortunately, it seems that it’s damn near impossible not to go too far somewhere in your picture.  
 
First, I felt great about the background, then I made sure to take it easy on the trunk and branches and that turned out pretty good and then I went to the leaves and that’s where I went too far.  I think I went a little crazy with the fan brush.  I sort of preferred the more bare tree that I had before I started speckling the leaves on.  
 
I’m not saying that I don’t like the way the painting came out.  I think it’s great, especially when you kind of stand back and look at it.  But I feel like perhaps I should be doing this tree multiple times in order to really improve.  There’s a technique that I’m already starting to use on these and its probably a good idea for me to keep repeating the process.  
 
So I guess don’t be surprised if you happen to see this tree turn up a couple more times in some future blog posts. All the best!