Forest for the Trees

PPF and Inspiration Ave collided this week with an exploration of trees.  My inspiration was a photo I found somewhere on flickr with a very vivid sunset and then all these trees in water in stark silhouette.  Here are my varied and humble attempts at capturing it in watercolor.  I tried over and over and find fault with each effort, but there is also something I like about each.  I tried out a new brush and leaf/tree painting technique that I kinda liked, but again, needs more practice.

Like the shapes of the trees but the shadows at the bottom are just a gray blob -

Shadows are MUCH better but don't like the harsh line of demarcation between sky colors.

Better water and shadows, but less interesting big tree shapes - what's a girl to do???

Best sky/water blending, but colors seem a little garish - nice trees with okay shadows, not the best.  Okay, I guess I still need to work on this but it was a fun exercise to come up with so many versions of essentially the same painting.

Visit other talented artists today at Paint Party Friday or Inspiration Avenue .  It's my first participation at Inspiration Ave so not quite sure how it all works.  Keep Creating!!

REVISED TO ADD:  I had a couple of folks ask about what brush and technique I used, so here you go if interested.  I used my new fan brush, heavily loaded with Payne's gray and pushed strongly against the page in an upward motion to give the width to the pounced stroke.  Almost like a stenciling motion.  Lots of reloading cuz I wanted it really black and it kept drying too light.  The centers are obviously dabbed more densely and then tapering as I shaped the branches but you can still see the result of the pushing motion since they have width, not just little grass like shapes like usually come with a fan brush.  Trunks and branches were added later with a round brush.