Painting Progression

I took pictures of my latest painting as it progressed.  I enjoyed seeing how it changed at different stages in time.  This painting was done over the course of about 10 days.

After the sketch I looked at the photo I worked from and decided to put down red as an under layer to the bark of the trees.  It was an experiment in color.

Here I started to add in the dark part of the pine needles.  

I initially wanted to paint this picture because I wanted to study the bark of the tree on the left side.  However, I started to become more interested in the way the branches of the tree on the right had spaces in between them.  I liked pushing the paint around between the pine needles and the sky.

I continued painting the tree on the right side.  I started to get into looking at the individual pine needles on the branches.  I really got into it.  Then I felt like I had to move back to the tree on the left because I was neglecting the bark of the tree on the left.  I worked at it a lot because when I began to add the texture I felt it looked too scribbled and the lines I added looked too straight.  It needed a rough more broken textured look.

Here is the finished painting.  I decided to add another layer of paint to the mountains in the background but leave them without much detail so that the pine trees in the foreground remain as the focal point.