The central section of this painting needs more leaves! This is a great time in the process to develop this area further. The leaves act as filler and also create lines of energy and interest in the overall composition. This makes the shapes and direction of the leaves important.

You can compare this image to the image that was taken at the end of the previous day’s work to better see the overall progression. Just a few more leaves have made a big difference.

I choose to draw and paint the direction and flow of the leaves based on where I feel energy is needed in the composition. You have to step back from the painting a lot during this process.

Though I didn’t add a lot of leaves today, you can see that every day that I work on this painting provides necessary progress. It’s important to keep large projects moving and sometimes it’s better to consistently do a little bit at a time than a lot in one day.

If I choose, I could begin to work in the background in the upper half of the painting next.