This is my experiment using heavy graphite pencil and watercolor washes,, as I mentioned in a previous post. I usually do not draw such odd subjects, but this broken, dead Spruce had this remarkable face. I believe the damage to the tree was caused by a snowplow, because it is located at the edge of a parking lot at Santa Fe Ski Basin. I used a sample hot press paper from Saunders Waterford and it performed marvelously when washed, erased and scrubbed. It is the best hot press paper I have tried and I will probably get some more. The paper's sizing is smooth and stable and there was minimal buckling as it dried.
two fantastic paintings. Its really difficult to make rocks look like hard stone, and Wood like wood. You can almost feel the textures you made here! Maybe for a next time, the treetrunk would come more loose from the background, if you blurred it more, so a wet into wet technique for the background. Just a thought when I look at the watercolour.