Berries & Birch~WIP

This is the sketch after alteration in Elements 6.0. I selected the shade of red I desired and used the Eyedropper set at size 13 to literally drop in the berries. Next I switched to Brush and added the black and greys. I set the Brush size at 9 & 2 respectively. When I felt I had added enough 'information' I softened some of the dropper and brush work with the Blur feature. Tada!

The initial sketch

Last December I took a photo of the birch tree that grows across the drive from my home titled Berries & Birch. Nearby another tree grows that produces clusters of vivid orange-red berries that stay on the tree all winter, well after the foliage has fallen. I really should know the name of this berry producing tree/shrub(?) being a gardener but trees and shrubs were never my forte. I'll be researching this one and I will find out what it is. What drew my interest was the way the branches of each tree crisscrossed each other and the contrast of the bright red berries against the greys, whites and the bits of black on the birch. The blue-grey winter sky added the perfect background.


Last night I drew a quick sketch from the photo, indicating the placement of the berry clusters using several amorphous shapes scribbled here and there. This morning I refined the sketch somewhat and studied it to see how well the composition worked. I realized without the color of those berries it would be hard to tell what the final result might be. I didn't want to add color to my sketch so I did the next best thing. I put it in Elements.