My friend Rick asked me to paint a picture for his parent�s anniversary. The photo he sent was really interesting because of the depth of textures, the snarled trunks and the feathery leaves and sharp dried palm leaves. I wanted to try to communicate those textures, and the light coming from almost behind the leaning tree was important too.

I started with a quick sketch, and went into the painting. I ended up getting really heavy on the shadows far too quickly. As I went, I tried to compensate by darkening some select areas, but I couldn�t get past the initial loss of highlights caused by going too dark too quickly.

I ended up bailing on this, and started over.