Tale of a Ponderosa Pine

I love the ponderosa pine trees that grow all over Bend. They are stately, smell great and sigh in the wind. The red bark stands out in the green of the lower story of the forest floor. 

I photographed this ponderosa the other day on a walk at a city park. Then I used the app Waterlogue to turn it into a watercolor type image. From there, I used the watercolor image to create the real watercolor painting. 

Seems a bit convoluted to get to a watercolor painting. However the simplifying of the image by applying the app filter reduces the drive to get all the details in the scene into your painting. This is a great way to learn and to look at images to see how they might work as a watercolor. Also a great way if you feel that you are too tight in your work and need to loosen up a bit.