Finishing the Pileated Woodpecker Painting

When I left the Pileated Woodpecker painting in the last blog post I had the bird and anchoring trunk worked out but needed to get in some dark foliage shapes.  Because these birds are often found in pine forests I wanted to work out a dark pattern in the upper left corner which might suggest pine needles.  In the lower left quadrant I wanted to suggest ground shrubbery.

I became unhappy with the horizontal branch in the lower part of the painting and decided to bring the viewer through the painting with some delicate splatters instead.  I wiped out the branch and also wiped out a light pathway zigzagging through the foreground.   This painting here is nearly done; the final version is posted on this website.