Pine Tree - Final, unbound

I spent a lot of time playing with ideas for snow. I didn't want a lot, but I didn't want the tree entirely spared from that indignity either.

I had planned to use my pearl paint. It had been effective in the mountain piece and after trying a bit on some spare "foliage" I thought I could do the entire thing with it. However, when I put it on the base of the bole of the tree, it was too grey and muddy. I wanted to retain some texture and if I applied enough paint to cover the grey/black it would have been solid. After I blotted off as much as I could I tried a few other ideas.

I had the idea of stitching wool yarn together to keep it tactile, but it looked like a braided rug slapped on the side of the tree. Could have been a poor toupee.
Straight white cloth was....plain cloth. So I ended up using the method I used to make water. I wrapped the white cloth with a piece of organza and stitched down the excess into folds.
Much better.

A few passes with "snow" thread blending the edge into the trunk and a little bit of thread applied to a few branches on the windward side, I stopped.

A bit of paint on a few branches was all I applied...today. I'll see how bright it dries tomorrow and decide if I need to add more.
Now I have to decide how to bind this. I tried a few things today and didn't like anything. The sky is altered too much to simply pair it with the original blue fabric. Needs some time and thought.

 

Final with Snow - 21"x34"

 

I removed some of the branches and foliage from the lower left. They made it bottom heavy.

Final without snow

 

The "grass" was given a heavy treatment of gold and brown to soften it's artificial feel. Rolling mounds of snow were made with lines of stitching, primarily, so I could breakup the shadow of the tree. This scene is not bright light, so a pale grey blue was all I used.

 

Bole - snow detail