
Step 1
This is an example of using the negative painting process to paint a sunny fall Cottonwood tree in Zion National Park. On top of my light pencil sketch I lay […]

Step 2
I lay in the darker sky and background which begins to define the shape of the golden leaves. I am careful to leave the trunk area white, so I can […]

Step 3
Successive glazes with darker pigments form the darker branches and starts to shape the edges of the trunk.

Step 4
In this close-up you can see how I use bluish pigment to build the cast shadows on the trunk, which gives them shape and form. Notice how three-dimensional my branches are becoming.

Step 5
The finished painting. Can you identify all the places in this painting where I used negative painting to create positive and negative shapes?