Evening Light on Pines

"Evening Light on Pines"   16"x17" pastel on Uart paper toned with acrylic

I like to photograph my work when it's partially finished. The small format of the photograph helps you see the composition and what areas need to be simplified or the value changed.

I used my reference photograph from my trip yesterday to Natural Bridge. The evening light was streaming through the forest and illuminating the pine trees. Light was fading too quickly to set up for a plein air drawing so I knew I'd have to depend on the photographs.

Maple tree colors glowed on the right side and my challenge is to keep some of that glow but not let it distract from the light on the pine tree.  I know that my photos overexpose the lights and block up the darks, but I like strong contrast and that contrast helps focus on the pine tree. This is a drawing I don't want to overwork and I want to keep a lot of the colors fairly neutral to keep the focus on the light on the tree trunk.