Evaluating the painting

The final process for the painting is to evaluate it. Now that I've finished the detail and laid out the components, it's time to let the painting sit for a day or two and see if there's any portion of the painting that needlessly draws the eye.

In the current painting, I see three items that bother me.

The first one is that the plants around the base of the tree are too small. I think that the brighter area should spread out more and meld a little better with the foreground.

The second issue is that the ground is too vertical. In this case, I will need to glaze a thin layer of the sky onto the upper edge of the ground. That will do a better job on simulating atmospheric perspective.

The final issue is to extend the lower branches to be below the horizon line. They actually are below the line, but the green in the ground blends too much with the tree. This gives the impression that the tree branches are sitting on the horizon line.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the composition and achieved the image that I had in my mind.