Spruce Tree in Prismacolor

Light on Branches Covered With Lichen 10x7.5"

Here is another aging spruce tree near our cabin. Like so many trees on the north shore of Lake Superior, many of the inside branches are covered with lichen which gives them a sort of fairy-dusted look. The complexity of the tangled, needleless branches makes trees like this lots of fun to draw.

This drawing was done with a Prismacolor colored pencil, #931, Dark Purple, on Gutenberg paper. Again, it is from a Roz Stendahl journal.

I had prepared this page by smearing stamp pad ink along the edges and the gutter of the spread before I left home. When I got to this page in the journal it seemed natural to choose a purple pencil and work on the recto half of the spread. Here is an example of how doing something simple to a journal ahead of time gives you something to work with and just launches you off in a direction so you can get to drawing instead of dithering about what to do with a blank page.