After a series of quick messy sketches to determine the layout,  Rejic13 and I agreed that we like this one and I went on to clean the sketch up. In some cases I make a real mess that only I know how to turn into a painting, but this time I wanted to avoid that. Early on I wanted to make the whole concept as clear as I can because a lot of the elements of the painting are important and opposite of random, and it's best to proceed knowing exactly what the final result will be.
The color scheme might be a surprise since I found new art inspiration that might influence me, and these trees have predetermined features and colors, so I'll have to make them all look good individually and make them work as a painting all together. Maybe I'll go through some trials and errors, maybe I'll just get lucky the first time. We'll see in a few days!

Also, what you're seeing here is as far as they would let me take my "paintings" at work when I worked as a concept artist. That means that all of my skills with color and rendering are a result of working over time after my 9 to 5 and the last 4 years of working only as an illustrator. And given that at all times I was forced to work instead of just study... You tell me, did I make enough progress?