Crooked Gulley Art Quilts

I'm working on the Birch Tree Grove. I want it to look like the end of summer; the leaves are just starting to turn. As you saw in the previous post, I have bits of golden yellow mixed in with the green..... But, it just looks like a big blob of green. The trunks look great (I think), but the green mass of leaves doesn't allow the eye to see separate trees. It needs more dimension...         See what I mean?.........  I want the tree with the largest trunk to come forward. I think this is where I need to know about shadowing. I did it fine on the trunk, but I'm not sure what to do with the leaves. I'm pretty sure I want to keep the center part of the green the color that it is, but as the green moves to the left and right of center it needs to get darker.  Does that make sense or am I in La La land yet again??? I think this is where the fabric pens and oil pastels come in handy. The worst that can happen is that I totally screw this up. Right?   ...

Ladies and Gentlemen... we could do this... I received this as an email from a good friend, and thought, "This is the perfect post for the blog. If you would like a copy of this article to put on your blog or email to friends just leave a comment and I'll make sure you get it! >  > As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking  > into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of  > cheaply produced goods -- merchandise that has been produced at  > the expense of American labor. This > year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift  > of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an  > excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is  > produced by American hands. Yes there is! >  > It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift  > needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced  > wrapping pap...