Beginning the Background Detail

Today I started detailing the background, and it was with great trepidation.  I started out OK, but then I realized I was doing a landscape.  Gulp!  But I persevered and, having begun in the upper left corner, managed to work nearly halfway down the painting.

In the process, I removed the center tree when I realized that not only was it "sprouting" from the rear fawn's head but also that it was directly in the horizontal center of the painting.  The now middle tree is sprouting from  the front fawn's head and the space between the two center trees is the same width as the trees themselves - another problem, I suppose.  These things don't really bother me so much but I know that they're grievous infractions of the "rules."  So I'll have to ponder what, if anything, I'm going to do.  And I see some odd shapes which I will change as I proceed.

I also added another layer to the rear fawn.  Her back was completely washed in sunlight in my photo, but I made it darker and "found" some spots for her.

So far, it's going reasonably well.  By the way, I'm still working with hard pastels.