Red Moss Birches – Mixed Media

The trees were drawn with pencil overlaid with various light tones from Derwent Drawing Pencils. Highlights were masked out while the darker areas were added with Inktense Blocks. The background and some of the front foliage is in watercolour.

The name “Red Moss” is from the Red Moss Nature Reserve, south of Balerno, Edinburgh. Vast areas of this peaty bog land are home to a huge variety of birds, insects and other wildlife. To help the reserve regenerate properly, thousands of young birch trees have been planted. Birches are among the first trees to colonise a “new area” and will be replaced, in time, by native species such as ash, oak, beech etc which are grow more slowly. Most native conifers, such as Scots Pine already thrive in the acid soil. Parts of the reserve have been established for many years and these are a few more mature birch trees I discovered during a wee walk earlier this week.