Winter Magic

In amongst the bare twigs of my winter garden, I notice that the witch hazel has performed it's magic.  Weird clusters of petals (I hardly dare call them flowers) appear on the branches and in the cold Northern light, they positively glow.

From a distance they look brown, but on closer inspection they have many hues: salmon pink, pale orange, rust and at their heart, a rich, deep, claret-red.  The petals of the flowers look crumpled and spidery and they cling to the branches in clusters, like loose pom-poms.

I use my pastel pencils to scratch out the twiggy outline of the bush and then choose a selection of colours over-layed to achieve the glow that I see in the flowers.  Like a good student, I have analysed the colour palette on the side.