This project started out as a commission for our Japanese Maple door set, a design we’ve produced a few times over the years.  As I often do, I sketched to come up with a different approach, something that would incorporate more of the tree as I did in a recent commission for a client in Minnesota.

About 5 drawings in, I had something worth presenting. The client liked it and made a request – to delete the downward flowing branches to reflect the way he prunes the Japanese Maples in front of his home on Whidbey Island, Washington.

Here’s what we made: