For our first week in the studio we were to paint the essence of a country or an area, i.e., Italy, Mexico, France, Mediterranean, Switzerland, Africa, etc. While I have ideas of places to paint, i.e. China since I've been there, or some other places, I decided to continue to work on a painting of a coastline, perhaps one in Oregon.

I like the sky, the water, sand and rocks and of course the birds. What I don't like is the way the leaves look. They are not loose and I don't know how to achieve that look. In Painter, what brush, etc. would I use? What about the strokes? What else?