LJ and NJ

I worked on the water some more over the past few weeks.  Then decided to leave it alone for a while and try to make a start on the birds.  Haven’t had class so i haven’t had teacher feedback.  What i am posting today is beginning effort to figure out those birds.  I’ll post below three photos. these are this week’s effort – so far — all are obviously preliminary! So — The top photo below was my initial effort.  realized belatedly that the raptors were not properly set in the rocks — i.e. they should be on the top of the rock; and below the horizon line.  In the second photo i have removed that guy and begun, with an outline, a hopefully more realistic bird (now on the left).  I am aware that the gulls look too prominent because their white is too white.  But i am waiting to tone them down till i get them all painted in — there will be several more.  There will also be additional raptors.  They look dull – opposite problem from that of the gulls — partly because i was painting over a repainted sky and partly (i speculate) because the mix i used to make black had transparent paint colors.