LJ and NJ

Decided to try another “jar with brushes” to continue to get the feel of how to paint the jar.  It’s a different jar but this one, too, has its challenges.  I added two palette knives to complete the composition.  The bottom half of the background has been painted twice.  It began life as gray but later i decided that that value didn’t offer enough contrast, so tried the blue (kind of turquoise) you can see here.  Still have problem with values — the blue is too close in value to the gray in the palette knives.  I have darkened the knives a couple of times, but the issue remains.  Not sure whether i’ll continue to darken the knives — which turns them into something not quite recognizable as palette knives; or change the background…..Also beginning another project —getting ready to paint a bird house we saw on a neighborhood walk some time ago.  So far i’ve just done the drawing, which is pretty basic.  Hope to begin painting in the next day or so.  The drawing is based on several photos of the birdhouse.  Will try to attach one or two of them below.