LJ and NJ

I’m getting ready to start a new painting. I’ve got several ideas for landscapes — one in summer, one in winter. Will show photos later. But before i get going on them, i thought i’d give another try to learning how to paint a bird house on a tree trunk. (Note: I worked and reworked one of these last summer, and never got it right.) Now in a painting class and teacher is focusing on values this month. So yesterday she had us do an underpainting — just using one color (i used burnt sienna); covering the canvas with a thin layer of paint and then working on the image by just changing the values of that hue, either by thickening or thinning the paint. I’ll show below the original reference photo and then my effort at an underpainting AKA Value Study.