Got two studies done today, here was my setup. I don’t have great photos of the two, so will post later. Today I really focused on color and value using the “brush in front” technique. Basically, I start by dip the opposite end of the brush in black and hold the brush between the me and the scene. I do the same with white. In this particular scene, the darkest dark could be represented with the black (or lighter) and the lightest light could be represented by white. This tells me that I can paint this scene with the range of pigment I have.

Then, for each color, I mix on the palette then hold in front of the object/shape I’m painting and do a direct comparison. If the color/value is indistinguishable from the thing I’m painting, I know it’s write. This is a great way to match color/value, but won’t help you push color. That’s another step!