For the longest time I've only been watching painting tutorials online, and I noticed that most of the best paintings were done in black and white first - to get the values right. So I'm trying it out, and that explains why this illustration is more morose than it actually will be by the time I'm finished. I'm remembering that landscapes are darkest objects in the forefront, and then the values lighten farther back. This is really just a practice piece - for value, landscape, and I guess portrait painting. At the moment I don't have any reference; I'm just winging it as long as I can go without it. And of course there's a story in the illustration (otherwise I can't get into it). I thought up a story about a colony of widows who are outcast due to the strange powers that came to them upon their husband's deaths. And of course there's a young heroine who has to pass through death to save her husband in the end. (Yes, I have been reading too much Garth Nix as of late!)
