value, mood and tips

Here is another value study. It is of my favorite slough in Washington state so I  used a plein air piece as reference. No photos...it's all in the plein air piece, my memory and my built up reference folder in my head.
The colors in the plein air painting really do show the time of day I hope to create a real mood to this painting. I can feel it. The value scale will be darker and close....small lights will peek through. Somber, bittersweet with hope.

 I was asked in an email for tips about creating value paintings.
Here are a few:
Squint (but that's always, right)
I like to use the subtractive method. On soft paper (somerset is my paper of choice) use pastel to make big shapes. With a rage and fingers I  smooodge it and then with a kneaded eraser and a harder eraser I subtract lightly...make a small mistake add more pastel. It's very forgiving.  Enjoy!