@Michelle Cyr You were right! I finished this first layer plus additional yellow highlights all in one sitting! I didn't check the time. I'm guessing between 1.5 and 2 hours. Time fell away. I am rather pleased with the result. My bee isn't quite what I'd like. But he is there! I made a creative choice to underlie the outer ring as well as the inner ring (with burnt sienna). @LM Sharron I forgot you asked about that until after I did it! I wanted more of that color. My opinion is mixed on whether or not that worked. Hmmm, now that I attached the picture here, maybe it did work after all. I put too much of the "dark" colors while mixing. This is why I have so much paint on my palette. I am through my white and my yellow. I am very glad I ordered paints this week. Anyhow, I celebrated the 4th with oil painting. 😁 And I will set up my 1 on 1!!

@Heather van Doorn is one of my IRL students and has been working VERY VERY hard to really understand oil painting. I'm not gonna lie, she picked a HARD image to paint. The image she chose has very subtle paint color shifts and values that she is having to train her brain to see. She took my 5 hour class in IRL June and she has returned 3 times so far for "Open Studio" to continue working on it. How about you guys tell her what you think about it. She still has one more session to get this finished up. This is what we do in "Private Lessons" in the classroom. 1:1 attention to paint THE painting that you want to paint. When you are finished, you will have confidence to paint on your own.

Asking for a friend.

One of the folks I follow on social media posted this pic from his vacation to Norway. Photo courtesy of Cynical Publius on X. He described it thus: This shot is in one of the fjords in the Lofoten region of Norway. Fujifilm GFX100RF (I splurged and bought this medium format camera just for this trip, I'll have some thoughts on that camera soon too), 35mm fixed lens, handheld, ISO 80, f/5.6, 1/450th. Obviously, he knows his way around a camera. Posting it for your viewing pleasure and also to check my learning. I'm thinking this is a spectacular example of good composition, yes?

Is it just me missing @Amanda Mirrlees