Francisco de Zurbaran Study

My value study is at stage 2 now, I have softened the values placed side by side on the first photo. Ron thought I could finish this in a class, but I am here to tell you, I don't think that happened. Oh my gosh, when I left his studio 6 hours after having walked in, my brain was literally buzzing. I could not bear to listen to the radio, it was hard to enter back into the left brain that i guess we all live in. Ron told us that if we kept talking to ourselves that we should listen to audiobooks to quiten our inner voice, that may lead to better painting experiences. I am not sure I was doing that but maybe I'll take my iPhone ear buds next time and listen to a spoken word book to see what happens. There was a lot of people in different throes of pain, including me, that were talking. I have found, when I start getting frustrated with painting, when I probably am beginning to learn a technique, I want to go home! Man, I wanted to go home a bunch yesterday. It was PAIN! Why is it so hard to paint? Why is it sometimes so hard to learn? I know it requires discipline, that is something I am in short supply, so I'm at it again trying to learn. So, this is a study originally painted by Francisco de Zurbaran titled St. Francis, of course, this is the St. Francis of Assissi fame. He painted this in 1660. Now, he painted in color but I am doing a study of values so Ron has me painting in value tones. To see the original, go here: http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=693

My picture is the second one and the first one was painted by de Zurbaran. Hopefully I will get the pictures in order this time...ha ha, i didn't. Perhaps after posting for a while, I will figure it out! Mine has a bit of a shine from the camera phone flash, gotta figure out how to stop that from happening or edit it out? Notice his nose...there is a pretty big difference in the 2 pics there and there are several other differences that I will have to struggle with over the next class to fix, but I'm on my way. I just need to figure out what to do to practice every day now. I asked Ron but if he told me, I swear I forgot. I thought of downloading another image of St Francis and painting it in black and white painted by de Zurbaran. He is one of my favorite saints, in fact I have a statue of him in my garden outside and my doggie wears a St Francis medal.