Creating this was an exercise in value blocking. I tried to simplify the piece to four values, but I had little practice with that and got really frustrated at the lack of difference. Near the end, I gave the bushes in the background a different texture, and that became my favorite part of the piece: when I realized value wasn’t the only thing one can use to create differences. In the process of making this, someone moved the pillows on the couches because it had rained, so I had to restart halfway through and scrambled to get this done in time.