Flame azalea - 4

The next step is to do a tonal drawing to help me see the composition on paper.  What is petal, leaf and stem and what is negative space.  How all the petals turn and fold in the blossoms.  Can you imagine six or seven or eight girls with twirly tango skirts all twirling together and their skirts all overlapping, what that might look like?  That is basically what we are dealing with.  Azalea blossoms doing the flamenco.  So it helps a little to make a drawing that shows what is flower and what is not.  It isn't that pretty because it is all shades of gray; but that isn't the point.  The point is, this will help me make a convincing, accurate, beautiful painting!

So here is the tonal drawing so far:

The scan is lousy because it is a pencil drawing.  But maybe you can get the gist.  Enjoy!