A preview - 'Luck of the Draw'

Here is a preview of progress on one of my latest pieces from the Forest Guardians series.
The tentative working title is Luck of the Draw.

Here is the
(semi-) finished study.

 This is a black and white study painting to work out composition and placement of light/dark values before moving on to the larger final piece.

Here is the study in progress. You can see three smaller 'thumbnail' sketches where I experimented with placement of abstract dark and light shapes.

The chickens seem fascinated with the process.
Looks like they're talking about the sketch.
(I hope they're giving it a good review!)

The B&W study with
thumbnails.

And here are pages from the sketchbook, trying out all kinds of ideas. 

Running the idea through 'the grid'
Taking a couple minutes to try out
all kinds  of variations.

New ideas.
Taking one of the previous ideas and
trying out more variations.

I liked how the foreground figure
created a distinct 'star' shape,
and I wanted to try placing that in
a graphic setting.