Background

hi guys.  I am in the process of packing up and moving right now, so I'm doing my best to work on the painting as I can.  Wesley and I talked and we decided it was important for the background to have good shapes, so I spent a while trying to find shapes for the trees and bushes that were interesting, but wouldn't draw away from the bench/larry. I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with shape-wise, but I will probably tweak it a bit as I start the painting.

This first image is just so you can see the shrubberies by themselves.  Also- I may need to play around a bit more with the values, but we shall see. Give me your opinions.

And I've been sketching out some tentative buildings to go in the background- we are going for old looking apartment buildings with cool architecture instead of boring flat skyscrapers.  

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas.  I will start the painting tomorrow, but after that  I wont have time to get back to the painting until school starts.  I can't wait to see you guys!