Watercolor Wednesday - The value of cherry blossoms

This week in class, we were working on value.  A pretty photograph of blooming cherry tree branches  was the inspiration.  But the copies of the color photograph were taped to the walls while we were giving black and white copies.  Added to the twist was the fact that the sky was darker in value than the leaves.  I kind of had to twist my brain around that.   And the whiteness of the flowers had to either be "saved" or whitened by contrast alone.  It was interesting to see how everyone's was different - either by their own interpretation or what section of the photograph appealed to them, including even different colors.  As long as the value was correct, who's to say you have to paint the sky blue and the leaves green?