How to paint a sunflower and bench in four steps

Step one ..Mass  in the dark shapes

Step two....add lighter shapes.

Step three add the lightest colors in the foreground

Step 4 ...establish background midtones...

Step 5 add..... background but don't let anything be darker than the darkest darks already established.

Final piece....I worked from darks to my lightest lights and left the white of the paper white .