The Value of Values

One of the challenges I am trying to master in my paintings is values.  I think it has a lot to do with the excitement I get out of using the brights.  And what I have discovered is that the brights look much more alive when layered over the appropriate darker values.  This absolutely aligns with what my instructor has told me.  Coming from watercolor, I am in the habit of starting with very light values and adding the middle and finishing with the darks.  That is not quite what I do with pastels but for some reason I have been grabbing the middle values in their most intense, truest hue, and then trying to fix it, adding darks and lights and eventually making a muddy mess.  So I am resetting my brain.  No more jumping in feet first without a plan.  From now on I am taking my time.  I am studying the subject to determine the order of things: where are the darkest darks?  middle darks?  Is it time to spray a little fixative to stabilize the layers before proceeding?  Patience is my mantra.  All good things will come when the time is right.  Better a slow great piece of art than a speedy mediocre waste of time and paper.