Waving Stars and Stripes

Start with the highlights on the folds. The flag fills almost the entire frame at a steep diagonal — stars across the upper left, stripes rolling down to the lower right — with deep cast shadows pooling between every wave of cloth.

This is a value study disguised as a patriotic piece. The reds drop into near-black in the shadowed troughs and lift to coral on the peaks; the whites do the same trick in cream and shadow-gray. Procreate swatches included to keep the value range honest.