I had a lot of fun with the color sketches. I used very reduced palettes, and worked with single pigment (the last two bottom right), 2 pigments (the first 4 on the left) or 3 pigments only. My goal was to find out the mood created by those choices - not thinking about "what would I choose for the given reference photo?"

I think, doing this kind of color-sketches can really help to do the step from «painting what I see» to «painting what I feel»!

Edit: The pigments are not very readable, they are:

First row:  PY3 & PV23 --- PY93 & PV15 --- PB66 & PV29 & PY42 --- PO59 & PV29 & PB16 --- PB15:6 & PO64 & PY150 --- PGray & PY43 & PBr7 (Qor) 

Second row: AquaGreen (WN) & PO64 --- PB29 & PO48 (Qor) --- PY150 & PBr23 & PB60 --- PB28 & PR101 & PY153 --- PBk31 --- PB66 

 

My favorite was the value sketch (A5)

 

I had some difficulties with the colored sketch (A5) - I think I started to fiddle around to much ;-) 

Nevertheless: Concerning the colors, I'm rather satisfied with the outcome.
( I love this warm yellow of PY153 - it has something cosy...)

 

And here is my final painting - A4:

There are places where I surely could add more - but I noticed that I started to overwork it. Therefore, I decided to stop here.

I will probably redo the painting, hoping to improve what I don't like in this version - and to reproduce the parts I like!