Plums and Pear Paper

So....this is ever so slightly under exposed, but I am making progress with the Dslr camera. I have figured how to navigate within the vast menu but have to be completely calm to do it. Have mastered white balance, aperture and shutter speed, but am stalled on metering a mid tone. I do have a book on the way, DSLR for Dummies, isn't that the most infuriating title, but whatever, I have to have it to move ahead. I used to think that one should acquire a doctor and a lawyer as a life partner but I was way wrong. It should be a carpenter and a photographer.

In the painting, I tried to keep it all dark and close valued and saturated.