Reworking the Sky

I want to capture the sky.  The blues and grays of an impending storm, the perfect indigo of a still autumn day, the azure of a tropical paradise. Skies are variable and tricky. 

My earlier paintings suffered from my lack of knowledge of the behavior of paint on canvas.

Here, I have a nice sketch of a lighthouse. I used my small brushes almost dry, more like a pencil sketch than a painting.  This summer,  I've been working on architectural details, and making some progress.  However, I've also learned a great deal about skies.  For a clean, believable sky, you need water and globs of white paint with a few shades of blue. Most importantly, you need a smooth, wide brush. 

Take those globs of paint and the brush and freely stroke and blend.  Fear not. Jennifer says that the top corner should be a deeper blue to lend credibility, while the ocean horizon is almost always lighter and more grayish than the foreground or the high background. 

I've made some bursts of paint where the waves are crashing against the lighthouse. 

And there is my new backdrop for the lighthouse in the storm.  It's no big deal to redo the lighthouse.  This time, I'll have a better sense of proportion and perspective.  This is a battered, bumpy canvas, one I've chosen as a learning canvas.

Just like one must kiss several toads to find a prince, I apparently have to mess up a lot of canvas to learn the sky.  The whole process makes me philosphical.