Daily Painting Practice - Boat on the lake - sizing it up

Here I go again.

Taking the color  study and  up sizing it to a larger  canvas. Unlike the last painting, I am not using pastel pencil to mark the grid lines. Instead I am using a  method to grid the  painting without leaving a mark.

 I used  white thread. If you look closely, you can see the fine line of thread. I measured and marked the sides.

 

 Then taped the thread on the back.

The canvas is 18"x24". I divided it in thirds. I put the horizon line right on the bottom third transfer line.

I am trying to decide where to place the sail boat.  In the original color study the  boat is more to the left.  First I was thinking of moving it to exactly where the  grid lines cross, but I think moving it farther to the left  opens the painting up a bit.  Now, I have two boats in the water.

 I begin blocking in some tone and color, keeping the paint very thin, almost like watercolor.

 I am concentrating on the sky, trying to keep my colors  clean and fresh. For me, this means trying not to overwork the brush strokes. I placed a dot of white to check the placement of the sail again.  It needs to move to the left. 

 Here you can see how thin I am keeping the paint. Also, I am trying to keep lots of color in the white clouds; purples, oranges, warm and cool grays and yellows.

 I think the sky is coming along. The clouds have a nice rhythm and work their way back towards the horizon.  Next, I'll work on the distant shoreline and start on the trees.