I tried to start by masking the foreground, and painting the sky. I also sprayed masking fluid on the horizon – just to experiment.

The texture from the spray brings the horizon forward – which is the opposite of what I want. It needs to go backward.�Given the success of the prior painting – which had no sky, I think the sky needs to be saturated at the horizon and fade to nothing from there. I tried this once, I need to look back at it.

After removing the masking fluid I went to the threes and fours – this made it difficult to paint the ones and twos, forcing me to use a 00 rigger brush in places. That tiny brush so early makes for an overworked painting. I need to stay away from masking fluid, keep the value structure, and commit to each stroke like I mean it.