Advancing with Watercolor: "Sky Over Water" Working On Wet Paper

The Project

How would I paint this?
When we look up at the sky we see an endless space with changing colors and drifting forms. Each time of the day is unique, each season Inspiring and mysterious.
Can we represent all of that onto our small paper with paint and water? No But we can capture the essence of what we see and feel from the sky.
In todays painting of sky over water we are seeing a sky with some strong deep clouds rising over the flat ocean. The light is fading but a few warm hues remain on some clouds. The reflections below are simple by comparison but the shape they create is an interesting counter to all of the horizontals.

The Drawing

In this piece the drawing is minimal - a few lines to give our brush strokes an angle and direction
1- We can identify the major lines through relating their angles to the flat horizon
Notice how the vertical line stands out because of the dominance of horizontals
2 dividing the paper into a larger shape and a smaller shape with the horizon is the first step

The Technique

The technical choices are a big part of todays painting. I am looking for a few indicators to give me a start.
I look for graded changes that would lead me to think about graded washes - we have covered the graded wash in previous lessons - and it will be useful in todays painting also.
The edges of the cloud forms give us clues as to the technique we might us. Mostly dry into wet. All of these observations lead to technique and eventually a watercolor plan.

The Watercolor Plan

Compartmentalization helps to make difficult technique easier. In todays piece the horizon provides a dividing line.. A graded wash in the sky followed by dry into wet technique for the clouds.. Then we will mix up color we plan to use
The same sequence in the ocean

The Skill

The skill we develop in this project are creating patterns based on certain types of clouds grouped in the sky
We also develop a better understanding of the timing aspect in creating the edges of our clouds
We also gain a better understanding of the water/ pigment ratio

Materials

Colors, Yellow ochre, cad yellow light, burnt Sienna, ultramarine blue, lavender, cerulean blue, cobalt blue,cad orange, Joseph’s cool gray titanium white, Jaune brilliant

Paper
I am using Saunders 140 rough and a stiff board for backing
I also use some clamps
Brush
Using this technique I use flat brushes primarily or smaller brush to control to moisture in the paper