I don’t have a lot of experience with painting landscapes, but from what I’ve seen it makes the most sense to work from the sky down into the foreground.

My initial sketch is just that, I like to block in the main lines with vine charcoal. My main objective is to identify the big shapes so I don’t waste pastels by going over the same areas with different colors.

I started by putting in a thick layer of blue on the sky and suggesting the shapes of the clouds. I actually combined two photos from our trip in Photoshop for this painting… the original sky was a very flat blue and I wanted a little more drama.

Once I get the overall color in for the rest of the painting, I’ll add more detail to the sky as needed. I also darken it up some depending on the tonal range of the rest of the painting.