Summery sky and Cley windmill, Norfolk.

Re-working is something I think is an important part of learning.
What I mean is to re-paint a scene, after self-critiqueing an initial attempt at it.

Having gained some objectivity from a gap of time, I make notes on what could be done to improve the piece, and how that can be achieved, in terms of changes to composition, colour, tone, counterchange, emphasis, mark-making, edges, combinations of all techniques – everything.  Then, I have a second go at it.  

The sky at Cley, evening

Normally, whatever the best bits were of version 1 may not be quite as good in version 2, but overall the piece will normally be improved.  The very ‘best bits’ in watercolour are usually, in part, owing to good fortune, so you’ll be lucky to replicate those a second time.  Often a third re-working will be a good idea, and possibly a fourth.  This takes some discipline, and is not something I do unless I’m convinced the composition is really worth it, but sometimes once you’ve got your teeth into the idea of sticking with a piece the process can become fun, and rewarding in terms of the outcome.

Cley, Norfolk, after a summer downpour.

Having said that, I’m featuring here a different sort of re-working of a scene.
This was not about necessarily making an improved painting, just a different one.  
Sometimes I feel a composition has scope to be tackled in more than one way, or perhaps it just provides a good subject for practise.  Certainly a sky-based painting can be one such, as skies can reflect different moods over the landscape depending on the weather, time of day etc, and clouds can provide an infinite number of compositions.  
The first here is the most recent version.  I did this the other day for an article on painting ‘summer skies’ in a forthcoming issue of the SAA’s Paint magazine.  I was really after an example of typical fluffy cumulous clouds with some blue sky.  The article is also about how a ‘skyscape’ painting needs only a small area of land to balance the composition..

The second painting here is my first go at this scene, which I painted after visiting the location in Norfolk in 2013.  It was a similar sort of summer day, but depicted in an evening light, or that was the idea.

Finally, I’ve added another version for comparison, which I also painted quite recently, with a heavy sky which is supposed to be just after a passing summer rain storm, afternoon.