The first step in all of my work is to spend a long time studying my photograhs I have taken, and then lay out a very detailed drawing in pencil showing every nuance in the texures and lines of the subject. My first step after the drawing was to airbrush the sky with a mixture of various acrylics in layers using pthalocyanine blue, cobalt blue, and dioxazine purple. Several tones of these colors using mars black and titanium white created the clouds and sky. I was not concerned with any overspray because the rest of the piece was going to be hand painted.