The second day of painting on the Allegro was slightly shorter than the first, but as I had folded the sketching time into the first, I can still face my conscience. At the end of the day I had done about two days of work. This was all sea, which is a horror of reflections, deep mass colours, skims the colour of the sky, and other problems. As I had not yet painted the sky, I was not sure what colour the reflections would be, but blue-white was likely going to feature in it. This is the underpainting of the sea itself, so that when I go over it there will be layers of complexity. It already has the reflections of the sail, which had to be checked for fit. The water is reflecting the Allegro, but as yet her hull is not reflecting the water. That will happen, as I switch on the sunlight.

The client has access to plenty of good photographs of the boat, and wants something that is qualitatively different. To that end, I made sure to use choppy strokes, much as I left evidence of the paint mix in the sail. Once the second layer goes on, I can smooth that if I want to, but it will remind me to keep it painterly, with visible if subtle marks of how it was made.