Overcoming problems with changing light

Warehouses and Old Tracks 5x7 oil on c.b.
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I think the worst thing that can happen to a plein air painter while he is working is changing light from cloud cover. i can take winds up to 40 mph blowing my easel and umbrella around. bums trying to get wine money while i'm scanning values is fine. bugs crawling up my leg in high weeds still ok. but let a cloud get in front of the sun or some milky clouds take over a once clear sky and you have to really earn your money!
what happens is the shadows all disappear and all the colors change. quite simply- you are no longer looking at the same scene.

that is exactly what happened while painting this. when i started the sky was milky from high clouds that were partially hiding the sun. so i lay down the underpainting with the sky being the lightest value and the rest middle values with a few dark areas under overhangs, telephone poles, etc. i'm painting away and then boooom the sun pops out- the sky looks deep blue and the walls of the warehouses went full on orange.
the thing to do (which is hard) is to ignore the sunny scenario if you started with the slightly overcast one. if you start changing midstream, you are- whats called- 'chasing the light'. all your values will be mixed up and you'll have a mess.
so stick with one value plan even if it changes before your eyes as the painting progresses. good memory for the original scene and painting what caught your eye in the first place will keep the painting from ruin.
if you'd like more explanation on value plans leave a comment below

Rooftop View in Wilmington

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Painted this off top level of the front st. parking deck.

a hundred pidgeons were my only audience. this old building caught my eye standing out against the cool blues of the cape fear river and the sky.



for those that would like to know my techniques- note: i do my whole underpainting in acrylics because it dries fast and i can sketch and lay in colors one on top of another very quickly. when i'm happy with the underpainting i switch over to oils

first comes a wash of magenta acrylic and a tad of white to get rid of the blinding white canvas. then i use straight magenta to draw big shapes and let the wash be the medium value and paint in the darkest value with a combination of magenta and blue. find the lightest value shape and paint it white-ish yellow. now you have a colorful/bright and warm base for all your oils.

now i switch the palette over to oils, and try to paint the approximate colors of the big shapes thinly, adjusting and thickening the paint as i hone in on the right value/color. i work for about 2 hrs. and at the end i bring out a small brush and add the details like telephone poles, window sills, people, etc.

leave the small brushes till last so you dont get concerned with detail until right at the end. painting is all about big shapes of proper "valhues" as kevin mcpherson calls em.