This is the back of an old building in Victoria's chinatown, believed to be Canada's
oldest chinatown. My outdoors (plein air) painting is on a plywood panel 1/8th thick.

There were five of us "painting out" on this sunny morning, we sat in a car park just off Fisgard Street -
setting up our easels, we painted on-the-spot, in a style the Italians call Al Fresco (French = plein air).

On a small piece of paper, I first do a pencil sketch to plan my composition and to establish the values.

I also keep a record of the actual site - a digital photograph of the back porches of this building.
See how it compares with my actual painting top of this page. Painting en plein air is the answer!
My Chinatown oil sketch differs from the pic - hopefully vibrant and alive, a piece of visual music.