You can see I started with the sky, the tree and the basic lines of the architecture shape to follow. The sky was a bright yellow where the sun peeked over the roof line but otherwise it was sparsely clouded and light as you look higher. Putting the large maple tree on the left takes a large part of the composition area.
The architectural parts of this old beauty of a school, were a bit of a challenge to sort through. What details to drop an which to keep, so that the painting could be done in a reasonable amount of time. Making a texture that would accurately show the brick took a little bit of trail and error.
This was all followed by leaves up close then lots of them in the background in the breezes.