I clipped the photo to a brush file and then, because my photo didn't fully fit over the brush file, I used a soft brush, selecting the blue from the sky and brushed it over the bottom part of the brush file (locking the layer so the paint didn't spill over the edges).
Thank you for sharing your creative process. Adjusting a mask/brush to one's photo is a super useful technique. I like how you divided your layout into to halves and the vertical cluster in the middle.
