The Rights of the Painting

I painted this as the demo for yesterday's workshop.  I was working from a value sketch I did a couple of week's ago.

In designing the composition, I had to move the buildings on the right.  Where the light shape is at the bottom of the page, there is actually a road.  But the rights of the painting came first.  I was more concerned with the light shape instead of the accurate depiction of the scene. 

Another consideration was connecting the shapes.  The light of the buildings flows uninterrupted into the area below them creating an interesting shape.  The white of the lighthouse also leaks into the white shape.

So don't be a slave to the scene.  Adjust elements so that the rights of the painting come first!