The very early stages of my next painting- Woodward's Garden

I started my next oil painting yesterday afternoon. This is the very, very early stages. I spent a decent amount of time drawing it out first. I realized that some of the angles should probably be set to be mostly correct early on, because it would only make it harder if they weren't done right initially.

I penciled in the two figures, and most of the important wall/counter angles. You'd think that I would have learned from my last painting that I have a hard time with angles, and maybe I should avoid them in my next painting! ;)

The photo was taken by Dick at Woodward's Garden - it's a small, romantic (and delicious!) French restaurant where we had our first date in 1998. We have been going back to celebrate our wedding anniversary over the last few years. It has a special place in our hearts.

It's a tiny restaurant - the front room probably seats about 20 people at most, and has the kitchen in the same room. They expanded into a second room several years back, but we both prefer the coziness of the front room, and always request to be seated there.

Dick actually took the photograph thinking it would be a good potential painting project for me.

As I mentioned, it's very early on, so I realize you can't see much in this photo. It's mostly just the pencil outlines and some darks and lights, which aren't the actual colors that they will eventually be.

More to come!


early stages


the original photo