Progress on the "Twin Peaks Tavern" Painting

I'm always happy when I have a chance to have an in-person painting session with Dean. You may remember that I started the "Twin Peaks Tavern" painting about a month ago when I was last in San Francisco. I had a great time working on it more this afternoon.

Dean had me start with the focal point, which he said were the group of people sitting at the bar at the top left. He challenged me to paint them in such a way that I provides some detail, while also having defined brush strokes. Not sure how well I succeeded in that exercise, but I was happy with how they are looking so far. (I need to work more on brush strokes, I think.)

here's the original photo - before being put into Instagram with a filter


We made some changes within the group of people of the original photo. Dean thought that the patron wearing the white sweater should be more towards the center of the painting, as to draw your eye. I switched the guy in the white sweater with the one in the purple hoodie.

This is another photo that I took within seconds of the first.



You may notice that I used the bartender from the second photo - I'm using the version where he is serving the patrons. I also used this photo for the woman sitting at the bar. You can see more of her hair, and backside in this version. She's a little hidden in the first photo. It's really handy to have more than one photo for reference! :)

I started with the figures at the bar, then started to go out from there. I started putting just small details in the bar, and working on the other figures in the painting as well. I also made the suggestion of a figure in the reflection of the mirror. I like how that's looking so far.

Lots of work to do on this one still, but I'm certainly happy with it so far.

Looking forward to my next session in just a couple of weeks!