Victorian in San Francisco SOLD

5 x 7 inches, oil on panel

Yesterday I met my friend Lisa for a sketching date in a cafe. She works as a professional animator and often draws in cafes, so we both brought our sketchbooks to the Grove on Fillmore.

It's her favorite cafe but I'd never been, and I have to say, it's pretty much the ideal spot: Good food, cosy atmosphere, and waitstaff who serve and bus without making you feel like you should go; we occupied a choice window table for close to 4 hours.

So the sun shining through the windows of the building across the street caught my eye and I did a drawing of it. I just love how the late afternoon light shines in one set of windows and out the other.

I had a lot of fun with the sketch and thought the building would be fun to paint, so today I went back alone with my little oil kit paintbox and did an onsite color study (which I won't post here, it was terrible). I also took some photos and thanks to my new "daylight" lamp (see yesterday's post), I was able to continue working after dark.

Process shots will be uploaded soon, having technical difficulties with Blogger tonight!

Pencil sketch done yesterday, Dec 18

Painting Phase 1

Painting Phase 2

Painting Phase 3

Final Painting