Thought I would take a break from the courtyard people and sketch this restaurant at lunch. It’s a sit-down place with a quick-serve sandwich shop off to one side – this is the door to the shop. I found a lovely shady spot on the open patio and soaked up some fresh spring air, and painted away.

Just for grins, take a look after the jump for my take on the same shop from early 2012. 

This was painted from a slightly different angle showing the odd shape of the building (it’s 5-sided). Not sure if they had all-black awnings then or if I just chickened out on the stripes – probably the latter. Looks like I drew a single vs. double door as well. More artistic license: I used Daniel Smith’s Purpurite for the walls. The building was brown then as it is now, but there was new paint on my palette. Had to try it out on something!

A big difference from then till now: The 2012 painting took a solid week to get it looking like you see it. This included a careful pencil sketch and painstakingly rendering every section until it looked just right. The 2016 version? Except for a few minor touchups it was all done in one session, on location, totaling no more than an hour start to finish.