Ever tried painting on four hours of sleep? It ain't pretty! In fact, doing anything on "sleep fumes" (as I call it) is a bit like running through wet cement. That's how it's been lately for me as my insomnia issue has again reared its ugly head. And it's why I typically have avoided doing a full-fledged painting demonstration recently. Nevertheless, I have progressed a bit with the Pescallo painting, and I'll continue to share my process for it despite the break in continuity. When I last left off, I had a good deal of the background mapped out. Now I am tackling the foreground.

Even though I felt as if I had a pretty good compositional plan going in, I continue to tweak elements of the composition as I go along. For instance, I decided to extend the tip of the closest mountain off further to the right, so that it wasn't in danger of butting up against the foreground verticals. I also wondered if the boat was too large in the original drawing for where I had placed it in the picture plane. So I've experimented with reducing it slightly below.

Mainly though I've been working out the shadows and highlights of the foreground café and the pier. I need to get those pier elements in place before I can address the foreground water and any reflections down there.

I hope I can wrap this up in another session or two, depending on how much time I can carve out to do it. I'll continue to post my updates and painting notes as I go. Thanks for tuning in!