Paris is such a special place that even a cafe is a great subject to paint. Grab your cafe latte and join me.

As always, I will give five chances to win this original digital painting for free. See below.

Since my last Paris painting was liked so much. I decided to paint a cafe in Paris to see if it was the subject or my art. I had a few reference photos that I had taken while I was in Paris. I can still remember the sketch book that I had bought that day. Somehow I lost it on the way home.

As always I start with drawing to get the subject the way I want it for the composition and the contrast. This takes time but is very important for me to get it right or the whole thing will get out of place. Old habits die hard. I know many newer painters do it without an under painting or sketch. But for me it is a must have. I redrew this a few times until it was right.

I now lay my dark and lights down and add a slight dark brown that I smudge into the under painting. Always blending one color into the others.

I start refining the edges and the color pallet. I tried to remember the feeling I got while I was in Paris. This helps me get in the location so I can hopefully give that feeling to the viewer. I hope this worked in this painting.

Now let me say something about composition. Since the main subject is the candle lights, we need to have a few stopping points for the eye to follow. Or the eye will wander around the painting. Not knowing where to land. So lets lead the eye to the chairs, then to the window, and lastly to the green plant. A full circle back to the lights again. Let your painting flow. I start thinking of colors more now.

I start painting around the whole painting now. Using colors from other areas to get the painting to feel as a whole. Not miss matched. Layer after layer. Smudge after smudge and painting layers after layers. Adding soft and hard edges. Erase, paint, erase. And after many hours you get something that you can live with. The next day I had to change a few things but all in all it looks good. I hope you think so as well. Does it feel like a cafe in Paris? Let me know.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading my post and please consider #upvoting this post, #following me, and leaving a #comment. If you would like to help me even more please consider re–steeming me so I am able to reach your audience as well. I look forward to posting daily content with all of you.

As always I will give five chances to win this original digital painting for free. original digital painting for free. Signed by me Angeliki Z to the steemit community. Why give away my paintings? To give back to the steemit community that supports my posts. Just #upvote my post and leave a #comment on this post so I can let you know that you have won. That simple. The 5 winners will be picked by random between each level of votes. So, the first painting will be picked between the first 1-10 commenters, second between 11-25 commenters, third between 26-50, the fourth between 51-100, and the fifth between 101-200 comments. Good luck.