first stage -

the first thing i did was to draw the image on the canvas - the perspective is important and i'll tune that up as i go along but it really helps to draw the eye back and give the painting depth. i don't necessarily start off with a charcoal drawing on every piece i do - often i just start right in painting...using the brush to draw...with this complicated piece, it was better to start with a fairly correct drawing. the next thing i did was to place some strategic darks..i painted these quite thinly so they would dry for the next stage. i need to photograph that again since something happened with the photo i took. i'll post that next time.