My final day in Milan lead me back to Brera, to capture it’s namesake Bar. Perhaps the similarities between Borbay and BarBrera drew me to this location? Or perhaps it was the doppio espresso and use of their facilities? Unfortunate fact of plain air painting in the city, if you choose a spot with no foot traffic or facilities, you are asking for trouble.

None-the-less, it was a cool, overcast day; process after the jump.

Setting up, ready to go. Many a’spectator today. One gentleman stopped his car and asked me numerous questions in Italian, I found a translator, and she informed me he was an art critic. What a break! Unfortunately, she left when he started to give me feedback. For a talker, it’s quite strange to feel like I have a zero-ith grade education.

Today, I decided to start the picture with phtalo deep blue.

Entire scene laid out, skewed and ready for color.

The sky was a strange color, for it was mostly white with brief flashes of almost marine blue – thus, I captured the first hint of color and spread it throughout the canvas.

While it appears to be yellow from the tube, it in fact contains both white and blue.

One of these days I am going to do a giant canvas, work it up to about this level and sign it.

One thing I have been focusing on is mixing reflective midtones for each picture – there is no straight white, there is no straight black, therefore there is no straight midtone.

Clearly a long round with the burnt umber. Burnt!

Added a more accurate, cornflower yellow to the illuminated side of the building.

And a little raw sienna for the shady side of things. That’s raw sienna, right?

Hello small drop shadows and reflective greenish tone, where have you been all my life?

Tightening up ship with some cornflower blue action.

Ever so close, another reflective tone and a red to set further depth. For the record, I just opened a can of Peroni. I know, can, tacky right? I bought a few at the stand where I bought my bus tick… er, I got it from the back of the limo that was taking me around all day. After he dropped me off, he was heading to George Clooney’s place.

That is actually a very light blue, bringing the sky and the umbrella’s to the same plane.

And there you have it, in almost accurate colors. The final. It was a terrific trip, here’s hoping the rain holds out tomorrow so I can take off on time. See you back in New York, jet lagged of course.