How is an oil painting built up in stages?

It starts with a loose placing/blocking-in stage focused on the large forms, with nothing fixed. Each following stage looks critically at what's already down and refines it — sharpening shapes and color, adding detail, and pushing the focal area — until the picture reads the way you want.

Should you finish the drawing before you start painting?

No. Treating the drawing as final and then filling it in carefully, like a coloring book, is one of the most common beginner mistakes. The placing stage is a starting point you keep adjusting; every later layer corrects and changes what came before.

← All postsJuly 30, 2025

Painting a Street Scene, in Stages

Finished oil study of a street corner with a Starbucks and shop fronts

Here is an oil study I did of a street corner, photographed at each stage so you can see how the process works. The key idea: one of the biggest mistakes I see is thinking you draw it once and then carefully fill it in, like a coloring book. That’s not how I paint or teach. Each layer is a refining layer — correcting, adding to, and changing what’s already on the canvas.

When I was an art student — and still now, wandering the galleries at the Met — I always look for clues about how a painting was built, what stages went into it. So here are mine.

Stage one: a loose block-in of the street scene, large shapes only — Blocking in. Details may be indicated but nothing is fixed. After the placing stage, my mind is on the larger forms.

Stage two: the street and shopfronts become more defined, a pedestrian sign is added — Take what's down, look at it critically, refine. The street gets more defined in shape and color; the shops next to the Starbucks on the corner sharpen up; the pedestrian sign goes in.

Stage three: more refinements and detail across the scene — More refinements, a few more details. This was meant as a sketch, so I wasn't after a high degree of finish — just enough to carry the visual impression.

Stage four: the corner becomes the focal area, cast shadows and traffic light detailed — The corner around the Starbucks becomes the true focal area. The traffic light gets more detail, along with the cast shadows of the buildings behind the shops.

Stage five: the finished street scene study before signing — The finished piece before I signed it — a few more trees around the focal area, lettering on the other shops, a small accent here, a highlight there.

If you want to learn to build a painting this way, the free lessons are here.

Common questions

How is an oil painting built up in stages?: It starts with a loose placing/blocking-in stage focused on the large forms, with nothing fixed. Each following stage looks critically at what's already down and refines it — sharpening shapes and color, adding detail, and pushing the focal area — until the picture reads the way you want.
Should you finish the drawing before you start painting?: No. Treating the drawing as final and then filling it in carefully, like a coloring book, is one of the most common beginner mistakes. The placing stage is a starting point you keep adjusting; every later layer corrects and changes what came before.