I did a little painting of this waitress several months ago, and really wanted to do a large painting of the whole counter at this diner. I did quite a bit of work on it, then set it aside for a week or two. After that I could more easily see what needed to be done to finish it. I got rid of a figure behind the counter on the right, scraped off and simplified the ceiling at the end on the left, and generally tried to lighten, brighten, and bring to a degree of finish, without slavishly following the reference. That's always the question- how much do you spell out, how much do you leave to the imagination?
