Jane, Brockweir 13.04. 2010.

Three 8 to 10 minute poses. In the first one I used black, brown and blue conte' sticks on beige sugar paper. The second one was just brown and blue, and in the third I worked on black sugar paper with coloured chalks. I really like the third one, I liked the way the image gradually emerges as I loosely apply areas of colour using both the point and flat side of the chalk.

For the first one in the afternoon I started with charcoal and then used coloured chalks on black sugar paper again.

Using vermilion thinned down with white spirit I loosely sketched in the pose on an old canvas that had been thinly covered in oil primer. The surface was a bit slippery and wasn't easy to work on. I started to apply some colour. I was trying to work the whole area but was struggling to mix the the colours I wanted and not enjoying the feel of the paint on the slippery surface. I don't know why it felt like it did but it could have been because I hadn't mixed in some oil colour with the primer like I usually do. Someone came up at this point ad said they liked it and that I should leave it like this, a confusing suggestion at 10.30 in the morning.

I didn't leave it and continued to mix up and apply colours but now with a larger flatter brush than I usually use. At this stage I quite liked it but I knew I was struggling and didn't feel in control. The image on the screen looks better than in real life and suggests I know what I am doing.

There was a need at this stage to redraw certain areas. When I look at the Face and and surrounding areas I like it but the paint was getting thicker and I decided to scrape back with a palette knife. This was something I had never done before and suddenly I was in real trouble. I struggled on for a while and then decided to leave it alone and instead do a monochrome study using just vermilion and white.

This is a close up showing the effect of the scraping back I think it looks good but I had lost it by now and was not in control of what was happening.

This took about an hour and was fun to do. The surface was much easier to work on and it was nice to forget about colour and just concentrate on tone. Although I was using only red and white the cool coloured ground showing through made it work. I wonder what it would be like to add colour to this when it is dry.

I am not sure what I will do next week when the pose is repeated. I don't know whether to continue with the original one hoping that the surface will be more receptive now it has a layer of oil paint on it, start a new one, try acrylics for a change or work on the monochrome.