Usk, 26. 11. 2010.

Working on a cheap canvas, I decided to draw with diluted white spirit. The paint sinks into the surface to start which I quite like. I had less than an hour and a half so I worked fast. I was working on a white background which means even the lightest tone looks dark. I used the same three colours plus white that I have favoured recently ( sap green, magenta and yellow ochre )but towards the end added alizarin and viridian to create some blues.

Ocean, Brockweir, 23. 11. 2010.

I decided to do the warm ups in thinned oil and then rub them back and work on top. The view I had was difficult and I seemed to spend ages on the initial drawing. The feet were hard and I just couldn't get her left knee right. The paint wasn't going on as I like it to, it was sliding too much possibly because of the cheap white spirit I had used for the warm up drawings. In the end I made up her right foot up and added a shadow to suggested it was lifted off the surface. I am disappointed that today it didn't go as well as recent efforts and will start another one next week possibly on a white canvas.

Usk, 19. 11. 2010.

I decided to do an oil sketch on a cheap canvas. We had to do a 20 minute warm up so I did it on the canvas and then rubbed it back so I could do the main pose on top. Using a palette of just sap green , magenta , yellow ochre and white I did the drawing with mostly Magenta . I then added the mid tones and highlights. I only had about 90 minutes to work and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I will try a similar approach at Brockweir but I won't be working on a white background and I will use a mixture of magenta and sap green for the initial drawing.

Gladys, week 2

I went with the intention of leaving some of the painting unfinished and at lunchtime it was looking quite good, but as usual I worked on and lost some of the freshness. It was a nice surface to work on this week and I started by glazing into the darker areas. I am finding it easier and more suited to my technique to keep the palette limited to just Sap Green, Magenta, Yellow Ochre and White.

Gladys. 09. 11. 2010.