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.

A commissioned portrait painted from a very good photograph. I was given the choice as to how I wanted to recreate the image. I considered coloured pencil , pastel and watercolour but decided on oil. I went bigger than originally planned approx. A2. I drew straight onto a white background using Raw sienna. I then added cobalt violet for the darker areas before mixing under painting white , Raw sienna and a touch of magenta for the lighter areas. That's all I used in the early stages, no blue as I found the Raw sienna and white was giving me cool enough mixtures. I did use Yellow ochre and cadmium red as the painting progressed and I needed more opaqueness. I needed to redraw the lower part of the face as it was all wrong. I used a variety of mixtures for the hair and found a mixture of Alizarin and Viridian very effective for the darker areas.