Mask

This is the first stage in a new painting, "Mask" 16"x20" oil on canvas. I've been going back to my Speed and Parkhurst painting books and that's got me experimenting with some different procedures than I normally use. In this case I worked on a canvas that I stained with raw umber, using vine charcoal to draw out the main lines and shadow shapes. It was a little tricky because my stain wasn't completely dry from yesterday, but I didn't want to wait another day so I jumped in. Once the charcoal drawing was set I went over it with thinned umber and a fine brush. Next I rubbed in more umber over the shadow shapes. Lastly, I took some flake white to bring up some of the more extreme lights. The next session will consist of laying in the big tones and local colors with some rudimentary modeling to start the switch over from thinking flat to thinking 3d. I'll also be looking to get a variety of edges going from lost to sharp and everything in between. Well, that's my plan, so let's see what happens.