Thanks gents
Now starting on the painting. I like to under paint in acrylics and finish in oils. So to start with here is my first session of skin under painting. As a contrast to other styles I am not concerned hardly at all with colour at this stage. I am trying to define the form of the model and create tonal and temperature patterns. The whole of this will be covered up in later stages with oils. Oil paint has the unique property that it is generally translucent, so some of this paint will show through the top coat, and provide depth and interest to the final effect. Notice that the brush strokes are very open, that is to say not smoothly rendered. this will contribute to the final effect and is a hallmark of my approach to flesh painting. Anyway....
Note that the eyes are only roughed in at the moment
I will let this dry out before the next layers.Just in passing some people are put off by the supposed long drying time of oil paints. I use Alkyd oils which will dry very quickly, relatively speaking, and can be worked over within 12 hours.
John