Finished this one today. Another in the 6X6 bird series in oil.

I took a few progress photos to give you and idea of how these emerge. In the morning, I do the first layer. The first layer is very thin, very lean paint. I do paint directly onto the white panel (I use Ampersand Gessobord). I did not photograph it, but I do the initial \ drawing in charcoal. I find I can erase the charcoal with a lot more ease than if I drew in paint. I probably spend more time on the drawing then the first coat of paint. The idea is to get the “lines” where the values change so I don’t get too lost in the initial painting. Then I hit the back ground and then put in the value placements for the subject.

Here is the set up at my easel.

After a couple of hours to let the OMS evaporate a bit while I’m not in the room, I come back and work on phase II. This is when I have the most fun making adjustments and figuring out where I want soft edges and hard edges and punch colors. And a snap of my messy pallet. I don’t clean it between paintings in this series unless it gets completely unusable. My pallet lives in the freezer between uses.