As you saw from my last post, I spent the first day (well, actually the second if you give me a day to choose the reference photo and makes notes and sketches about any composition changes and enlarging the photo) transferring the photo with my notes to tracing paper.

I also stained the canvas. In this case I used burnt sienna rubbed on with a cloth rag very, very thinly. I did use some Gamblin OMS to thin the paint down.

By the way, if you are an artist using OMS or any other solvent in your studio, be sure you have good ventilation where you work. Odorless Mineral Spirits may be odorless, but they are still mineral spirits. That said, you should also have a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid in your studio for disposal of all rags (paper and cloth) that you have used for painting. I use an ash can which is a small (maybe three or four gallons) galvanized metal can. I don’t empty it daily, but I do put the lid on tightly every day before I leave my studio. Oily rags can ignite spontaneously, so be proactive and deprive them of oxygen from the beginning.

On Day 2 I rubbed the back of the tracing paper with a sienna colored stick of soft pastel and transferred the image. In the photo below you can see some of the lines from the transfer especially in the tutu of the girl closest to the viewer.

Then I did a block in using a chromatic black that I mixed from Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Black and a bit of Burnt Sienna to warm it up. This was also applied very thinly.