Techniques, Page 3

[ Stage 1 ] This stage was drawn freehand without the use of the grid. I sketched lightly as there was a great deal of erasing & re-drawing in order to find the line.

[ Stage 2 ] The Inking: In this stage I ink a burnt umber line over my pencil drawing with a thin brush. Same as before I’m using oil paint diluted into a liquid consistency using alkyd resin as my binder & odorless mineral spirits as my solvent.

[ Stage 3 ] The Under-Painting: During this stage I am mixing together the color scheme of burnt sienna, chrome yellow, carbon black, & flake white in rendering the model within her environment. To define the positive & negative space of the figure in relation the black background & dark red sheets I kept in mind the principles of the golden section for compositional strength & balance. I applied the dark hues in the background first before going in with the lighter skin-tones due to the high value contrast of this painting.

[ Stage 4 ] In applying the thin tints & shades I did not use an airbrush in this painting as I wanted a more tactile feel in the transitions of value & hue within Vanisha's skin tones. The choice of colors on my palette in the latter stages also included alizarin crimson, prussian green, & naples yellow in various ratios using traditional sable paintbrushes. When fine-tuning the gradations of tone to bring form & structure to Vanisha's figure I used the oil glaze technique employing very thin layers of paint. Upon completion, I sealed this painting with Damar Varnish for preservation purposes as done with all of my works in oil.