Regular Probst Fans will recall I have two small children. Over the Easter holidays, I got very little work done. The return of the Tiny Penguin to nursery and the Small Person to the coal mines gave me the free time I needed to go back to my studio and stare morosely at my Self-Portrait. Then, tentatively and with much churning horror, I took out the Naples Yellow. This is the basis of my own skin tone, and is good for slightly pinkish Caucasian skin. Once the palette was set up and I had my brush, it all became surmountable. It is amazing how often that happens. So far, a 100% record.

I remembered to start on the left. Being right-handed, this is a good thing, as it means I do not have to hold my arm free of the canvas to avoid wet paint. So, a left hand:

As you can see, there are two distinct tones here. The brownish one is Naples Yellow, Mir Grey, and Yellow Ochre. The other is a mix of Naples Yellow and Crimson, which adds a very warm red. Add white for a pinkish skin tone. The nail is more red and a tiny bit of grey.

The construction lines are very clear through the thin layer of paint, and this is something I found on all the skin areas. It will need two or three visitations to get the right thickness, but as an ex-acrylics junkie, this seems normal to me. In this case I will likely add in one thicker layer rather than many thin glazes, but this is a decision I made later in the process; for now I was aware only that I was putting in a base layer to guide me, not what I would do.

On the other side, the underside of the arm is more exposed:

It has rounded muscle over the bone, and fewer areas of shadow. These occur inside the elbow, and where the T-shirt casts a shadow on the arm, and then as softer tonal alterations on the arm cylinder itself. This is currently a very cartoony image, and I learned something important. Rather than blocking out colour areas in dark oil paint, next time I will try doing them in a mid-grey acrylic. I do not need the dark oils to tell me how much paint to put on, and this way I can keep a translucency on a pale background, if I want to.

The lack of light on whitish skin leaves it greyed out, and so the part which is currently white is going to end up a grey-brown, for which Mir Grey is very useful. It comes pre-mixed, and although it is not perfectly 50% white-black, I do not want that. It is a slightly warmed grey, perfect for these flattened or darkened areas.

And finally, at the end of the day’s work, I had this:

Already, there is some hint of solidity, in the back arm and the left side of the head. All this, and I do not hate the painting yet! More on that later…