now with 25% marble dust!

I added marble dust to my gesso and painted all stages with liquin which seems to have cured most of the paint handling problems I've been having with gessoed board. After an hour or so, the paint has a skin and can take additional layers. It still wipes down to near white, which looks better for skin highlights than layering on white pigment tints. 16" x 14" - 3.75 hours.

broke my new rule and paid for it

The layout for this was a little more complex, so I continued the fluid stage block out past drawing and laid in some wet color. This was a big mistake for sanded gesso. It couldn't handle that much thinned paint underneath and the whole thing was a constant struggle. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

nevermind

It turns out that the gesso I've been trying out is fine - it just forms a glossy skin that needs to be sanded off. Now it's absorbent enough to take a wash/wipe stage to try out composition and feature placement. I follow the fluid stage with a simple colored value block-in of stiff paint. Then I can move on to oiled out layers for volume modeling. I've gravitated to a simple palette of primaries plus ochre, burnt sienna, and alizarin. This palette is giving grays that harmonize well with simple skin tones. 16" x 14" - 2 3/4 hours.

too slick

I used three coats of gesso and the surface was too slick. Pretty much everything had to be painted twice to get a color established and I had trouble getting darks in. I also struggled with the drawing after I started painting. I moved one eye, which cost a lot of time, and should have also moved the other (and nose angle, mouth and jawline). I really need to remember to 1) start with some geometry latitudes and meridians 2) pause after I think I've got an acceptable block-in and critically make sure of placements. I'll start bringing a little mirror and look at the reversed image at this stage. I seem to be very good at adapting to distortion and then going blind to it... I've ordered some marble dust - I'll try mixing that into gesso to try for a toothier surface. 15" x 14" - 3 hours.

gesso man

I've started salvaging paintings I didn't like by painting over them. I'm using a couple of coats of big-box sealer/primer followed by two coats of Golden Gesso, which is amazing stuff. It's more absorbent than the oil-primed linen I've been using, and probably better for alla prima. I used a pretty limited palette for this guy with plenty of underpaint noodling around. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

bright wall

Preliminary drawing and block-in was a mix of indian yellow and venetian red on a dried Liquin base. The main masses were underpainted simply with added medium. The facial features were placed early with burnt umber and didn't seem to need much fussing around so I left the face unfinished and tried to not overplay skin modeling. I've noticed that my cool flesh shadows tend to be harsh, so I stayed with warm shades and softened some of the edges. The second pass around the big forms was made with big brushes and plenty of paint. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.