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Oil Study in Stages

Alla Prima Oil Sketch Man Pulling

About a week before doing the sketch I primed a piece of watercolor paper with two coats of acrylic gesso. When that was thoroughly dry I wiped on an imprimatura of oil paint and some medium and let that dry also.
The drawing stage was done using black, transparent red iron oxide thinned with a little medium.

After the drawing stage/block-in established a strong shadow side/light side map I mixed a flesh tone with combinations of transparent red oxide, naples yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow and a "cerulean" blue that I mixed from pthalo blue, ultramarine blue and white.

Adding in a few highlights helps to gauge some of the half-tones, which are added also. I painted a opaque paint into the shadows of the face, chest and arm. Edge transitions were started at this point as well.

I refined half-tone transitions in the face and left arm and left everything else alone, more or less. The last thing I did was add some cool reflected light in the shadows.

Palette, from left to right: ivory black, ultramarine blue, mixed "cerulean" blue, transparent red iron oxide, cadmium red light, cadmium orange, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, naples yellow, titanium/flake white.
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