For those of you who may be interested in how I make my paintings, I plan them carefully then draw the essential lines in charcoal on the canvas or board. I then quickly paint an undercoat in acrylic paint mixed with acrylic printer. The purpose of this is to cover the whole picture in a rough way, establishing the positions and shapes of the main objects and indicating the colours. This means that when I paint in oils on top of the acrylic, I am doing so knowing the balance of composition and the approximate colours. The undercoat of this painting is shown below.

I will usually paint the whole picture in moderate detail in oil paint using a sparse palette, and finsih it with details and corrections when the first coat of oil has about set.

I do not use many colours. Mostly it is only ultramarine, burnt umber, raw umber, yellow ochre and light red with lots of titanium white. For landscape greens I use terra verte and oxide of chromium. Black and very bright colours are used sparingly for special effects, but pure bright yellows, reds and violets are essential for painting flowers. The hair in this painting is not black but a mixture of ultramarine and raw umber which looks less `dead' than lamp black.