@Elissa Mora Yes, I got into this group too and saw a landscape value study using only titanium white, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue (I think). I thought of creating something from photos I took so it’ll be more meaningful to me.

@Elissa MoraNot yet — I’ll be traveling soon, so I haven’t had the chance. But I’ve been researching ways to improve my process and came across the ébauche method (French for ‘first pass’ or ‘quick sketch’) by Steve Forster. It starts with a charcoal or graphite drawing focused on outlines, contrast, and accurate proportions, followed by sealing it with a fixative. The final — and longest — stage is painting with mostly transparent pigments in the beginning. Then followed by gradually building up the layers to completion. I’ve seen some portrait painters from the TV series Portrait Artist of the Year (a competition where thousands of artists compete for the title) use this technique but it didn’t really sink in until I came across this book Painting Luminous Portraits for Artists by Steve Forster. I attached an example of the painting stages from the book showing how it is applied and also a screenshot of the book cover. I find it really interesting.

@Elissa Mora Thanks for the feedback!

@Elissa Mora it was an experiment on my part. I have to step back a foot or two in between strokes.

Love the texture on the hats!

@Elissa Mora I only use ivory black, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, titanium white and very little of cadmium red. I don’t have green but I get it from Ivory black. What will blue do when added to the mix? It will make it cooler, I suppose.

@Elissa Mora Color does not have to be an exact match -- I think this was my problem. I was trying to get a perfect match and in doing so, it becomes muddy. I have to constantly remind myself.