Have just discovered a really good skin hue. Hansa Yellow medium, plus tit white, plus alizarin crimson. Its quite a Freudian skin hue. I think it is maybe too singuarly warm, so obvioulsy would need a bluer range for the shadows.

I am interested to see how it might work when applied in the system I normally go about painting flesh. Normally I build up tone first, laying done the white and the darks. I then glaze over to get the colouring. I do this in order to create a depth of surface which allows light through and hopefully creates both an inner glow and a sense of the flesh falling apart. I will try the above combination, but laying the white down first then glazing over in the alizarin crimson and hansa yellow. A glazed dash of transparent yellow iron oxide/interference gold might just give it the extra kick. I think I will need to push the shadows towards the blue end of the colour I normally mix up (Ultramarine blue and burnt umber, sometimes wqith a dash of alizarin) If I remove the alizarin and up the ratio of ultramarine, maybe even add a dash of colbalt, then it might work. We shall see.

On a side note I have just got the ‘Tom Daley’ diving painting to start working. The crowd were causing me a headache. I want them to be a wall of spectators but had pushed that to the point where the individiual figures had been lost, drowning in a deep glaze of dark blue brown. I have pulled them back with a composition of various vibrant pastels. Yellows/pinks/greens/oranges have been applied to the bodies at loosely balanced points across the surface. I think it has start to get that sense of rhythm and melody which some of my pictures have been lacking. I am also pleased with the way the paint has been applied. It has enough vigour to evoke the crowd without describing them. For the ultimate example of this look to Manet’s crowd in one of his bullfighting paintings. They have a prot pollockesque energy in the handling of paint. He was a bit good that Manet bloke.