As I have shown you in two previous posts How to paint, when you are not a painter and Shaping that Butt I am working on a painting to illustrate the Zodiac sign "Libra". It is actually a second version of that painting with a few changes and what I consider improvements compared to the first one.

Last time we arrived at the first step of the underpainting, where all form is created by the use of only white on a tinted background.

I like to work on an orange-ish English red. Including all of the steps I will show you today, I do all that with acrylics on a gesso primed canvas.

Once all the elements of the painting exist in their basic shape, almost a bit like an old fashioned sepia colored photo I continue with working on the skin tones by refining the shadows in green. I usually take my own pale white arm for reference and the areas in the shadow have a subtle greenish touch.

In the first step that is rather bold and high contrast:

Now the painting is ready for a thin glaze of ocher. I mix the acrylic paint with a substantial amount of water to make it really thin and transparent. In order to still make it stick well enough, I add some acrylic medium. Since I want to have enough time, to distribute it evenly, I also add some retarder. The mix is applied with a wide soft brush.

I worked on the figure a little more, as I still found the contrast a bit too high for this stage.

A thin layer of white does the trick for now. Another thin glaze of ocher over the skin parts and its all ready for the final step, before the oil glazes.

In the following step, all form is refined even more. With the ocher layer, the painting is homogenized again, but it also looses some contrast. Therefore the bright lights are enhanced one more time, in a similar way the original shapes were created.

In a small jar I have some white acrylic paint already thinned with water. On my palette I "play" with the paint until if feels right. Water is added if necessary.

Now I can apply it in the drawing like manner I already described in this earlier post.

Eventually all the elements are highlighted again and look nice and crisp.

Although the process seems tedious, I actually enjoy this part of my paintings very much. Once the oil glazes are applied, this so called underpainting shines through and the light is reflected at these deeper layers. This gives the painting a certain inner light, hard to achieve with any other technique. Plus, coming from glass painting, I like to work with "transparencies"...