Portrait Sketch

ROGER

oil

8" x 6"

Venice portrait studio sketch.  I thought I had primed the canvas with a neutral acrylic green the night before.  Turned out to be a lot brighter in daylight!  But liked the way it worked showing through in spots and in the beard.  I left a patch in the lower right hand corner.  The canvas was primed with acrylic which I find too chalky.  I like to paint a thin coat of tinted acrylic over this so the paint stays on top and slides around the canvas easier.  Just a personal preference.  The entire underpainting can be acrylic (if left thin) and the final layers painted in oil.  But for studio painting, I find oil dries well enough over night to layer over.  A method used by John Singer Sargent and Phillip Pearlstein, by the way.  For plein air though, alla prima...  painting at one time, wet into wet is what I do most often.  And also with portrait studio sketches.