Day two of glazing and the monolith and floorboards painted. The monolith colours initially used the simplest "flesh" mix; transparent red ochre and white, fading down to red ochre and ultramarine which looks like a normal brown but makes a red of such richness that it can "rose up" yellow-greys. The ochre is unique to Winsor and Newton, and rather like light red although it's transparency is important for the brown mix. It's criminal and thoroughly pointless to mix ultramarine with light red.
Anyway the monolith used complex mixes in the end, yellow browns and olive greens too. The picture should be completed by tomorrow; taking four underpainting days and three for glazing; a good time for a painting of this size. I recall that four years ago I took ten days to underpaint "Penalties" alone, and that was smaller.
I'm wondering if I should reduce my painterly quality in order to paint more paintings. If I took my time I could paint more finely, if I painted faster I could produce more work. The eternal conundrum.
