I stumbled across the following Massimo Pasquali tutorial video on you tube (it´s unedited and the commentary is in spanish):

In summary, Pasquali´s technique involves not using any solvent whatsoever. He paints an acrylic base and then puts a fine layer of oil over the face in the same base colour. Shadows and highlights are then mixed into this base layer without the need for any solvent.

I was wondering if anyone uses this technique and whether it might be advisable for a beginner with oils (I´m guessing mistakes would be harder to correct).

This would be ideal for a beginner with oils .Once the face is dry you can also enhance the highlights and shading with wet on dry.
Brian

Thanks for the vid, helps me lots

I use the same technique.
After the figure is dry you have to go for a second and sometimes a third run on the highlight and shading.

Marc

Yes, lots of oil-school oil painters work this way. If you look through past threads you'll see many recommendations of this, mentioning that it's Shep Paine's advice - "spread it out don't thin it out".

I don't think there's any easy answer to this as it depends so much on the person - their previous painting experience, innate patience level, and what 'makes sense' to them (what seems a logical way to work) - and the specific effects they're going for.

Einion

I paint like this,its good to see some oil paint users ... I now realise I paint wayyyy to slow !

Can anyone translate the base colors he starts with ?

It`s a very interesting brown/tan base color .

the colors are titanium white, ground pink, golden ocher, raw umber, blu cobalto, burn umber.
he chooses oil color of hight quality in base of the pigments, for example: blu of windsor e newton, yellow of mussini, the base are in acrilic the same color to paint.
on youtube there is another course to paint figurines by cartacci, search "cursillo cartacci"

Hi RFL,

The translation is (from top to bottom, left to right):

Titanium White,
Terra Rosa (I believe this is the same in English),
Golden Ochre,
Raw Umber,
Cobalt Blue and
Burnt Umber.

Hi Bobby The advice of spread it thin is about as good as it gets ,its a bit like when you think you have got it thin enough you are about half way there.
No thinners just pure paint , they are for other things later .

Ron

Thanks. I´m looking forward to starting my first bust in oils. I´m sure I´ll be bothering you lot with more questions before then!

Hi Bobby, he also had Gold Ochre on top of the 6 that you list........Keith
The difficulty was following the colour mixing sequence, I have another video which I think is better filmed than this...I'll post it in a minute

Check this out, I found it very helpful

this might come in handy

The Cartacci videos can be accessed from here;


www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3305003E60F10A69


Geoff

For anyone who doesn't know yet, there are literally dozens of ways of mixing fleshtones so I wouldn't get too caught up on following any one person's recipes - some people never add blue, others rely on some for a lot of their mixes.

Same deal with Chromium Oxide Green, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Caput Mortuum, Viridian, Cadmium Yellow, Naples Yellow, Lamp Black, Payne's Grey and a host of other specific colours; you'll find painters who use any of these and others who never touch 'em.

You want to keep it simple, just concentrate on the basics: skin is basically a range of dull oranges/scarlets. So white to begin with for most skins since they're fairly light, then something to make orange (yellow and red of some kind) and mix them together, then if necessary add a little dab of something to dull the mixtures down a touch. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

Einion

Look at cartacci vids he works from raw umber ,burnt umber right up the browns to ocher sets aside red and blue and works from there ,plus white off course
Nothing specific ,no hang ups or fancy names just a colour palette

Ron

Really, I am not impressed....seen better...

The video is nice and MR. Pasquali speak Spanish very well and it isvery funny hear is sense of humor.
Pedro.

For comparison I thought I'd link back to this thread from a few years back where I posted some examples of the work of a number of top portrait painters:
http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/faces.27804/

As I mention lower down in that thread, the palettes of each painter will be different which makes the point that there's no one palette that'll ensure a quality outcome.

Einion