Memento Mori process...

I seem to have painted a few skulls in the last year or so. It wasn't planned like that, they've all been commissions of one sort or another. Painting skulls is enjoyable, and they are certainly challenging, but I don't plan on any more in the foreseeable future. It was a huge advantage to set the skull up in front of me, with a strong, consistent light source, and paint from life. Photos have their advantages, and sometimes you don't have much of a choice, but nothing beats painting from direct observation. I used to mostly mix my skin tones from the complementary pairing of red and green, but I tried out a new combination of pigments for this one- cadmium red, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, and flake white...