Materials and Techniques

This piece was built with the same method as my previous self-portrait: charcoal sealed with a scraped layer of Indian Yellow, Flake White, and Venetian Medium, then enriched with dioxsazine purple in the shadows.

The difference here is in the finish: I introduced Cerulean Blue and touches of Burnt sienna, let that dry, then I went heavier with the Flake White scumble, working it over a fully dry surface. Unlike the earlier piece, the white did not mix into the purple shadows but floated on top as a true optical layer — creating a cooler atmosphere. However softer dissolves between figure and ground could still yet be achieved with an even heavier Scumble.

In the example below, I used the same approach as before, but here the scumbled flesh carries a slightly stronger purple tint. The effect depends on how dry the underlying purple layer is when the scumble begins—the less dry it is, the more color is lifted. As before, purple was worked into the shadows and feathered into the mid-tones. The scumble, which typically drifts across lights and mid-tones (and occasionally into the darks), absorbs this tint whenever the layer beneath is not fully dry.