I plan to finish Rachel's portrait, that is featured in my "on the easel" section of oilstrokes.com, under Verdaccio technique over the next two weeks as I will finally have some uninterrupted time from July 2-15. I will be placing new photos of the painting up around the 5th of July.

I have learned so many new things as of late that I want to try out and I need to get trying them. I have spent a vary long time on this painting and need to complete it. One thing that I have been studying is Marvin Mattleson's palette layout as his paintings are very precise and I need to add some order to my palette as my current setup, use, and cleanup time takes too long and are not very intuitive.

As I have not spent any time working with the palette I am no expert on it, but what I have gathered is that, Marvin uses around 30 to 40 brushes in a single painting. and arranges his palette so that he does not use the same brush in any of his other flesh tones. He also arranges his colors in a way that he has 4 rows one of grays, one of yellows, one of reds, and one of cool colors. his values are all aligned on his pallette so that he never mixes a color of a different value on his pallete together. this makes it easier not to produce mud and assess value more correctly. the link that I have gotten this from can be located at the following link http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=5153

I will keep you updated as to how well this palette configuration goes.

I am interested in everyones opinion on the new look so please send me feedback

I am just starting this feed on oilstrokes and hope everyone enjoys reading it.