Techniques

I am a very traditional painter and most of the images you see on this site have been painted in a layered technique which has been around for centuries. The same technique was used by the Dutch masters, Vermeer, de Hoogh and their contemporaries. Essentially, a "grisaille" or monochrome version of the final image is created to establish areas of tone and allowed to dry. For this I use only Ivory black and Titanuim White (Deckwiess) from the Lukas professional range.
The colours are then painted in a series of glazes (transparent dark colours thinned in oil) and scumbles (translucent light colours painted over darker areas) and patches of opaque paint in the lightest areas. Because the layers are so transparent, some of the grisaille shows through and the vibrancy of the colours is much greater than if they were simply mixed to the appropriate tone and placed in "alla prima" (in one layer). My regular colour palette includes Scarlet Lake, Magenta, Indian Yellow, Pthalocyanine Blue (all very transparent and bright), Cerulean or Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber/Sienna, Helio Orange, Naples Yellow and Titanium White (all opaque/earth colours). Most of these colours are from Michael Harding, Old Holland, Grumbacher and Lukas Professional.