Laying the Lines

The lining is finished for the first of the three panels:

To get an idea of where to go with the work, I begin with a rough cut of an outline. Here are the beginnings of the next.

Although the lines are dark, I actually use a mixture of payne's gray and burnt umber in place of black. The difference is a subtle one, but becomes more significant as the glazes are added. Black will not reflect any light, whereas the mixed colors will. Surprisingly, I find the use of a mixture when glazing provides a deeper dark area, where the light still shines through. For this reason, I abstain from using black at all in my palette.