Bombers got a layer of iron oxide to get the ball rolling. The graphite layer turned out to be quite fragile, so I was pretty cautious around the figure not to abrade the drawing too much.
This preliminary layer doesn’t last long, and most of it gets covered by future work, but makes a unifying warmth to the painting as little fragments of it appear through the layers that will cover the bulk of it. It also has the effect of sealing the gesso so that the layers of paint will settle into the surface without any weird colour changes.Â
