Moved on from here, but...

Alan, we all hope that - not sure how old you are, but I know all too well how old I am; and I do wonder if I'm ever going to get where I want to be; if I'd even realize it if I did; and whether I'll ever be pleased with anything I've painted - I'm not DISpleased by some of them; but there's always more I wanted to achieve. Linda, my hair is plentiful but now standing up as though I were hooked up to a Van der Graaf generator: it's not so much the acrylic imprimatura, but fixing charcoal with hairspray ..... that's just, with all due respect to the boy, stupid. Still, it's his look-out - he might get away with it, but hairspray contains surfactants that can react chemically with oil paint; he might not live to see it do so, and perhaps the long-term condition of his paintings doesn't matter to him; but if so, that's an outlook I don't understand.   I remember an article on painting black skin - years ago.  There isn't a single formula, any more than there is for 'white' skin, but I recall the artist in that case used mixes of Burnt Sienna with Raw Sienna and French Ultramarine.  I'd take Adebanji Alade's advice on painting skin-tones - he's brilliant at it.