This is the underpainting to a slightly caricatured portrait of the Puritan John Owen (based on Greenhill’s painting). I didn’t rub in a mid tone. Normally I do, but I put so much matte medium on the paper (which is sort of like Elmer’s glue) that it obscured the drawing a little. I worried that a mid tone would obliterate the drawing altogether so I just painted the face and I’ll scrub in the background during the color stage.
