Oil Painting lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 4

I started a new painting today.

I decided to challenge myself by choosing a marble cast of Venus.
Greg picked up some other props for me to balance it out for a composition.

As usual, I covered a whole panel with Raw Umber, and put some rough shape with a rag.
I thought I was doing ok, but, Greg told me she was a bit too fat!

And, I carefully measured it again, and he was right.
It's frightening to realise that I thought I already got proportion right, but, quite often it's not.

Then I gave her a plastic surgery, and now she looks nicely proportioned.

I ended up spending a whole session trying to get initial underpainting right, but, I'm reasonably happy with this one so far.

Work in progress. 16 x 20 in.