Morinaga Milk Caramel Progress

So far, each painting is a real grab bag, every one seems to be coming to completion in different ways. Some require a black and white underpainting, some just plain direct painting, others require more transparent color glazes.

The only similarities are that each panel starts out with several layers of gesso which are power sanded. Also, because the surface is so smooth, there is also some kind of thin layer applied over the drawing so that the thicker layers of paint can adhere better and cover more opaquely in less time.

Here is the progress on one of the paintings. The painting is 17.25"x39". It's oil on panel.
Here's what's going on here from left to right:
1: Initial pencil drawing on panel.
2: Refined Pencil drawing; top white tabs are lightly painted. The drawing was fixed with Crystal Clear.
3: Initial color wash in for all yellow, the lighter yellow has been wiped off with a rag; first opaque detail layer.
4: Second layer of yellow for the dark side of the box. (Notice how much lighter the grey got when it was surrounded by this darker yellow. That was not repainted!)
5: More detail work; first opaque color for the light yellow side of the box. The letters will be painted back in again (too much trouble to cut all the bright yellow around all the letters-- we'll know better next time).
6: First layer of background color was cut in around the box (The color was chosen when the painting was designed).

More progress on the way!