Materials

Several people have ask my lately "how I do that", what my methods are, etc. I try to explain to them that it is an ongoing journey. What I do today will probably change what I do tomorrow driven by what the present work shows me I need to do. But there are some constants. I choose subject matter that inspires me; I paint the things I love. Wayne Thiebaud once said: "it dosen't matter what you paint, but how you paint it". To some extent I find this true; I've seen lots of paintings of things that are pretty mundane, but were painted in a way to make the work interesting. For myself though, I need to be emotionally involved with the subject.
Once I establish what I'm going to work on the preparation begins; this involves the physical nature of the work that I find satisfying: preparing a hardboard panel by cutting it to size, sanding both surfaces, and applying 4-5 coats of gesso. I'll coat one side, let it dry, then do the other side, this minimizes warping.
My palette consists of 11 colors that have pretty much remained the same for decades: White ( I loved Lead white and used it for many years, but it's rare these days), cadmium light yellow, cadmium medium yellow, yellow ocher, cadmium red light, cadmium red medium, rose madder, dioxizin purple, phthalo blue or prussian blue, permanent green, and Van Dyke brown. I find I can mix any hue or value using these colors, even very dark almost black shades.
For a painting medium I use Liquin sparingly, and for fine detail liquin "fine detail" medium.
My arsenal for tools include several stiff natural bristled brushes of various sizes, several softer haired brushes of various sizes, and different sizes of round tipped palette knifes.
As to how I do what I do, that is still a mystery to me. Years of practice pays off, I keep pushing myself, I read Carlson. Bur when it comes down to it, I smear paint around on a board until I get what I'm after.