Still in Isolation

With the pandemic still raging, I have more time to paint. Every so often I switch from my traditional watercolors to painting in oils. Because it is so different than my usual medium, it makes me concentrate more on what I am doing.
The procedure of painting light to dark in watercolor is the opposite with oil paint. I need to switch my brain into reverse to paint dark to light.

Several years ago, when the tall ships came to Chicago, I went to see them and took several photographs, one of which is below. The subject is actually one that I tried unsuccessfully to paint in watercolors. 
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​I decided on a rather large format -22'x28" on canvas.

The first step in any medium is the drawing.  With oil, I prefer to draw with the brush instead of using charcoal. I chose Indian red with turpentine for the drawing because it's a pigment that dries quickly, and allows me to start the painting within a few minutes.

The advantage of oil paints is that they dry very slowly which allows me to make corrections fairly easily. The disadvantage is that they dry very slowly! Unlike watercolor painting, where a layer dries quickly, waiting for a layer of oil paint to dry before putting down another layer takes too much time. I need another option.

Alla Prima (all at once) is my choice. If I paint thin to thick, the thinner paint will dry more quickly, allowing me to continue painting into wet paint.
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​Wish me luck! Steps to follow.