I'm still such a novice about colour... if I try to use more than four, I wind up in a hopeless mess.

Last week I had the opportunity to paint from a model with some friends and decided to 'keep it simple'. My friend and unofficial mentor, Brian Smith, recommends the three-colour palette of burnt sienna, white and black (actually, Payne's grey which is pretty close to black). So much easier to figure out the values without worrying as much about the colour... I hope I'll get there someday, but for now, this makes me happy!