Following the arrangement of warm versus cold colours outlined above, I used colours (1) and (2) to treat the chest, upper shoulder and the area around the clavicle (collar bone), with some gentle use of the red-purple (5) in the areas that needed the most definition. The lower areas of the upper arm were treated using colours (3) and (4), which were a little colder, less saturated and more 'greenish' in aspect; some layers of these colours, particularly (4), were also applied to the lower torso, going around and under the arm to the serratus area, further establishing the green look of those areas. More layers of (5) were applied around the lower-side of the pectorals, and just underneath the pecs at the top of the serratus muscles. Colour (6) was used for the very darkest parts, on the inside of the biceps, in and around the armpits, and the lower-side of the torso; these are the areas that would receive the least amount of light, and should be very dark to create the appropriate amount of contrast to create a clear sense of lighting on the figure.

       A very important thing to remember this stage is to make sure you do not over-darken the areas that will be receiving most of the highlights in future stages of the painting. Most people understand that the highlights need to be lighter and brighter in the areas that would be receiving the most direct light, but in my experience, failing to lighten the shadow colours for these 'areas of light' in a corresponding way is a very common mistake. Let's look at this figure, Urmuth, as a specific example. In the areas that will end up darkest on the figure, such as the side of the body, and the underside of the arms, both the shadows and highlights are quite dark. In fact, the highlight colour here is darker than the shadow colour on the upper shoulder, upper chest and so on. Conversely, on the areas that would receive the most direct light, such as the top of the shoulder, upper chest etc., both the shadow colour and highlight colour are much lighter than any of the other colours on the rest of the flesh. The whole range of colour is lighter, just as the whole range of colour is darker in the most shadowed areas. So what I am arguing is that the entire 'range' of tone should vary from area to area on the figure.

       See this picture of the finished figure below. On the right, I've given an example of the sort of colour range present in different parts of the flesh. This isn't exact of course, there is quite a bit of colour variation (and I just guessed the colour for those little swatches hehe), but I think it might help to explain what I mean.