How do I paint skin texture in the style of Freud?

Ive noticed on his paintings the skin tends to be lots of different tones of pinks, greys, brows all mottled and blended together - but in a really good way. I was curious as to how i could paint skin that way and if anyone had any tricks or tips on doing do. Also, when using oil paints, is it best to layer the paint?How do I paint skin texture in the style of Freud?
';I don't want any colour to be noticeable... I don't want it to operate in the modernist sense as colour, something independent... Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.'; -Lucian Freud





Achieving Freud's delicate color mixtures for figurative art would require careful observation of the subject and lots of practice. There doesn't appear to be any indirect (layered) technique, other than painstaking overpainting to adjust contours and mixtures. The paint texture is, I believe the result of using a lead-based white with a ';long'; body, ropey and viscous. My best guess as to an easily obtainable, comparable white would be Old Holland Cremnitz White.





From http://painting.about.com/od/famouspaint鈥?/a>


';According to critic Robert Hughes, Freud's ';basic pigment for flesh is Cremnitz white, an inordinately heavy pigment which contains twice as much lead oxide as flake white and much less oil medium that other whites.';





Hughes' remark about Cremnitz white is not exactly accurate, as the pigment used by contemporary manufacturers is Lead Carbonate, rather than Lead Oxide. The statement that Cremnitz is more heavily pigmented is not universally true of all brands. There are a number of paint makers who offer a lead white under the name ';Cremnitz'; with varying pigment concentrations and working properties, though it is generally a dense, viscous white, compared to softer-bodied paints that spread easily under the brush.





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';Cremnitz White'; and ';Lead Oxide'; references:





From ';The Pigment Compendium'; by Nicholas Eastaugh:


';Generally used synonymously with Kremnitz and Crems (or


Krems) white as well as Vienna white (q.v.), it is said to be a high


grade form of lead white (q.v.). Sources such as Field (1835)


state that the name was derived either from Kremnitz in Hungary


or Crems/Krems in Austria, adding that it had less hiding power


(鈥榖ody鈥? because it had a finer particle size. Tingry (1804) on the


other hand found in experiments on Cremnitz white from various


colourmen that it was composed of bismuth oxide or lead


oxide; however, he also applied the term to a formulation of his own


based on tin dissolved in nitric acid, zinc oxide and white clay.';





From the EPA's ';Lead Oxide and Pigment Production';:


';Lead oxide is a general term and can be either lead monoxide or ';litharge'; (PbO); lead


tetroxide or ';red lead'; (Pb3O4); or black or ';gray'; oxide which is a mixture of 70 percent lead


monoxide and 30 percent metallic lead.';