[Chris Saper]

Mike,

I know exactly what you are talking about and have to force myself to preempt it every time.

I think there are several things that cause the problem, primarily. First, having too many colors laid out on your palette - one of the strong reasons to keep you paint palette very limited.

Second, as you very directly state, not mixing big enough piles of paint. I have a landscape painter friend who literally mixes color in a Waring blender, and who buys the huge Utrecht tubes that are squeezed out with a caulking gun. When I look at his mixing taboret (which is about 4' x 6') I get a twitch in my eye. But realistically , unless you paint with great speed, you will end up throwing lots of paint out at the end of each day.

In this situation I think there is probably some merit in "tubing" (something we here in AZ think of as floating down the river on a hot day) pre-mixed colors* or in using a mixing system like Daniel Greene, or John Sanden's pre-mixed colors.

The end goal in all of this is to simplify and be able to continue a painting seamlessly.

The third factor is, I think, contained in the way you work. If you work the whole canvas up in each level of finish, the problem is lessened. But if you work the way I now do, (which is to come close to completing each section as I move acress the canvas), you are left with having to match on Thursday some skin tones you completed on Tuesday. Back to the advantages of a limited palette.

* Tubing: you can buy empty paint tubes at the art supply store, where the crimp end is open (so you don't have the toothpaste-back-into-the-tube syndrome) then just premix your colors and pack the tube, close up the crimp end, and use it like a regular tube of paint.