I have no previous knowledge of the work of Luc Tuymans but when I saw images of his paintings I found them extremely interesting and thought provoking., his muted colour scheme and simple yet masterful application of paint is used to portray elements of our modern times as well as elements of his own life and experiences.
As I have said I still know very little about this artist however I have decided to right my term essay on Tuymans which will involve allot of research' so I plan to right another summery of my thoughts on his work after I have a fuller understanding of it

This small painting was more of an experiment than a finished piece but there are elements of it that I think are note worthy.
the original premiss for this painting was that complimentary colours when painted in close proximity will draw the attention of the viewer (this is used quite subtly in some pointillist paintings) I painted a face using fairly toned down colours like the pink and light blue. I then painted the shadows of the face that would usually fall in to the back ground with green and red which was an attempt to pull those areas to the foreground.
This experiment ended up flattening the entire face so I decided to add some more interesting elements to the painting. I wanted to emphasise the small size of the canvas I was working on by selecting areas of the face that would have fit comfortably within the canvas and stretching them out of the frame.
After painting the head bald I added in an area of black paint that was clearly meant to represent hair however I attempted to make this area look as flat and artificial as possible.
There was no end goal or intent for this painting but i think that this adds to its appearance, since i was only painting it to experiment with concepts, I was not concerned with whether or not my ideas would work which makes this painting very different from my usual work which is generally very careful and planned.

The painting to the left is my first attempt at combining oil colours with ready mixed tubes of egg tempera. I now realise that I made some basic mistakes as a result of not fully understanding the paints. the biggest mistake made was using tempera on canvas rather than a hard surface such as wood, i'm not sure how this will affect the painting as it ages.
I used thick oils to layer non distinct areas of colours with different consistencies, these areas (light blue, dark blue and yellow) were meant to add ambiguity to the painting. It is not meant to be clear where, who or what this figure is. I also wanted the face to contrast with the blank areas of colour by being highly detailed with many subtle colour changes.
originally I was going to add far more to this painting but when I reached this stage I decided to leave the body and hands un painted other than a black guide line. I really like this half finished look because it makes the figures hands seem alienated from the face and body.
I am very pleased with how this painting turned out, its mysterious and bizarre with ought being too loud. whats interesting is that this painting is very different from my initial sketches and plans, I should remember this whenever I feel that I have hit a mental block. Once I start painting and experimenting with different techniques ideas will generate themselves.