back to life studies for the new year

I'm doing these very much as 'studies': experiments or training or practice (or all three) in 

a) working with blocking and then glazing skin tones on board.  Done the blocking, now weeks of glazing ahead.  Most of my portraits are on canvas and the landscapes on board for some reason so it's interesting seeing how the putting on of the paint changes due to the material of the support.

b) using light and shade to model shapes and moods when it's only gestures of a part of a body and not faces

c) hands

d) new ways of colour mixing for skin tones, to get out of my ruts of burnt sienna and yellow ochre:  mixing cadmium red and ultramarine for shadows, cadmium orange and mars violet for other darks: I've got a colour chart and I'm actually looking at it for more than 'ooo what pretty colours' . . .