Once you have chosen which color of underpainting you will use, you should apply the paint to get the values, lighting, and the likeness perfect. The underpainting is applied using a couch of medium and the paint is worked into that medium in very small amounts and in small areas at a time. […] Your paint should glide and then melt into the couch as you work the paint with your brush.

It is as if Spenser is eroding our usual distinction between the Gorgon's mazeful head and - the beneficent effects of other women's beauty.

He's such a pimple! I wish he'd stop being so irritating!

Get your mind out of the gutter.