Your Underpainting is Showing

Go into any undergarment store and they will sell you on the idea that the key to a beautiful silhouette is quality underclothes. Maybe so, I'm not sure. But I know this is true with paintings--I have come to believe that the key to a brilliant painting is it’s first layer. The first layer is where you achieve an accurate drawing, and it also sets the mood/color notes for the rest of the painting.

There are quite a few underpainting techniques. Many have fancy names like, “imprimatura”, “veneda”, “morrellone”, “grisaille”, and “verdaccio“. Artists get into word-wars over the technical definition of what these fancy words mean. I’m not going to throw down and enter the ring with word definitions. But I would like to tell you about the different technique possibilities that I have used in my work.

Like underwear, an underpainting falls into three basic categories: a solid color, figured (follow the basic shape of the drawing--block in), or going “commando”--not be there at all.

SOLID COLOR:

Often I’ll start a painting by putting a wash (paint thinned with solvent) of a single color all over the canvas. The nice thing about a single color underpainting, is that it connects the painting. When you see little hints of the same color throughout the piece, it unifies the composition. Now, which colors to use? Well, you can use any color, technically. However, it makes for a more dynamic painting, I like to use a warm underpainting color--a yellow, orange, or red. Which one to choose depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you want a realistic-looking landscape choose a more subdued wash of burnt sienna--the earth and water tones around the midwest have a reddish tinge and the burnt sienna is the perfect complement to blue so it tones the sky down. If you want a more vibrant painting, choose a brighter red, orange, or even yellow. In the painting, "Retail Therapy: Gray Day", you can see hints of the orange underpainting purposely left throughout the piece (white truck, large building on left, even some parts of the sky). This, along with the limited color palette, helps unify the piece.

BLOCKED IN:

Sometimes, I draw out my basic composition on the canvas so that I can underpaint in different colors big blocks of color. I do this technique when I need to solve a compositional problem--usually a lack of variation. For instance: maybe I need to paint a field or a hill or a roof--overall, it appears to be the same color and it takes up a huge portion of the composition. I don’t want a big block of one solid color to dominate the composition...so I’ll look for the varying undertones. I will paint the undertones highly exaggerated (bright, saturated colors) as my underpainting, and then go over it with the single local color, making sure to leave just the right amount of underpainting peeking through. For example: in the painting "Dairyland Red, White and Blue", both sections that make up the roof of the white barn have the same color laid on top of two different underpainting colors (dark purple and lime green) to show that the light is hitting the sections at different angles.

I also use the blocked-in form of underpainting when I see shadows that have a lot of reflected light. In this case, I will draw the composition very accurately so I know right where that shadow will be. Then I’ll spend quite a bit of time getting the underpainting wash exactly how I want it to be in the end. Often several colors bleed into each other in an almost watercolor-like fashion. Then when I go to paint the rest of the layers of the painting with opaque colors, I leave the underpainting showing completely--no extra layers in that spot. This method requires a layer of varnish or clear oil over the top once it dries to protect those fragile pigment particles that wouldn’t otherwise have sufficient binder. I really have been enjoying exploring this technique--I kinda like the way it looks. Example: In "St. Croix Steamer", the purplish-bluish-yellowish shadow color on the main cabin pillar of the boat is 100% underpainting showing through.

There are other blocked in techniques that I don’t usually use, but I just thought you might like to learn about them. In classical painting, it is typical to use a technique of underpainting where the entire painting is done in black and white or green and white. Then, after the first layer dries, they will lay thin glazes of color over the top, letting the paint dry between each layer. This technique started when colored pigments were much more expensive than black and white. The artist could do the “heavy lifting” of establishing values (darks and lights) with cheaper pigments and then come in with the very thin layers of the expensive colors and achieve the same effect. Even though the pigment prices have equalized today, this technique is still used. The luminosity that can be achieved by all of the layers of color working together is just amazing. However, I personally don’t have the patience, nor the personality to use this technique. Most of my work is done alla prima (all at one time) because I'm an impulsive painter who likes instant gratification. (Hey, at least I admit it!)

NOTHING:

I usually don’t paint on a white canvas--or for our current play on words--”going commando”. Once in a while when I’m in a hurry (travel-painting, sketching, speed-painting, or just grabbing color notes), I’ll throw paint on a white canvas. But I never am truly happy with the results. Often there are little specks of blank white canvas peeking through all over the place, and I just don’t like it as a finished painting. But sometimes, there just isn’t time. Example: This is a little travel sketch that I did on the coast of the North Sea in Noordwijk, Netherlands. I just had a few minutes when my family was in the hotel room getting ready for supper. It's hard to see the white flecks from this distance, but if you look closely at the original, they're there, and they bug me!

Next time you go to a gallery or museum, try to "undress" the paintings and see if you can figure out the underpainting!