258 by katy on 12/31/01 at 12:45 PM
Re: underpainting

: To David, Hello Anwar here. Katy identified herself as an experienced watercolorist so she would understand that red earth, burnt sienna, caput mortuum etc. are compound colors and not "pure colors". I think you might be coming from a historical station point which is very cool. Actually watercolorists have a bit more intimacy traditionally in color handling since it is virtually thier entire practice. And now she comes to oil painting a bit worried about the "rules". As for using pure colors in the underpainting I say it is poor practice. First it will require thick over painting to influence the under laying color. This means that more pigment than oil will be required which will violate the rule of fat over lean. Its not all that bad but will lead to cracking and dry spots in practice. Basically an unsound semi ugly picture even if done with otherwise beautiful handling. We should remember that oil painting is esteemed as the more permanent of the painting arts but only painters who demonstrate that they are observing the methods of permanence are recognized as producers such works. As for Davinci using blue underpainting to emphasize shadow...Which one? He only produced 4 or 5 paintings complete hardly a professional. You may be referring to the practice of glazing a wash of blue with subsequent applications other colors. That hardly can be called underpainting... more like refinment of an overstated layer. The process I described is sound based on working from descrete to bold with the boldest statements backed with solid artistic intention. Going about learning to paint in oils by reinventing the wheel is fine if the present approach were faulty but it isnt, as a matter of fact it is highly evolved if observed. Besides if she wanted to go it alone she wouldnt have asked......FACTOID!!!!!: By the way Ive done a painting where I did half of the underpainting in black and white the other half in warm raw umber gray and the difference although subtle is noticable...the warms are weaker in the cool side: but both the warms and cools work fine in the warm side. The theory is as old as sin and solid in practice try it yourself...what can I say?Hello Katy, Really I will say that it is most often best to use a warm gray such as Raw umber mixed with white as an underpainting color. Mix this with lead white if you can if not titanium is fine but not zinc as it is oily and brittle. The reason for these choices is that these pigments are naturally fast drying. They also absorb less oil and so they are very safe in terms of painting fat over lean in the next layers. A warm neutral because it supports brighter warm colors fine, brighter cool colors work well too. Now its very hard to get a bright warm color to sing over a cool under painting-it just dulls it down easily. As for pure colors in an underpainting its better to steer away from that. The reason is because it will affect the overlaying colors. Strong colors will affect strongly and not allow you full control. If its possible to guess what the main color in the picture will be then you might make your umber steer toward it for the underpainting. Heres a trick....If you want something to stand out paint it in a different underpainting color than the rest of the picture. No one will know but it will just stand out! : May you have many peak experiences....anwar; why would you steer a new comer away from experimenting? davinci used blue as an underpainting to emphasize the shadows, several 1600 painters used caput mortum as an underpainting when they did figure work. 1700's figure painters used red earth or burnt sienna as underpaintings. cool grey or warm grey makes no difference and it is no harder to work with than the pure colors. cool greys with an ochre wash creates a different warm grey than ochre mixed into the grey. a dark grey will effect the over painting just as much as blue or red. by the way underpaintings are used to affect the overpainting. if one does not want the over paint to be effected then one should not paint! white effects the overpaint just as much as any other pigment. SO KATY EXPERIMENT WITH SMALL PICTURES UNTIL YOU FIND WHAT YOU LIKE! its been months since i have been here. just have been going crazy with these paintings i have going .thank you Anwar for laying out a kind cloth over my puddle of underpainting muddle. i have found many other bits of advice on this subject and the core thing in common with all of this advice is that every artist has their own theory in what they think is right in the birthing stages of the oil painting . i am grateful and still a bit perplexed but only due to my over analytical nature battling my intuitive creativity . what a war it is! all of this advice has helped alot but i cant narrow down myself on my pallete .i have more questions coming .thanks,kat


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