Underpainting with a single hue
May 6, 2007
If you’ve taken one of my workshops, you may recall that I usually begin a pastel painting with an underpainting. I apply pastel lightly to the surface (white Wallis Sanded Paper), then use a brush and Turpenoid to go over each area of color, being careful not to blend or muddy the colors. After that dries, I begin using realistic color.
My favorite underpainting technique is the one I call “brilliant color” — underpainting with large blocks of color, choosing hues that are brighter, more intense, and sometimes darker than what I see in my reference photograph.
However, I’ve also become quite interested in working with five or six values of a single hue. I choose that color based on my analysis of the photograph, and select either: the dominant color in the subject; the complement of the dominant color; the color of the light; or the complement of the color of the light.
Underpainting with several values of the same hue gives me a nice value study—a road map for the painting to follow. Like all underpainting methods, it also gives me a chance to check my composition and value structure before I’ve applied too much pastel. Correcting an error at this early stage is preferable to discovering it later!
Here’s an example of a recent painting begun this way.
Step 1: I chose several values of lavender because I felt it would help emphasize the cool yellow light, and play nicely against the green of the foliage. In the first step, I applied the pastel lightly to the surface.
Step 2: Next, I brushed each color area with Turpenoid. I dip my brush (an inexpensive, flat, synthetic brush, fairly large) in the turp, touch it to the paper towel I hold in my hand, then stroke over the pastel. Then I wipe the excess pigment off on the paper towel, and repeat the process until all the surface is covered. I try to avoid runs, and if the pigment starts to feel “pasty” I lift the excess off with the brush.
Then I step back and study my composition. I look for changes that need to be made, and if I see anything I want to revise, I do it immediately. I don’t turp it again, but proceed to paint the subject in more realistic colors, allowing bits of the underpainting to show through here and there. The resulting colors are far more lively and exciting than if I had omitted the underpainting and gone directly to the final step. (At Donatella’s Villa, 11×17, pastel © Maggie Price)