Whatever pigment is chosen, however, is still a color, so it will influence the color direction of the painting. Colors with darker mass tones like ultramarine blue, burnt sienna or burnt umber can do this very well, while lighter- or medium-valued colors like yellow cannot. This is why the pigment color used must be dark enough to achieve the darker values in your painting. The pigment is applied thinly in an additive and subtractive manner, to achieve a full range of values. White is not used in monochromatic underpainting. In this article, I’d like to address a specific aspect of underpainting in greater detail: W hat color should the underpainting be?Ĭlassic underpainting is monochromatic - it’s made with only a single pigment color. I present the underpainting technique step-by-step in my book, Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice. Also called a block-in or wipe out, the underpainting develops the composition, placement, and value relationships at the outset. Here a warm golden undertone of raw sienna will harmonize with the many warm colors found in the scene.Īs any of my students will tell you, I am a great advocate of starting a painting with an underpainting. I am not sure who said it but I will give credit if I find out.A traditional underpainting is monochromatic, made with a single pigment color that is chosen in response to the color of the scene. Without a solid foundation, you will never be able to faithfully represent the sunlight you are trying to paint. This is why it is so important to build a solid foundation for the highlights in sunset paintings. By doing this, we can add power to the sunlight in our painting. However, with the clever use of the elements available to us, we are able to create a fairly accurate illusion of light.īecause we are not able to hit the vividness of sunlight, we may need to accentuate the dullness and darkness of the surrounding environment. This is sadly one of the limitations of paint. The next step in creating a visually stunning sunset painting is to build a solid foundation so that you can really show off the highlights (usually the vivid sunlight).īecause you are not able to actually paint light.
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February 2023
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