Celene Farris, A Maine Artist: Underpaintings

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Underpaintings

The reasons for an underpainting.

Trying to juggle shapes, values, composition and color all at once often result in frustration, muddy colors and unsuccessful paintings. Breaking the painting process into two distinct parts will greatly simplifiy the process.

A painting can be broken down into two basic steps -

1. The Foundation (underpainting)- establishing the composition, shapes and values. This is done as a monochromatic underpainting, creating the structure of your painting. In this step you can easily add, subtract and move objects around. Here you also establish your value pattern.

2. Color - To the finished, dried and correct underpainting you now only have to worry about adding color with all its subtle nuances and complications.

The underpainting is done in either thin oil washes or in black and white acrylic. If I am outside painting I do an underpainting in thin oil washes that will dry quickly in the outside air. In my studio I prefer black and white acrylic. Acrylic, a water based paint, dries quickly, covers well, is easy to work with, and has no odor.

I ask my students to think of baking a cake. You cannot frost the cake until it is baked. And if the cake doesn't have good ingredients, no amount of frosting will make it better.

In painting, if you don't have a strong foundation, no amount of color will make the painting better.

So break the painting process into two steps. First create a strong, correct foundation (underpainting) of shapes, values and placement. (Your cake)

Then you can concentrate on adding color, with all it subtle nuances. (Frosting)

This is such a logical way to paint. Painting is difficult - so why not try to simplify the process a bit by breaking it into steps?

Below is my black & white acrylic underpainting. I worked on it, making changes and adjustments until I was satisfied. The second picture shows the beginning stages of adding the colors.