Painting lessons - under painting with earth tones

This last semester was my first painting class.  I had a great time learning different techniques and thought that I would share the results here.

The first project was all about under painting.  This technique was used by many classic artists as a way to give depth and detail to the painting.  Under painting in grey tones was often referred to as grisalle and was used by artists from Reubens to Picasso.  It fell out of favor in the 20th century, but is still taught today in art classes everywhere.

The first layer of painting is done with one of the earth tones like burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna or raw sienna.  The 'raw' colors have cooler tones and the 'burnt' ones are warmer.  The choice of what to use in this stage is up to the artist.  To create the value shift from light to dark, white is added to the earth tone in different amounts.  Here is one of the early under paintings for my first project:

still life #1

As you can see, there are many values used here, but only two colors: white and raw umber.  Here is another example of under painting that used burnt sienna:

landscape - Hanalei Valley overlook

Comparing the two, you can see the difference between 'warm' and 'cool'.  Also, the 'raw' forms of umber and sienna are 'cool' and 'warm', respectively, especially when compared to one another.  

Here's a picture of some value scales I did with the earth tones, so that you can get an idea:

the scale at the top is burnt sienna and white and below that is burnt umber and white.  There is a small example of glazing here (because I was experimenting to recreate skin tones).  

here is a raw umber value scale.  

You can see the difference in warm and cool tones very clearly.  It is also possible to use another earth tone, yellow ochre, in under painting, but it is not ideal.  Yellow ochre contains white in the mix, so it is not a 'pure hue'.  White is added because yellow hues are usually fairly transparent.  However, it would be interesting to use it for under painting, just to see what happens.  I think I will experiment with this and report back on my results.

Under painting not only adds depth to a final painting, but it is also a way to sketch out the ideas on to the canvas.  The picture of the under painting above (Hanalei Valley overlook) is still in the early stages, and many changes were made before and after the colors were added on top.  

This is just one method of painting.  I like it because it is like building a skeletal structure or foundation.  It is also important to remember to let the paint dry fully before adding more paint, unless you are trying to get a muddy or mottled look.  

Have fun and experiment.  If it all goes south, and you get completely disgusted just get a jug of gesso and re-prime your canvas and start over.  It's just painting, after all.  

Next Up:  glazing with color over the under painting.