Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Another Underpainting

"A Passel of Homegrowns" 6 x 6 Oil on Gessobord (WIP)

NFS

I've been asked to do a painting of these lovely tomatoes as a gift for a gardener. So I thought I would share the underpainting with you. I always start a painting this way, no matter the medium. In this case I used Burnt Umber, thinned in places with M Graham Walnut Oil, to sketch in the shapes and values. I then took a very soft mop brush and "fluffed" the edges. This is because I won't be able to get back to it for a couple of days and don't want the underpainting strokes to leave ridges that I can't get rid of when adding color. I guess you could call it "alla prima" in two stages, rather than one....or a daily painting in two days. My energy level some days is good others not so good. This is one of those days, and rather than hustling the painting to an OK completion, I'd rather get the underpainting down and give the color stage my full attention another day.





2 comments:

Kathy Cousart said...

Wonderful to see your process- good idea when you can't get it all done in one sitting. I just know this will be fabulous!

Karen Bruson said...

Thanks for sharing. I love seeing one's process.