The underpainting, or foundation, can be the most important stage of a painting. It’s the place to refine the composition, work through the value equations and evolve ideas. Maybe there will be a Eureka! moment, when the painting starts talking and you learn where it has to go.
Plus it’s a real advantage to start from a toned canvas – regardless of style. These days we all buy pristine white canvas’ from the art store. It was not always so. In bygone days artists used a variety of preparations and even bought canvases where not as white as they are today. It’s an open secret that an underlying tone helps an image form quickly. It’s like having a free brush at work as you go.
Underpaintings can be completed in any (typically subdued) tone: blues, browns, greys and greens can all work. Each will assert a certain feel into the final work – sometimes dramatically so, where the underpainting forms an integral part of the final image.
I’m known as a bit of a colourist, but typically evolve my images in a very limited palette, applying colour on previously established values. It’s difficult to deal with colour and value at the same time and adding colour is never a substitute for a lack in the value department – you can’t solve a value problem with more colour!
I generally favour using a brown and a blue as a limited palette variation of a pure monochromatic underpainting. The thing I like, is that it allows for a variation of warms (browns) and cools (blues) that can almost complete a painting…without adding much colour at all. Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them! My general rule is, the darker the value, the bluer it must be. Mid-tones and lights in brown, with darks all having a deep blueish tinge. Warm tones advance and cools recede, giving the viewer all the right messages.
Burnt sienna and ultramarine blue are my go-to tubes. These two colours work superbly together: warm browns mixing to cool, intense black and then blues, needed to establish a foundation. I add some titanium white to make some grey tones and highlights. In my opinion, almost any brown can be substituted for the burnt sienna but the ultramarine blue is important for my darks. Other dark blues (Pthalo, Windsor, Prussian) will give somewhat different effects, typically greener. They can all work – although it would take some convincing to knock me off of my preference for ultramarine.
