Each of us has been endowed with the ability to create. Some have actualized this ability more than others. Many people I know were discouraged early in life from doing anything artistic and adopted beliefs about themselves that made it impossible in their minds for anything ‘creative’ to come from them. If you’re one of them, you’re in for a real surprise. I am of the conviction that anyone can paint. As far as I am concerned, if you have a pulse, and have enough manual dexterity to sign your name, you can paint.
But you need to trust the process, the method set out in these seven steps. Do each step as honestly and as faithfully as you can without skipping or combining steps, or adding anything. Preliminary sketches, measuring, and drawing are not asked of you. Just do the simple steps in sequence, showing courage and trust at each step. Do not proceed to the next step until you are happy with what you have.
The method can be used for oils and acrylics, but the ‘thick over thin’ principle must be adhered to and you may have to wait for the under painting and value study to dry before proceeding. I often work up to the value study in acrylic and then change to oil.
Though this method of painting may seem quite simple and unsophisticated, it works. The focus is about putting down exactly what you see, as you see it. So let’s get started!
The four main choices are: oils, acrylics, watercolors, and pastel. Look at the subject and identify the big shapes then, using burnt sienna, rough in lines denoting these. Identify five to six shapes, but avoid detail.
This step is about organizing the composition of the painting over the surface of the canvas. In the photo you can see that six or seven big shapes have been identified. The whole canvas should look like puzzle pieces.
If, once you’ve done this, the paint is still wet, use a rag to pull off the paint from the lighter areas of the paint. To identify the lightest areas, squint your eyes at the subject. If the paint has already dried, don’t worry, you will have a chance later on to deal with the lightest areas.
Look at the subject (here a landscape). Study it. Forget names of things (e.g. sky, tree, cloud) and look for shape, color, design, and value.
Squint, squint and squint again. Squinting helps eliminate detail and reduce color so you can see the big shapes and movement in the image.
See it already painted in your mind. See the forms of your subject in two dimensions.
Do not rush this step. Three-quarters of the painting is done at this stage.
Squint at your image so you don’t see color (value has nothing to do with color, it’s how light or dark something is). Start with darkest darks and roughly paint them in. Work through about five values, from the darkest to the lightest.
You can infer some representation at this point but absolutely no detail. Use a tiny bit of dioxine purple to darken sienna for dark darks.
In this photo you can see how the image is already there even though I haven’t added any color.
If you get the values, you’ve got the painting. It doesn’t matter what the value of something is, as long as it is right in relationship to the value next to it.
Many new painters have questions about underpainting. The thing to know about underpainting is that there are many ways to do it and each way will affect the resulting painting in different ways. Thus, you can study different types of underpainting to achieve differing effects.
Underpainting is not absolutely necessary to oil painting and there are many artists who are accomplished enough to create alla prima with no underpainting.
Many artists, including myself, have done underpainting in monochrome values similar to a black and white photo. The monochrome painting method has been used throughout the ages as not only an underpaininting method, but also a teaching tool. It is especially useful if you want to paint in a realistic manner. As you have expressed yourself, correct values in painting are a large part of any successful painting and correct values are vital in realism. Thereby, teachers have had students do full paintings in monochrome to teach value and how to effectively create a 3d impression on a 2d surface. The most recognized monochrome painting styles are grisaille (French) and verdaccio (Italian). The grisaille is basically based on neutral or warmish gray tones. The verdaccio is based on cooler gray-green tones. Verdaccio as used in underpainting can really enhance skin tones to create high realism.
Others paint more directly - that is, they underpaint in the same colors they will use in the final painting. Generally, these painters tend to work from the very broad to the very specific and the first layers of paint laid down are their version of underpainting. Many tend to tone/neutralize the colors early on so they end up with an almost dead color rendering of the work as their underpainting.
Still others will underpaint with complement colors as they feel that it can give a vibrancy to the final work.
As you can see, you can spend many years studying differing types of underpainting and the effects they give.
Keep the paint thin. And don’t cover all burnt sienna, let lots of it show. Roughly estimate the colors and put them down as you see them. Use white sparingly.
Start with darkest colors and work to lighter ones. Each color you put on must be same value as what’s underneath it, otherwise your painting will ‘collapse’!
Don’t use colors you don’t like, but do make the colors you use ‘sing’ by considering the dependency of each on the color next to it. The relationship is what counts, not the actual colors.
In the photo you can see that most of the colours are roughed in where I saw them. I started with the darkest and worked to the lightest color. Look at all the areas where the value study peeks through – why would you want to cover it all up?
You will lose some of the drama and excitement of the value study as you apply your thin colors. This is a normal occurrence in this method of painting, do not worry!
Have you lost your darkest darks? Go back and put them in. Then look at the lights. If they’re not light enough, begin to key them up using a bit thicker paint.
Adjust colors and make them sing. But don't add detail, infer or suggest it. Don’t get stuck in one place, work holistically all over the canvas.
Let the paint be paint – don’t force it to be a tree or a flower. It has beauty in itself.
In the photo you can see I darkened some of the darks, then added more reds and orange and light green to areas. Some cooler greens were added to the river and the foreground.
This article will address monochrome underpainting as a technique to help the beginning painter learn about value. This technique emphasizes both drawing and painting to create a detailed and realistic underpainting as a baseline for color application.As a Teaching Tool
Here is a monochrome from a master:
Odalisque in Grisaille, 1824�34 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
This piece is thought by many to be a teaching tool to students in his studio. Ingres is thought to have used many different methods of underpainting from a red underpaint to more direct dead color methods. A painting like this would likely have been done as a demonstration to his students of how you can represent three-dimensional reality in a single hue. It is also an example of using this type of monochrome study as an underpainting as you can see the beginnings of a glaze over one of the curtain panels on the right side. :)
Value and Chromatic Value
I learned and use a system of expressing values in paint that was originated by Alfred Munsell. Munsell's work was completely about color, but is extremely useful to the artist and I highly recommend that you read more about the Munsell Color System on the web - do a Google Search.
Munsell expressed value as a measure of lightness.
Munsell's scale of value ranges from Black at value 0 to White at value 10. It is important to distinguish that Munsell separated out Black and White from the hues listed above. From a monochromatic underpainting perspective then, we will be painting from dark to light in one monochromatic hue.
When a color or hue has value, then it is expressed as a "Chromatic" value. Ultramarine Blue, for example has a chromatic value of 2 on the Munsell scale.
The black and white value scale has no hue. Here is an example of a value scale:The Importance of Drawing
History has proven that master painters like Leonardo used very detailed drawings and Charoscuros under their paintings. These drawings or "cartoons" established their baseline form and the baseline "values" for their underpainting. That way, each step of their process served them as a map to the next step. The cartoon provides the map to the underpainting, which provides the map to the color stage, etc.
So, I believe that it is important that you first establish your form and baseline values for your painting in charcoal - taking the cartoon to as much detail as you can. This will allow you to find and fix drawing errors and again, gives you a firm baseline on which to begin your verdaccio - not to mention giving you valuable skills rendering in charcoal.
NOTE: Do not use graphite - graphite is slick, can leach through the paint, and is not recommended for drawing anything below a painted surface.
When complete, you spray the work with a good quality Retouch Varnish to seal the charcoal a little and make the surface ready to receive your underpainting.
Here is one of my charcoal renderings from a portrait commission - Chase & Peyton. It is an example of how far a charcoal can be taken. You may or may not choose to go this far - for me, I found that it really helped.The Controlled Palette
So for our underpainting, we are going to replicate the above value scale in paint and thereby paint with a palette of nine controlled values plus black and white. You can do this in almost any color, but for this article I will focus on the verdaccio (gray-green) method of underpainting made popular in Italy.
The Verdaccio undertone I referred to is a gray-green mixture made with Chromium Oxide Green, Mars Black, and Lead White(Flake).
I typically mix equal parts of Chromium Oxide Green to Mars Black to get a value 2 (Munsell scale) - this is my base pile from which I mix all others. I then darken some of it with Mars Black to create a pile at value 1, and lighten the rest with Flake White to create piles at values 3-9.
You can also experiment with Yellow Ochre, Mars Black, Red Ochre, and Lead White to create a variant of the verdaccio tones. You would mix the Ochre and the Black to create a green, and use the Red Ochre to knock it down in intensity.
Here are the approximate verdaccio values in our controlled palette:
But you need to trust the process, the method set out in these seven steps. Do each step as honestly and as faithfully as you can without skipping or combining steps, or adding anything. Preliminary sketches, measuring, and drawing are not asked of you. Just do the simple steps in sequence, showing courage and trust at each step. Do not proceed to the next step until you are happy with what you have.
The method can be used for oils and acrylics, but the ‘thick over thin’ principle must be adhered to and you may have to wait for the under painting and value study to dry before proceeding. I often work up to the value study in acrylic and then change to oil.
Though this method of painting may seem quite simple and unsophisticated, it works. The focus is about putting down exactly what you see, as you see it. So let’s get started!
The four main choices are: oils, acrylics, watercolors, and pastel. Look at the subject and identify the big shapes then, using burnt sienna, rough in lines denoting these. Identify five to six shapes, but avoid detail.
This step is about organizing the composition of the painting over the surface of the canvas. In the photo you can see that six or seven big shapes have been identified. The whole canvas should look like puzzle pieces.
If, once you’ve done this, the paint is still wet, use a rag to pull off the paint from the lighter areas of the paint. To identify the lightest areas, squint your eyes at the subject. If the paint has already dried, don’t worry, you will have a chance later on to deal with the lightest areas.
Look at the subject (here a landscape). Study it. Forget names of things (e.g. sky, tree, cloud) and look for shape, color, design, and value.
Squint, squint and squint again. Squinting helps eliminate detail and reduce color so you can see the big shapes and movement in the image.
See it already painted in your mind. See the forms of your subject in two dimensions.
Do not rush this step. Three-quarters of the painting is done at this stage.
Squint at your image so you don’t see color (value has nothing to do with color, it’s how light or dark something is). Start with darkest darks and roughly paint them in. Work through about five values, from the darkest to the lightest.
You can infer some representation at this point but absolutely no detail. Use a tiny bit of dioxine purple to darken sienna for dark darks.
In this photo you can see how the image is already there even though I haven’t added any color.
If you get the values, you’ve got the painting. It doesn’t matter what the value of something is, as long as it is right in relationship to the value next to it.
Many new painters have questions about underpainting. The thing to know about underpainting is that there are many ways to do it and each way will affect the resulting painting in different ways. Thus, you can study different types of underpainting to achieve differing effects.
Underpainting is not absolutely necessary to oil painting and there are many artists who are accomplished enough to create alla prima with no underpainting.
Many artists, including myself, have done underpainting in monochrome values similar to a black and white photo. The monochrome painting method has been used throughout the ages as not only an underpaininting method, but also a teaching tool. It is especially useful if you want to paint in a realistic manner. As you have expressed yourself, correct values in painting are a large part of any successful painting and correct values are vital in realism. Thereby, teachers have had students do full paintings in monochrome to teach value and how to effectively create a 3d impression on a 2d surface. The most recognized monochrome painting styles are grisaille (French) and verdaccio (Italian). The grisaille is basically based on neutral or warmish gray tones. The verdaccio is based on cooler gray-green tones. Verdaccio as used in underpainting can really enhance skin tones to create high realism.
Others paint more directly - that is, they underpaint in the same colors they will use in the final painting. Generally, these painters tend to work from the very broad to the very specific and the first layers of paint laid down are their version of underpainting. Many tend to tone/neutralize the colors early on so they end up with an almost dead color rendering of the work as their underpainting.
Still others will underpaint with complement colors as they feel that it can give a vibrancy to the final work.
As you can see, you can spend many years studying differing types of underpainting and the effects they give.
Keep the paint thin. And don’t cover all burnt sienna, let lots of it show. Roughly estimate the colors and put them down as you see them. Use white sparingly.
Start with darkest colors and work to lighter ones. Each color you put on must be same value as what’s underneath it, otherwise your painting will ‘collapse’!
Don’t use colors you don’t like, but do make the colors you use ‘sing’ by considering the dependency of each on the color next to it. The relationship is what counts, not the actual colors.
In the photo you can see that most of the colours are roughed in where I saw them. I started with the darkest and worked to the lightest color. Look at all the areas where the value study peeks through – why would you want to cover it all up?
You will lose some of the drama and excitement of the value study as you apply your thin colors. This is a normal occurrence in this method of painting, do not worry!
Have you lost your darkest darks? Go back and put them in. Then look at the lights. If they’re not light enough, begin to key them up using a bit thicker paint.
Adjust colors and make them sing. But don't add detail, infer or suggest it. Don’t get stuck in one place, work holistically all over the canvas.
Let the paint be paint – don’t force it to be a tree or a flower. It has beauty in itself.
In the photo you can see I darkened some of the darks, then added more reds and orange and light green to areas. Some cooler greens were added to the river and the foreground.
This article will address monochrome underpainting as a technique to help the beginning painter learn about value. This technique emphasizes both drawing and painting to create a detailed and realistic underpainting as a baseline for color application.As a Teaching Tool
Here is a monochrome from a master:
Odalisque in Grisaille, 1824�34 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
This piece is thought by many to be a teaching tool to students in his studio. Ingres is thought to have used many different methods of underpainting from a red underpaint to more direct dead color methods. A painting like this would likely have been done as a demonstration to his students of how you can represent three-dimensional reality in a single hue. It is also an example of using this type of monochrome study as an underpainting as you can see the beginnings of a glaze over one of the curtain panels on the right side. :)
Value and Chromatic Value
I learned and use a system of expressing values in paint that was originated by Alfred Munsell. Munsell's work was completely about color, but is extremely useful to the artist and I highly recommend that you read more about the Munsell Color System on the web - do a Google Search.
Munsell expressed value as a measure of lightness.
Munsell's scale of value ranges from Black at value 0 to White at value 10. It is important to distinguish that Munsell separated out Black and White from the hues listed above. From a monochromatic underpainting perspective then, we will be painting from dark to light in one monochromatic hue.
When a color or hue has value, then it is expressed as a "Chromatic" value. Ultramarine Blue, for example has a chromatic value of 2 on the Munsell scale.
The black and white value scale has no hue. Here is an example of a value scale:The Importance of Drawing
History has proven that master painters like Leonardo used very detailed drawings and Charoscuros under their paintings. These drawings or "cartoons" established their baseline form and the baseline "values" for their underpainting. That way, each step of their process served them as a map to the next step. The cartoon provides the map to the underpainting, which provides the map to the color stage, etc.
So, I believe that it is important that you first establish your form and baseline values for your painting in charcoal - taking the cartoon to as much detail as you can. This will allow you to find and fix drawing errors and again, gives you a firm baseline on which to begin your verdaccio - not to mention giving you valuable skills rendering in charcoal.
NOTE: Do not use graphite - graphite is slick, can leach through the paint, and is not recommended for drawing anything below a painted surface.
When complete, you spray the work with a good quality Retouch Varnish to seal the charcoal a little and make the surface ready to receive your underpainting.
Here is one of my charcoal renderings from a portrait commission - Chase & Peyton. It is an example of how far a charcoal can be taken. You may or may not choose to go this far - for me, I found that it really helped.The Controlled Palette
So for our underpainting, we are going to replicate the above value scale in paint and thereby paint with a palette of nine controlled values plus black and white. You can do this in almost any color, but for this article I will focus on the verdaccio (gray-green) method of underpainting made popular in Italy.
The Verdaccio undertone I referred to is a gray-green mixture made with Chromium Oxide Green, Mars Black, and Lead White(Flake).
I typically mix equal parts of Chromium Oxide Green to Mars Black to get a value 2 (Munsell scale) - this is my base pile from which I mix all others. I then darken some of it with Mars Black to create a pile at value 1, and lighten the rest with Flake White to create piles at values 3-9.
You can also experiment with Yellow Ochre, Mars Black, Red Ochre, and Lead White to create a variant of the verdaccio tones. You would mix the Ochre and the Black to create a green, and use the Red Ochre to knock it down in intensity.
Here are the approximate verdaccio values in our controlled palette: