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Monday, March 23, 2009

Complementary Color Underpainting

I was flipping through an issue of the Artist magazine and came across an article by Michael Chesley Johnson on using a complementary color underpainting for pastels. I thought I'd try it the way he suggests. I used my analogous color wheel for this. Looking at my reference photo I took each color section and found it's complement on my wheel and used a Nupastel to block it in. What I failed to do but will do it on the next one is to make sure I matched the correct value as well as the correct complement. I rubbed in the pastel with my finger but next time I will use alcohol I think. I will post the finished painting next.

1 comment:

Sand Hill Art said...

My friend Jerry Power uses underpainting in his studio paintings (see Jerrypowerart.com).
I am going to look for articles by Mr. Johnson, thanks for the tip!