Fun with Watercolor Underpaintings

'Reverie'             8x10           pastel           ©Karen Margulis
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 It was about time for some underpainting fun! I used to begin most of my pastel paintings with some kind of wet underpainting. I loved doing alcohol washes, watercolor and oil underpaintings. I still do but lately I have bypassed the wet underpainting to a more direct technique with no underpainting at all.

I decided it was time to revisit the wet underpainting with my weekly pastel classes. We started with watercolor. What a fun change of pace!  I was reminded at the importance of practice. Any new (or rarely used) technique will feel strange at first. It isn't always easy to get the desired results.

Once is not enough!

Sometimes it is good to practice just the underpainting technique....not to even worry about the pastel application. Do underpainting after underpainting until it feels comfortable. The more you do the more you learn about what works and what doesn't.

watercolor underpainting fun!

After my 4th watercolor underpainting I still have a long way to go to have success but I am enjoying the process. I just have to realize that if I want to improve my watercolor underpaintings I have to revisit them more often!