When to Use Local Color for an Underpainting

'Forest Reverie'            9x12          pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $165

 I rarely use the local color for underpaintings. One of the wonderful things about doing an underpainting or block in for a painting is the chance to infuse the painting with interesting and unexpected color.  I will usually choose limited palette of color for an underpainting. The colors I select are designed to enhance the local colors of the painting. I always think about the mood I am trying to create and choose colors accordingly. They might be complements to the local colors or they might be all warm or all cool or all bold.....but they are rarely the local colors I see in my reference.

 But sometimes I will decide that the local colors will be my best choice.  Today I decided to use the local colors that I want to use in the painting for the underpainting colors. It was a very rich green forest scene.....very very green. In fact that is what excited me the most.....the wonderful array of greens in the forest. I usually seek relief from too much green but not this time.

 To achieve this overwhelming feeling of green I needed to use green in the underpainting.

Derwent Inktense Sticks

I was working on a piece of MingArt sanded paper (a piece I purchased at the last IAPS convention) I decided to do a wet underpainting using Derwent Inktense Sticks. My set had a great selection of greens! These sticks are wonderful for underpaintings. It takes very little pigment to create a rich and vibrant underpainting. They explode with color when wet.

Blocking in my forest with the Inktense sticks

 I used water and a bristle brush to liquify the Inktense. You could also use rubbing alcohol but water was the most handy and I had time to wait for it to dry.

The resulting underpainting after brushing in with water

The colors in the underpainting were perfect for the very green forest. To build up the painting I simply elected soft pastels that matched the underpainting. I had a roadmap of color and value.

Midway through the painting

It was interesting to use the local color of green all throughout the painting process. But it would be interesting to paint this forest again using colors OTHER than the local color for the underpainting. Maybe I will do just that!

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