Color & Crafts
Posted on
• Advanced Techniques

Underpainting: Setting the Tone with a Base Color

Author

There is nothing more psychologically paralyzing to an artist than a massive, pure white, perfectly blank canvas sitting on an easel. It feels pristine and terrifying; making the very first mark feels like ruining it.

Furthermore, painting directly onto a pure white canvas is actually a massive technical disadvantage. White light is blinding and "cold." If you miss a tiny microscopic spot with your brush, a glaring speck of raw white canvas will shine through, violently disrupting the mood of the painting.

The professional solution to both the psychological fear and the technical problem is the Underpainting (or the "Imprimatura"). By aggressively drowning the entire canvas in a thin, heavily saturated wash of pure color before you actually start painting your subject, you instantly establish a unified temperature, kill the terrifying white void, and force your final colors to glow from within. Here is how to lay the perfect ground.

1. The Psychology of the Wash (Killing the White)

The primary goal of the underpainting is to destroy the preciousness of the white canvas.

  1. The Fast Slap: You do not need to be careful. Grab an old, massive, cheap house-painting brush.
  2. Dilute your acrylic or oil paint heavily with water (for acrylics) or mineral spirits (for oils) so it flows like ink.
  3. Scrub the paint violently across the entire canvas. Go vertically, horizontally, diagonally. Let it drip.
  4. Within two minutes, the entire canvas is covered. You have successfully "ruined" the pristine white. The psychological pressure to be perfect is instantly gone, replaced by the chaotic energy of the rough brush strokes.

2. Choosing the Temperature (Warm vs. Cool Grounds)

The color you choose for your underpainting will dictate the entire emotional vibe ("temperature") of the finished piece, because tiny specks of this base layer will inherently shine through the final brush strokes.

The Warm Glow (Burnt Sienna/Orange): - This is the traditional Renaissance master choice. - Coating the canvas in a thin, earthy, glowing orange provides an incredibly rich, warm foundation. - Why it works: If you paint a cool, blue landscape over a bright orange underpainting, the tiny specks of orange shining through the blue provide absolute maximum complementary color contrast, making the blue sky vibrate and look incredibly alive.

The Moody Cool (Payne's Grey/Indigo): - If you are painting a dark, stormy seascape or a moody night portrait. - Coating the canvas in a dark, atmospheric blue-grey instantly sets the melancholy tone. - Why it works: The dark underpainting does all the heavy lifting for your shadows. You only have to paint the bright highlights over the dark base, drastically reducing your painting time.

3. The "Wipe Out" Technique (Instant Depth)

An underpainting is not just a flat wall of color; it can act as the actual drawing itself.

  1. Cover the canvas in a wet wash of Burnt Sienna.
  2. The Subtractive Step: While the brown paint is still wet, take a clean cloth, a paper towel, or a Q-tip.
  3. Do not add paint. Instead, aggressively wipe the wet brown paint off the canvas wherever a bright highlight belongs (like the side of a mountain catching the sun, or the bridge of a nose).
  4. The cloth lifts the wet brown paint, exposing the bright white canvas underneath.
  5. You can flawlessly "draw" a complex, 3D, fully shaded image simply by rubbing away the underpainting, without mixing a single color!

4. Building Over the Base

Once your colored underpainting is completely dry, you begin the actual painting process.

Because the entire canvas is already coated in a unified color, you no longer have to worry about missing tiny specks of white. If your brush slips, a tiny speck of beautiful, earthy orange shines through, automatically unifying the painting.

Conclusion

The blank white canvas is the enemy of the painter.

By taking five minutes to aggressively scrub a thin, highly saturated wash of warm Burnt Sienna or cool Indigo completely across the board, you immediately establish a dominant mood, eliminate the psychological fear of starting, and mathematically guarantee that your final layers of paint will feature complex, vibrating, complementary contrast. Stop staring at the white void, and start scrubbing!

Further Reading:

Related posts