Week 1: My Comfort Zone

Underpainting, overworking, and blurring expectations.

Starting Out

*Sketched study and notes pictured above

Understanding the Process: Underpainting

Though I have been underpainting and using the oil subtraction method for some time now, I never understood the historical background or true purpose behind this process. Through my research, though, I discovered that it is, in essence, skeletal in nature. While I had been using it as a way to hit the ground running, its purpose actually runs much deeper. In addition to acting as a place starter in the painting process, it also adds tonal depth and establishes a primary light pattern. What's more is that I didn't even realize that underpainting had established its roots in the Renaissance with painters like Rembrandt. I had been admiring the work of painters like him for as long as I can remember. Incredibly, I hadn't realized that my own personal process had such a beautifully rich historical context.

Prep, Prep, and More Prep!

Going into this first painting of my senior project, my overarching goal was to paint following my normal conventions. In this, I hoped to document my painting process as it stood before I exposed myself to new techniques through the weeks to come. After delving into the rich history behind underpainting, I started off by sketching out a quick study in graphite to get a comprehensive idea of the proportions and light in the reference picture. I then double-primed my 9"x12" canvas with acrylic gesso. Next, I mixed my palette with my comfortable range of colors.* My process when it comes to mixing paint surrounds the my base colors in skin tones. These include titanium white, burnt sienna, and yellow ochre. I build my colors by adding additional hues to my base formula. In this case the prominent hues in the reference picture included a fleshy-pink, a muted green, and a yellowy-low light tone. After mixing my colors I preformed a charcoal transfer from newsprint in order to get a print of the reference image on the canvas in order to maximize the accuracy of the proportions. Then, I cleaned up the excess charcoal with a flexible eraser and started my underpainting. Fun stuff!

*A full list of the colors I used is listed in "Messy Palettes & Journal Entries".

Underpainting

Tonal Mapping & Reference Pictures

In order to get a good idea of the light patterns in the piece, unpolluted by varying hues and different colors, I put the reference picture in black and white. This exposed the raw lights and darks allowing me to map out the light patterns in a monochrome underpainting. This gave me a really good base for the rest of my painting and made it easier to focus on colors and hues with the oil paint rather than incessantly correcting values and proportions. I started converting my reference pictures into black and white in middle school when I was really focused on graphite drawing. Since, this trick has proved endlessly useful. Even in the midst of a colorful painting, converting the photo into black and white simplifies the image and allows me to get back to the big details and pulls me away from obsessing over a slight color change from a green hue to a purple hue under an eye, for example.

Starting an Oil Painting With Acrylics?

I decided to use acrylics for the underpainting itself, for the acrylic paint dries much more quickly. This allows me to paint over the underpainting without muddying my oil paint colors with the skeleton of the painting. In a way it's like the underpainting is the skeleton, the first layer of paint is the muscle, and the final layer is the flesh. When you look at the finished piece, it's easy to forget the depth of color that any attempt at semi-realism requires. In reality, the finished product is a mixture of all of these layers. Pictured at left is my finished underpainting. Evidently, it is not realistic, nor is it meant to be aesthetically pleasing. It is important, I think, to not put too much pressure on the underpainting itself; it's not meant to look pretty! It took a lot of focus for me to just lay in the lights and darks objectively while consciously pushing away my urges to make the underpainting look like a realistic, cohesive pencil drawing might. Objectivity really makes underpainting difficult, but it is what allows underpainting to serve its full purpose.

Mid-Process

Muscles!

Here I focused on constructing the muscle of the painting. By this I mean that I focused on blocking in the primary color pattern in order to construct the form of the painting. This, in my opinion, is the most important step. This is what gives the painting form.

Looking back on this first layer, I wish I had incorporated more variety in my colors. Specifically, I wish I had put more pigment in the highlights. I really just used white, which flattened highlights rather than making them pop out of the canvas. Whites, though extremely important, can often mute colors rather than highlighting them. This idea has taken me a long time to understand but ultimately it is important to acknowledge. For me, it is the difference between a muted and dusty product and a lifelike, glowing one.

Another important note about colors: In all of my paintings, I avoid the color black. The reasoning behind this is that in reality, nothing is really that dark. If you are looking to darken tones, black makes colors muddy and takes away from the strength of the pigment. To darken colors, I use the opposite color on the color wheel. So, for example, if I'm looking to make red in the lips darker, I'll add just a little bit of green. This preserves the color pigment while still taking into account tonal value.

Messy Palettes & Journal Entries

My Color Palette:

Titanium White
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium Red
Ultramarine Blue
Sap Green

Finishing Up & Fleshing Out

Overall, I was relatively happy with how this turned out. It is (for sure) not my best work, but I am trying not to put too much pressure on the final product. Videotaping and otherwise documenting my process served as a valuable reflection. Though the painting turned out as more of an oil study than as a final piece, it is important for me to remember that not every piece can be perfectly polished. I almost feel as though these kinds of pieces are the most valuable in looking into a my own process and evaluating the techniques I choose to use. My first few days of senior project have been a whirlwind. It is really interesting to me to see my own process in this type of way. It forces me to analyze and evaluate it in ways I hadn't thought necessary before.

Full Process Video

In this video, I documented my process in painting this first piece in a time lapse. This allowed my to analyze my process in a way I hadn't thought to do before. In watching my process, I noticed that I really only use one flat brush. I always thought that I rotated brushes through my process... I guess not! I also got a nice three hour lesson in the copyright laws on youtube. I ended up needing to use pre-approved music from the youtube library, despite the fact that I had already edited in music from my iTunes library. The laws are a real gray area on youtube... super confusing but also kind of interesting!

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