What is Underpainting in Oil Painting?

TL;DR: Underpainting stands as a pivotal yet often overlooked technique in oil painting, essential for establishing tone, depth, and emotion. Here's a quick overview of the blog's main points:

• The Basics of Underpainting: Explains underpainting as the initial layer that outlines light, shadow, and forms, offering several benefits including creating a roadmap, enhancing depth, saving paint, and providing a forgiving surface.
• Underpainting Oil Techniques: Dives into various underpainting methods like Monochromatic Underpainting, Grisaille, Verdaccio, and Imprimatura, each suited for different artistic visions and effects.
• Guide to Underpainting with Oils: Offers a step-by-step process.

The vibrant world of oil painting introduces artists to a variety of new techniques and concepts. Among these, underpainting stands out as a foundational technique everyone should learn.

Though not as flashy as the final vivid colors, this painting technique plays a crucial role in setting the tone, depth, and emotion of an oil painting. But what exactly is underpainting in oil painting?

Today, we’ll get to the bottom of oil painting underpainting, covering not only what it is, but why it's important and how you can master this initial layer in your artwork.

The Basics of Underpainting in Oil Painting

In painting, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a prepared surface, like a canvas or panel. It acts as the foundation for the subsequent layers of paint that will make up the final painting.

Underpaintings are often done in a single color, like grayscale tones, or a limited color palette, and focus on establishing the overall lightness and darkness of the painting. This initial layer is important for many reasons:

• Creates a roadmap: Staring at a blank white canvas can be daunting! This technique helps to lay the groundwork for the final painting, defining the light and shadow areas, and the broad shapes and forms of the composition. It not only serves as a guide for the rest of your painting but can also make it less intimidating.
• Enhances depth and richness: Though this initial layer is often simple and monochromatic, it can affect the finished painting. Namely, the underpainting color can influence the final colors and even shine through the topmost layers of paint creating another layer of visual complexity to your finished piece.
• Saves time and paint: Most artists will agree that this solid foundation helps them work more efficiently and effectively. In the long run, this can even help you save paint.
• Provides a more forgiving surface: This initial layer of paint is often easier to rework or adjust as needed. This allows you to perfect your vision before the final colors are applied.

Underpainting Oil Techniques

If you want to get started with this foundation, you have a few different underpainting techniques to choose from. As you’ll see, some are more involved than others, so no matter if you’re a beginner or an expert you can try your hand at underpainting.

Let’s take a closer look at some classic underpainting techniques:

• Monochromatic Underpainting: This technique uses a single color, often a neutral tone like burnt umber or lamp black, thinned with oil medium to create a wash. It naturally creates shadows and highlights while setting the tone for the entire painting. You can add more detail to create a complete outline of your piece.
• Grisaille: Similar to monochromatic, grisaille uses a limited palette of grayscale tones. According to Britannica, this technique was modeled to create the illusion of sculptures. The mixture of white and black paint is ideal for outlining shapes and forms with more accuracy.
• Verdaccio: This method traditionally uses a mixture of earth tones like raw umber and green earth to set the tone. It’s often used for landscapes and portraits since the cool tones act as a counterpoint to the warmer skin tones and foliage that will be applied later.
• Imprimatura: On the other end of the spectrum, this technique uses warm reddish-brown tones to create a cohesive base. The transparent stain provides a warm canvas for artists to begin their work.

Guide to Underpainting with Oils

Before getting started with this technique, it’s important to gather your materials. A limited palette is preferred for underpainting, meaning you don’t need a lot of colors. Raw and burnt umber, lamp black, titanium white, Venetian red, and green earth are popular choices depending on the technique you choose.

Remember the 'fat over lean' rule for layering your paints. This first layer should be lean by using either turpentine, mineral spirits, or solvent-based medium. Flat brushes are perfect for this type of sweeping application.

With your materials in hand, you’re ready to begin your oil painting underpainting:

1. Thin your paint: Ensure your oil paint is the correct consistency. Thinner paint allows your underpainting to seamlessly blend with later layers.
2. Appy a layer to your prepared canvas: Apply the initial layer to your canvas from edge to edge. This is the Imprimatura, which can be your final step if desired.
3. Build value: For a more detailed foundation, layer paint in areas where you want to have more depth. This step helps to create light and dark values.
4. Create a blueprint: It’s possible to go a step further and create a monochromatic sketch for your work. Smaller brushes allow you to add these details while darker colors add depth.
5. Evaluate your work: Take a step back to assess your underpainting. This is your chance to make changes before adding more layers of paint.
6. Let it dry: Most artists let this initial layer of paint dry before applying more vibrant colors.

Ready to try this technique for yourself? It’s also possible to create this foundation with acrylics. Acrylic underpainting is a cost-effective and efficient way to begin your painting. These versatile paints dry significantly faster than oil paints and can be thinned to achieve a variety of effects. Incorporating acrylics into your underpainting process can streamline your workflow and open creative doors.

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