The Uses of Underpaintings (as explained by Ilaekae and Jason Manly)

[MarkHarchar]

Ok, so I am working on my acrylic/oil painting skills. Up until now I have been practicing simply apply my paint to the surface. Sometimes all go all wild and crazy and tone the ground first. In class today, we started talking about and doing under paintings. I'm really not sure I understand what the concept of the underpainting is for. I was reading a "Painting like the old Masters" book in Barnes and Noble and I see for example, if the artist is doing a nude painting, he/she would underpaint the flesh tone areas grey with all of the values being applied in values of grey. I have seen portraits that are more reddish when completed started with a green underpainting and the painting of a pheasant that I was doing in class was recommended to be underpainted in purple because the bird was burgandy with golden yellow areas as the dominant colors. I don't understand why. Can someone explain it, or at least answer these questions?

1. If an underpainting is done in the compliment of the end point color, how does that help?
2. Doesn't the top layer of paint cover over the underpainting and effectively nullify it?
3. Why would grey be used as the underpaint instead of the compliment.
4. Should only the subject and focal points be underpainted with the designated color or should the entire piece be washed with the color as well.

Help. I'm just not getting it.

[FlipMcgee]

Underpainting is essentially a technique to organize the painting process or arrive at another technique (luminous lighting via glazing).

It's like using construction lines when drawing or having a loose sketch before you do a tight overlay drawing. You take care one bit of the painting process at the beginning (values, light-shadow relationships, etc.) so you could worry about other things after that (what paints to use, color mixing, how loose or tight would you stroke details, etc.).

You don't have to use this technique it if doesn't really benefit what you're trying to paint (i.e., you have a photo ref that already indicates how values relate to each other).

[Ilaekae]

Underpainting is an extremely complex subject because there are many reasons for it. The results desired determine the why/way it's done.

If you can give me a day or two, I can get a few samples together as a kind of tutorial to give a better idea of how and why it's done and post 'em here.

Basically, there are a number of ways an underpainting is done...

1. A value painting is done in grays or another "neutral" color like umber, bluish violet or whatever. This is extremely accurate except for being in a funny color. Then glazes are layered onto the piece to build up the real and final color. It's not unusual to have 200-300 seperate applications of glazes in a complex piece.

2. A value painting is done as above, but in the primary complementary color of the piece. For example, if the piece is a sunny city scene with a lot of sun-drenched yellowish buildings, the underpainting would be in deep purple. A greenish outdoor scene would require a red underpainting, and a flaming warthog from hell would require green. The initial glazes would form a luminescent neutral shadow system, and the final strokes would usually be applied more opaquely.

3. In dry brush, especially on a rough painting surface, the initial sketch is blocked in with fairly bright areas of color that are complementary to the final colors desired. The painting is then done rather opaquely and "roughly"--with lots of underpaint spots showing through. This make the painting "sparkle" a bit because the all the areas have complementary spots throughtout--blue sky has orange spots, grass has red undernearth, sunny people have bright lavendar and purple spots, etc. In this case, the underpainting isn't necessarily as accurate as the drawing under the above two examples.

4. A much more extreme version of Number 3 above. This is close to the Pointellist and extreme Impressionist methodology. The final paint is applied rather opaguely, or in layers that gradually get more opaque, but the strong complementaries underneath are left highly exposed to interact with the final colors on top. The visual mixing of these spots can be controlled to give a lot of depth to the painting, creating imagined OPTICAL colors rather than true mixed shades of various real colors.

5. an underpainting can be done as a mid tone, as if you were working on a strongly toned paper with charcoal and white chalk. A layer of paint is put done with the image accurately depicted as a kind of ghosty image. This would approximate the middle tones of the final piece. then darks and lights are applied sparingly to create the final piece. Nice way to do the human figure.

I could probably come up with anther ten examples if I sat and thought about it. Basically, you're trying to save time or increase visual depth by playing color off color, or building color on color.

In the early days of illustration (maxfield parrish era), color seperations were so primitive that the artists actuall layered their colors on as glazes of black, cyan, yellow and magenta so they wouldn't accidently create a color that the sep camera couldn't "see." That why these old illustrations look so "old" or saturated.

At one time, illustrations were actually done as seperations in place on four different registered surfaces. ALL (repeat--ALL) the art was executed in black and shades of gray, one for each of the CMYK seps. The artist had to know mentally where the appropriate black or gray value had to be in order for the final piece to come out right. (It is now time for everybody here under the age of fifty to go "HOLY SHIT!," "HOLY FUCK!," or some other appropriate comment...). To get a real grasp of how this works, take one of your color pieces in photoshop and go to channels. What you see is a stack of four black/gray drawings that make up the final full color art you've done. This is after the fact in photoshop, but imagine having to do what you see in the channels in order TO GET YOUR FINAL PIECE...

heeheehee

[Boogieman]

Please do that tutorial Ilaekae! I had been wondering about this too and your explanation clarified alot, but seeing it in pictures would be even better.

[MarkHarchar]

Ilaekae,
Thank you my friend for the extremely in depth explanation. I will need to read those over a couple more times to really get the grasp, but It is starting to become clear. If you would be so kind, I would appreciate the tutorial that you eluded to and I can wait until you have time to gather and arrange it. I seem to be better at getting the explanation first, processing it and then applying it to an example as opposed to the other way around, which is what is happening in class. The synapses just aren't firing the right way as I'm stand there painting a purple chicken.

Thanks all for the responses and I (al well as others) eagerly await your tutorial!

[GriNGo]

But what's the point of an underpainting with the main complimentary color? i have seen it done... will it make the end result richer?

[John]

I think we should give Ilaekae a medal or something. Thanks for that info.


Oh, and CMYK steps? HOLY SHIT!

[Ilaekae]

Gringoloco, the underpainting definitely makes the piece more luminescent. The interaction of the underpainting with the transparent/translucent glazes allows light to penetrate to the base color, so when it reflects back, it's a much more vibrant and exciting mix than just plunking down a solid mechanically mixed color.

Here's an experiment that anybody can try really fast...

Rough pencil a bunch of 2" squares on some board. Fill two with a solid bright green, another two with a deeper darker green, and another with a washy slap of a bright green so there are obvious brush strokes showing.

Make sure everything drys.

On one of the solid bright greens, wack on some cad red med or something similar (bright red) as if you were doing a water color. Use a lot of med so its fairly transparent in some spots.

On the second bright green square, make up some OPAQUE bright red and using a small brush, cover about 85-90% of the green with a random pattern of daubs of red. You want to end up with a red square with just touches of exposed green showing through.

Do exactly the same thing to the two squares with the much darker green in them.

On the fifth washy-looking green square, take your transparent glaze of red and cover the entire square with red in a washy manner, just as you did to the underpainting.

When these all dry, take a good look at them. You will see a completely different effect with each, and if you squint, you'll start to see various little bits that surprise you. The fifth square may seem to vibrate a bit in some areas, and you'll notice areas that are more red, areas that are more green, and areas that are just wierd color. When you squint at this one, you should see a lot more luminosity and depth to the colors. This is the primary benefit of underpainting over solid color. It makes your brain work, which makes the viewing of the art more pleasurable.

[Boogieman]

I did that experiment. Here's the image link (http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Boogieboi/f8a9e630.jpg). I used gouache cause I didn't wanna have to wait two days for my oils to dry. And maybe that's where I went wrong cause I don't see the effects you said I was going to see... The square that looks best to me is the top left one, but the only difference I see in that one compared to the square with no underpaint at all is that the first one is darker. Maybe I oughta try this in oils instead.

[Ilaekae]

Boogie, gouache is opaque by nature. You need to use something that will allow transparent glazes like acrylics. You can use the gouache for the underpainting but not the overpainting unless you want totally opaque results. I'm right in the middle of something right now, but if you give me two days, I'll get a demonstration together for you and post it in here...sorry to make you wait...but it will be a lot easier to see than to describe it verbally...

[Elwell]

I used gouache cause I didn't wanna have to wait two days for my oils to dry. And maybe that's where I went wrong cause I don't see the effects you said I was going to see...Maybe I oughta try this in oils instead. Bingo.

[Ilaekae]

N 36...

[GriNGo]

you can use the new water oils. they dry in an hour or so.

[Jason Manley]

I'm really not sure I understand what the concept of the underpainting is for. I was reading a "Painting like the old Masters" book in Barnes and Noble and I see for example, if the artist is doing a nude painting, he/she would underpaint the flesh tone areas grey with all of the values being applied in values of grey.

I have seen portraits that are more reddish when completed started with a green underpainting and the painting of a pheasant that I was doing in class was recommended to be underpainted in purple because the bird was burgandy with golden yellow areas as the dominant colors. I don't understand why. Can someone explain it, or at least answer these questions?

1. If an underpainting is done in the compliment of the end point color, how does that help?
2. Doesn't the top layer of paint cover over the underpainting and effectively nullify it?
3. Why would grey be used as the underpaint instead of the compliment.
4. Should only the subject and focal points be underpainted with the designated color or should the entire piece be washed with the color as well.

Help. I'm just not getting it.

forgive if these have been answered better already...just felt like answering the questions and thinking about this stuff myself. I went back up and read more and think that my thoughts will echo Ilaekae's quite a bit.


You are very close to getting it. Whoever is talking to you is giving you good information. Prob is finding someone who can show how it is done and why rather than just theory, but it will make you a stronger artist if you figure it out yourself. Asking focused questions like this is always good. Do more research into looking at paintings to find these answers. Look to find these answers in the images in Art History. This is where your teachers find some of that info...finding it yourself will get rid of their "teacher filter". Same goes here.


1. Underpainting Compliment Base Color: A key to the school of painting you are studying is "contrast". Appropriate choice of value, temperature, and saturation/intensity contrasts will help the image retain vibrancy of color and reflection of natural color/tonal light vibration in the eye of the viewer. You are entering into the area called "color theory".

Paint and canvas are not as vibrant as light in life. You are studying light and how to create that feeling in the eye that "light actually has" within a painting(which does not because its mud and solvent and not the sun or a candle or a lamp). Your teachers are pointing you down the path of understanding how to "fake" the feeling of natural light in your paintings...and how to use those devices to control your communication and narrative with color composition

There are ways in which you can get colors to vibrate as light does. Having complimentary undertones is perhaps the easiest way in which you can get your light and shade to dance visually. This has to do with optical color mixing, which happens every day in front of you when your eyes are open. It has to do with the fact that light and shadow are COMPLIMENTS in all ways. Using an "opposite color underpainting technique" assists you in getting "light compliment theory" accomplished in the image. There is technique in the process of getting strokes of mud and oil to mimic what light actually does in life.

Often, light and shadow are not just to be seen as lighter or darker...but unsaturated and saturated...color compliments...warmer and cooler....LOOK FOR THESE THINGS in life if this is your path of study. You will find true subtlety of these theories and at times will even find ways to prove them wrong. :) That is what I love about art theory. It is a constant search to prove oneself wrong so we can learn. By having pieces of your underpainting in contrast you can begin to lure they eye around compositionally. You can create focus. You see, your teachers are simply trying to get you to control color...to see. LOOK.

2. If you paint over the entire underpainting then the compliment color underpainting technique can be used along the way so that you can make color choices. It allows the artist to be aware of colors that are brushed on the canvas as they have colors to compare against. However, there will be places where the underpainting color would be used anyway so at that point the only reason to paint over your underpainting is to gain a particular finish to the paint quality and paint surface. It does not nullify the underpainting if you are using it as a guide for accuracy or perfection of your expression. Some artists believed it to be a waste of time, others swore by it as it allowed them to do things they could not do otherwise with the paint. The underpainting is like the scaffold for which the rest of your painting sits. Some artists wouldnt use it as they believed it took from the freshness of the painting process and the loose qualities they appreciated. Most extremely polished paintings use an underpainting process. But, loose images can also do this. Rembrandts rough paintings are still using the underpainting process and they are far from stiff and clean. It all comes down to what you want to accomplish with your paint.

Your teachers are teaching a slew of painting theory from different time periods at you. What you are getting is a cross section of art theory from different time (Baroque, 19th century, Impressionist, 20th century illustration). You could study into the bones of the different periods of painting in terms of technique, color, composition, idea, feeling, mood, expression etc. This will allow you to choose which way of working best suits your needs for communication. Now that you are getting into painting 101, dig deeper.

3. Gray is a cool..or a warm... :) If you put any other color on it, it will seem to be a color. If you put a green gray stroke down on that gray surface and then put down a violet gray stroke the canvas base would seem like a blue gray..or a yellow gray...depending on what gray you have as your base. If it seems to be a blue in comparison and you put a warmer blue gray down then the painting base will seem like a cooler blue. Do you see where this is going?

A gray underpainting or "grisaille" was the foundation for most painting happening in the baroque time period. It was explored prior to that but became one of the primary techniques around the time of rembrandt. The easiest way to explain it is that it was used as a base for warm light paintings. There is a technique developed that requires many oil glazes and washes to be used over the gray underpainting to develop deep transparent shadows. Then, the light is painted on opaquely and this helps to reflect the light off the paint surface and back to the viewer..where the transparent glazes in the shadows draw in light and fill the shadow paint with "fill light".

Typically at that time, if the paintings were of a warm light source, the underpainting was gray. If it was a cool light source the underpainting was based in the burnt sienna range. This allows for easy and immediate seperation of temperature between light and dark as you paint...assuming you are paying attention.

Another reason to build off middle values (like gray) is that most of the things in your environment when you paint are not pure darks and pure lights. Working from middle values toward light..and toward dark...allow you to save your lightest lights and darkests darks til last more easily in an art school setting. It is simply easier for the eye to judge lights, darks and colors when there is a base down to paint on.

There many ways to use an underpainting. These are just a couple.

4. for compositional color unity...i.e. your painting looks like it is all made up of parts from the same color world and atmosphere...you can have your colors sprinkled about throughout the composition. focal areas are where you place all your best contrasts...balanced to work with your color composition. Too many contrasts might make it garish...perhaps...or perhaps not. It all depends on your image and balance of color/tonal composition and light. If your underpainting is the appropriate contrasting color for that area, then you could leave it..or paint over it with the same color if you wanted to hide the underpainting surface...if it is not the right color for that area then you would paint it out or adjust it. It is all relative. You must be the judge of that.



Best,


JM

[Quicksilver]

How's this?? (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/Cherry_Blossom/underpainting_experiment.jpg)

^ Acrylic ^

[EDIT] Wow, great post, Manly. :)

[Craig D]

I think that threads like this should end up in the tutorials section when they are done. Maybe edited a bit first, but whatever.

Any mod/admin feel this would be good/ could do this?

[MarkHarchar]

I would like to thank you Ilaekae and Jason very much for your thorough and insightful explanations. After reading through them about 10 times, I think I have a grasp of the concept. I feel like I know what questions to ask in class now and which direction to head in my personal studies.

Thanks again.

[Zaknafain]

Thanks for the information. I already did some digital underpainting studies and tomorrow I will try it with oils. Underpainting was something I always had problems with.

[fukifino]

Still anxiuosly awaiting Ilaekaes tutorial on this one. Some really great info here, just hoping to see the visuals to match.

[sve]

Me too

[Ilaekae]

I'm working on it...had to get wheels for my walker first... :P

[dogfood]

Ilaekae, Jason, superior posts.

Hylandr, if you could rename this thread, I think a lot of people could use this information if they new what was inside.

"Threads are like a box of chocolates..."

[MarkHarchar]

I'm on it Dog...

[loomer]

Hmmm... I actually have an underpainting pic along with the final piece for an illustration I did, but can't show it yet. I always mean to record a progress of a painting...maybe this will give me some incentive. I don't always do a complete underpainting..but a lot of times I do. For me, it has several purposes. 1.) it helps you simplify the values and big shapes without having to get into full color 2.) you can achieve very interesting effects in the paint 3.) it's really fun

So far I have 3 paintings on the easel, and they are all past the underpainting stage - but next one I will take pics of the progress. Promise.

[Infinitum]

That would be great if you could Loomer. I would really like to see the way you paint.

[Noah Bradley]

For the beginning of my first painting class, all we did was underpaintings... for a while, we didn't even go to putting color on top of them. Now I think I appreciate it more than I did at the time.

But I agree, there's some great posts here. Keep it up. Maybe my next painting will use an underpainting again. ;)

[WARHEAD]

This is probably one of the best processes I have seen with regard to how an underpainting 'works', by Christophe Vacher, see link:

Vacher Underpainting tut (http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials/66615)

[sve]

Oh, so much great, interesting information, thank you so much, Ilaekae, Jason Manley, Silvir, QuickSilver, Boogieman, FlipMcgee, GrinGoLoGo, loomer and Warhead, you are so generous. Link is great, WARHEAD, Thank you many times. hylandr2, thank you for starting the thread.
Scott and Ilaekae, even more wisdom from you will be very much appreciated.
Sveta

[Keng]

What medians does this work for? I'm pretty sure it works for oil, and acrylic as quicksilver just showed and apparently layering programs such as photoshop, but could you use it for other paints? Watercolour? Tempra? A little pencil crayon even?

Maybe a better question would be what can't this be used on?

[VirusArtist]

all I can say is:

thank you, ilaekae and jason!

my brother in law once mentioned that topic when we were discussing techniques, but he couldnt really explain it that precisely, since he was used to "just doing it" (he's a self taught artist who bases his knowledge on little tips he got here and there).
guess i'll bring this topic up again and try it when we have a paint session again.

Etienne

P.S.: hope to see those visual examples soon ;)

[Slash]

A very interesting read, espescially since i wanna try out oil painting. Lots of new things to learn! :D

[Quicksilver]

Wahey, I tried out underpainting in my Art exam on Monday and it worked a treat :D Cheers, guys~ Summer Pudding also mentioned this to me a little while ago.

- He said to paint the area green before applying the skintone (for fair skin) because it compliments the pinks, rose, peaches etc. Read actual post here (http://69.16.210.25/forums/showpost.php?p=762711&postcount=65)

Urge to paint rising....[searches through references]

[magicgoo]

You smarties need to collaborate on an oil painting book. This information is pure gold!

I'll buy two, please!

[masque]

What medians does this work for? I'm pretty sure it works for oil, and acrylic as quicksilver just showed and apparently layering programs such as photoshop, but could you use it for other paints? Watercolour? Tempra? A little pencil crayon even?

Maybe a better question would be what can't this be used on?i wouldn't recommend a true underpainting for aquarelle (transparent watercolor), though dry-brush techniques can take advantage of similar effects when used over washes. tempera is akin to gouache (opaque watercolor) and an intrinsically opaque medium so u/p would have more limited uses than all those mentioned for oils, where glazing is very important. the same is true for pastels, where a toned paper often replaces an underpainted hue. here a moss-grey paper was used to contrast with the very warm skin tones and tinted cadmium jacket. i let a lot of the paper show through, since i truly dislike the "smoothy-smudgy" pastel portrait style one too often sees:

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/5489/kathyb4ur.jpg

sorry about the less-than-stellar focus in areas, seems my son's digital camera isn't up to high-Q copy photography.

[Keng]

Thanks masque :)

[GriNGo]

i read jason's post two times & it looks useful. too bad i still don't paint. maybe i should brush up on my art glossary a bit, Jason's post was complicated. thanks anyway!

[fixx]

Thanks masque, I needed to see that. I also hate the smooth-style pastels, they take so much life out of the drawing. I was trying to get a grip on underpainting with pastels, now I've got a better idea of it.
Oh well, off to sleep and try tomorrow :D

[amer-nazri]

Ilaekae and JM's post needs to be remembered.......im doing an oil paint as well, and sometimes, when you dont do an underpainting, its difficult to get that sense of where the darks and the lights are supposed to be focused at.

[Bowlin]

First, when Jason says, "color composition" is this refering to color harmony within a composition?

My own thoughts on underpainting were first to establish a value painting to help determine the lighting. Taking the approach of using compliment colors, one would have to have a lot of reference (still life, photographs, etc.) or a well established value drawing that already establishes the lighting (to some extent). I'm sure there's a lot of artist that can build the lighting as they go along and have a general idea of what colors they're gonna use, like from a color rough... but I keep finding that most professional illustrators in the fields that CA members are intrested in, use an underpainting to help determine their dark and light areas (again, lighting).

My problem is.... in using oils.... the lay-in (or sometimes called block-in) step. This confuses me with the underpainting step, because I often read that one does an underpainting, then adds glazes upon glazes, but wouldn't the lay-in process be used in a more opaque application? I know you could use glazes in one area and then opaque in another, but is this generally two completely different approaches? .... I've seen the lay-in approach (Tim Hildebrants techinque book) where a drawing establishes the lighting in all the values. Then the painting is approached with a line drawing and each little area, such as the hair has one dominant lay-in color/value. Then darker and lighter values are worked in. But Tim Hildebrandt pre-mixes all the colors with values before applying them. How is this possible?? Do you take the middle value (determining what the middle value would be in that particular lighting) as the main lay-in color/value and then mix the shadows and lights ... by adding complementary colors for the shadows and lights? (Tim also explains in his book that everything is painted in warm/cool color concept).

Dsillustration's process (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45901) looks like he takes a line drawing and then with photoreferences he "builds" the lighting as he goes along. He starts with a Toned surface. Then he doesn't make a solid value underpainting, but gradually works darks to light, adding a little darker and lighter in each step till his darkest darks and lightest lights are established in the last step. Do NOT take this as a negative comment, but it looks like he's making a color rough and constantly refining it till he has the exact colors and values he wants while sharpening what edges he needs too.

Tristan Elwell on the other hand... in his process (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31674) with a toned board he does do a value underpainting. Then I ASSUME that he premixes the colors for each little area, such as the skin in warm/cool colors in an opaque manner. Then if he needs to adjust the colors he mixes more opaque colors into the painting surface itself (much like Norman Rockwell does?)?? If this is how he does it, then isn't he basically doing an opaque lay-in and then just adjusting it instead of adding layers on top of layers?

I know I'm overcomplicating or just overlooking something simple here. Any insights would be MUCH appreciated.

[Bruce Pluto]

hylandr2 this may have already been posted I'm just adding my $.75

I use acrylics to do the work that I do. The underpainting is something that is essential and very important to start with. The transparency of paint, even acrylics,will have much of whats beneath show through. Starting with a grounding layer (as gray) working the shades and values (additional layers) working toward the lighted areas is what works for me. What will come out is a somewhat B/W painting. Depending on an artist experience as to when to stop with the grays and start adding color.

On light colored human skin (depending on how light that you want it) lay in a, even,darker tint over the figure. It doesn't have to be thick, but smooth.
Next, lets say that your working on the shoulder area. Think of it as a ball with the lightest part in the middle. Working only the shoulder add a lighter skin tone until you have that rounded look. From there go to other parts of the boby with the same intent. Depending on the light source and angle of light, there will be some areas with drastic shading.

For experimentation do an arm, leg or other body part alone with nothing attached.

I didn't mean to get so long with this post,it just happened. Anyway all the info you've gotten with your question is good and helpful. Remember painting can't be learned in a few days and everyone is different. Just keep on truckin.

BP

[Tetsuo]

time to start making a concept art bible for myself :o

you guys are truly amazing...thank you so much for this info.

[Egets]

meanwhile Im waiting for the basegreen colours to dry I tried this with Photoshop:

Under Painting Rehearsal (http://uk.geocities.com/t.raisanen@btinternet.com/underpaintingrehearsal.jpg)

[Elwell]

meanwhile Im waiting for the basegreen colours to dry I tried this with Photoshop:

Under Painting Rehearsal (http://uk.geocities.com/t.raisanen@btinternet.com/underpaintingrehearsal.jpg)
Just so you know, it won't work the same with paint at all. When you get into actual physical layers interacting with wavelengths of light, everything changes.

[Ilaekae]

Here's a little demonstration of the reasons underpainting is used. I used acrylics, and the glazes aren't as carefully done as they could have been, but it gets the point across. Oils would be a lot smoother overall, but would take a lot longer to work with. Hope this helps a bit. Sorry it's so big, but the images didn't hold up clearly enough when reduced.

1. COOL OVER WARM

First Illustration: A random set of cooler colors was diluted and glazed roughly over horizontal bands of various warm colors, with a second additional stroke down each stripe as a double coat. It should be obvious which of these colors is pigment, and which is a dye-based paint.

Second Illustration: Here the same colors are in exactly the same place, but a splotchy stripe of the overpaint color was applied as it came right from the tube. Then a mixture of the original color with approximately 40% white added was splotched on top. (This same combination was used for the squiggley strokes on the first illustration.)

The horizontal base colors are (top-to-bottom): Yellow Oxide, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Indo Orange Red, Napthol Crimson, Permanent Alizarine Crimson Hue, Quinacridone Violet, and Prism Violet.

the vertical stripes are (left-to-right): Cerulean Blue, Light Green Oxide, Ultramarine Blue, Chromium Oxide Green, Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Green, Dioxazine purple, and Phthalo green.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/cool-1.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/cool-2.jpg


2.WARM OVER COOL

These two illustrations are identical in arrangement to the above except that the base colors are cool, and the glazed colors are warm colors

The horizontal base colors are (top-to-bottom): Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Light Green Oxide, Hookers Green, Chromium Oxide green, and Phthalo Green. (...yeah yeah...I know...I flipped the second one...so sue me.)

The vertical stripes are (left-to-right): Yellow Medium Azo, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Vivid Orange Red, Quinacridone Magenta, Raw Sienna, and Red Oxide.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/hot-1.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/hot-2.jpg


3. "COMIC BOOK" (No complemetaries used, just direct color)

Ink drawing.
Filled in with base color.
Second background color splotched on, rope texture built up with glazes.
Opaques added to increase definition and texture, ink outline "repaired."
Additional layer of glaze down both sides of rope and across section bottoms to define volume, highlights added.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-01.jpg


4. "COMIC BOOK" (Complementaries used)

Ink drawing.
Filled with complementary base colors.
Background splotched with complement, rope texture built up with glazes.
Additional red glazed over background, opaques added to rope.
Decided to change the background back to a green mottled pattern, additional layer of glaze down both sides of rope and across section bottoms to define volume, highlights added.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-02.jpg


5. "MONOCHROMATIC"

Rough ink guide.
Light overall tone wash with details built up in same color.
Additional detail added with darker color.
Highlights added with third, lighter color, outline repaired slightly.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-03.jpg


6 AND 7. MONOCHROMATIC UNDERPAINTING

Rough ink guide.
Shapes, details, and texture added with neutral color glazes (Umber on 6, Paynes Gray on 7).
Backgrounds flat glazed, ropes textured and colored with multiple glazes.
Opaques added to backgrounds and rope for definition.
On ropes, additional layer of glaze down both sides and across section bottoms to define volume, highlights added.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-04.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-05.jpg


8. REVERSAL (No complementaries used necessarily)
This is an unusual method often used to build up illustrations that are decorative rather than realistic.

Rough ink guide.
Dark underlayer is added.
Actual image is created in white, often dry-brushed with lot of texture.
Background and rope are blocked in with simple glazes.
Additional layer of glaze down both sides and across section bottoms to define volume of rope, highlights added.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-06.jpg


9. 10, and 11. RAW COLOR SHAPE DRAWINGS. (may or may not use complementaries.)

Rough guide in color dot not too much darker than base background color to be used.
Overall base color added.
Rope is formed from poster-like strokes of three opaque colors (exactly the same colors were used on all three examples). Background is splotched in with an opaque, which may or may not be complementary.
Additional opaques build up rope image.
Additional opaque highlights added to rope(may not be obvious in the scan).

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-07.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-08.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-09.jpg


12. RAW COLOR SHAPE DRAWING

As three above, but the areas of the drawing are filled with a complementary base color rather than an over-all base color.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-10.jpg


13. COMPLEMENTARY

Rough painted guide.
Guide filled in with complementaries.
Rope details built up with glazes, background splotched in.
Second glaze layer added to background, rope built up with opaques.
Additional layer of glaze down both sides and across section bottoms to define volume of rope, highlights added.

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-11.jpg


14. COMPLEMENTARY

As 13 above, but the details were created primarily with the complementary underpainting rather than the glazed overpainting. (I was originally going to create a herringbone pattern, but accidently made the glaze too heavy. Sue me.)

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/rope-12.jpg

[Hyver]

omg +1000 karma points for making these!
thanks Ilaekae!

[timpaatkins]

You can be my extra-dad any day!
You killer you...

[Jason Manley]

First, when Jason says, "color composition" is this refering to color harmony within a composition?

.


color harmony is simply one part of color composition. color composition has to do with how the color harmony has its peaks and valleys...its crescendos and areas of calm...color wise....within the painting....in order to lead the eye around and through the image so that the visual narrative can be communicated IN ORDER of importance. color composition also has other aspects...mood...optical effect...etc....

[Jason Manley]

ilaekae....sometimes showing can communicate a million words at once. :)


thanks for that.

[p4b10]

Thanks fo the time you put in this, it is really interesting and going deep into color.

pablo

[masque]

this should be stickied in the Fine Arts Section. excellent information and presentation, Ilaekae, thank you.
:star::star::star::star::star:

[Hyver]

copied and stuck

[Ilaekae]

Actually, I think it could have been done better by any of the oil people, but I ain't workin', so ...

The important thing I tried to get across was how an underpainting affects the final result in subtle ways, which allows you to get a lot more effects faster than if you worked directly only. It's not even necessary to work just in complements. The various patches on the four big charts give a fair presentation of the depths you can achieve with even "bad" colors...

[dogfood]

Absolutely marverlous...

[sone_one]

first off thanks a lot to you for putting this together!!!

i got a few questions though...

depending on what do you choose the color to underpaint? the overall mood in the end? or depending on you main subject (as an extrem example an orange clothed bunch of people in the antarctis... or a less extreme example warm colored clouds on a blue sky)?
or are you using different colors at all for underpainting alone or would this be way to complicated? or if not are there other reasons not to use different colors?

[Dementiak]

awesomely detailed examples... nice work!

[Ilaekae]

I can only answer this from my own perspective, because I have some really wierd working habits.

I usually have a fairly solid idea of what the final product will look like, but have to force myself not to "finish" it in my head so I can work a little more freely. I almost always use complementary color under specific areas, but I'm not too picky about the actual color, just the relative value of that color. For example, under a red, I'll use a green, but it will vary from a light yellow green or grass green to a nearly black phthalo green, depending on how strong I wanted the final contrast. I almost never use black unless I'm doing an initial sketch or I need the absolute-flat-no-texture-black for some press reason.

My primary way of painting is opaque DRY BRUSH in layers, over layers of glazes, but i will also work with choppy opaque little strokes over multiple glazes sometimes. I almost never lay down a flat color of anything for any reason, but I would definitely NOT be called a "painterly" painter. This is because I initially learned how to paint 50 years ago with temperas, guouche and caseins.

I love working in reverse...roughing in the art in a strong dark color, then drawing in reverse by applying white as a dry brush so the background ultimately becomes the "line art" that most people start with. Then I glaze and finish off with opaque strokes or drybrush. Very time-consuming and initially back-breaking, but allows me to work tremendously long periods with lots of interruptions, then "color" finish very quickly. Good when you have cats and bitchy clients.

[sve]

Ilaekae, thank you very, very much, that's a kindness in its finest. So much information with such a wonderful respect to people who will read it.

You are wonderful, you need to write a book, you know, illustration are superb. Or teach, maybe you do, or did it already. You know like a private classes. You are generous with information and it is presented in very systematic way. I'm very grateful. Need to sit, think it over and look more than once or two, to get it sink in my mind and understand all the interesting effects the technique does. Looks like it enriches colors tremendously.
So thanks, hope your kindness will return to you from other people multiplied.
Sveta

[MarkHarchar]

Ilaekea, thanks for providing this follow up. I am working on a piece right now that I will use as an experimental piece for the use of these techniques. I am working in acrylics, so your examples should be very useful in hammering out my understanding of this concept.

Kudos my fellow PA-er.

[Boogieman]

Awesome Ilaekae, thank you so much. I'll be coming back to this thread alot I think.

[Egets]

Thankyou very much Ilaekae, that was a lot of information to suggest, my poor head hurts now... dont ask just some ...whatever....

[se7en_]

Absolutely amazing info Il and Jason. I was told to do underpainting because its easier to "see" the form when you build with value only. The aspect of light refelcting through was a shocking read for me and just makes so much sense. Thanks for the info and paintings, I can't wait to put this to use!

[dorian]

wow. this is way too much for me to just go "aha!"

honestly cant possibly put it any better than sve did:
Ilaekae, thank you very, very much, that's a kindness in its finest. So much information with such a wonderful respect to people who will read it.

You are wonderful, you need to write a book, you know, illustration are superb. Or teach, maybe you do, or did it already. You know like a private classes. You are generous with information and it is presented in very systematic way. I'm very grateful. Need to sit, think it over and look more than once or two, to get it sink in my mind and understand all the interesting effects the technique does. Looks like it enriches colors tremendously.
So thanks, hope your kindness will return to you from other people multiplied.
Sveta


thank you <3


we need a :braincandy: smiley, like this one :eyecandy:
:D


.

[MattGamer]

thank you for such an awesome thread. that's my thanks!
now i must attempt to cypher this otherworldy language and start painting! hoora!