Gardener with Hat and Trug - Underpainting Demo
Here are some of the "work in progress" steps from this painting...
I am trying some underpainting in this painting. I've done it before in oil paints but not in oil pastels. Under painting is a layer of color under the actual painting. For a painting with a lot of greenery, underpainting in red is a way to bring some warmth to the cool green tones.
At first I was going to underpaint the person in more of a warm purple. But I thought that might loose the warm sunlit feeling I'm going for. So opted to use the red. I tried both dipping a brush in turpintine and then brushing the Oil Pastel to get color. And I tried scribbling on the canvas with the Oil Pastel then brushing the canvas with a brush dipped in turpintine. I liked the second method better. With the first method. I found splatter dots all over the place!
I'm hoping underpainting will mean I use less Oil Pastel as I won't have those "white holes" to fill in on the canvas texture.
I've done a little more on this painting.Here are the next two progress photos.
I'm not blending or smoothing at all. And not trying to fill in the "holes". All a very new experience for me. So far I'm enjoying it.
This canvas board is 8x10" so it won't take that long to finish.
I'll definitely try underpainting again. But surprisingly, it was difficult to NOT fill in the "holes"! but I do like the warm coming through from the underpainting.
I tried to keep the landscape loose which is another thing I'm working on.
One thing that bothers me is the shoe. That's the only place that color appears and when I saw the painting on the computer, that shoe really drew my eye.
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I've added some lights and shadow and removed the shoe.
Here is the finished painting.
Gardener with Hat and Trug
Oil Pastel on canvas, 8x10”
This is a lovely painting; very soft and moody yet bright and sunny like spring/summer, leaning towards summer. I would like to see more just like this one. Keep on painting!
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