Painting Techniques: Imprimature and Underpainting

Imprimature and Underpainting

Imprimature and underpainting are classical painting techniques, used in contemporary painting as well. Most oil painting techniques are done in layers that are left to dry, before working on them again - a practical need before the invention of Liquin. But layering is also about creating depth and quality. I've heard very good painters define their art as: "knowing what layers to put over each other". Contemporary painters find their own recipes, and traditional underpainting techniques are like the recipes of your grandmother: tested and refined by generations of painters since the middle ages. During the ages these techniques gained a meaning of their own. They were developed to create 'realism', and that's what they're really good for.

Adrian van Ostade (1658) They're great, the old Dutch guys. But let's not think they could do all this in one layer... This painting was (probably) first done in burnt umber and white, and worked over in only these colors for several layers until the feeling of light and space was just right. Only after that, colors were applied.

Classical terms

In underpainting, there are two classical terms:

• Imprimature, meaning: a single-colored half transparent coloring of the entire canvas with a pure pigmented paint. It sets the general 'mood' for a painting
• Underpainting, meaning: painting more or less the whole scenery, in one color and white - usually flake or foundation white. It creates a unifying basis for the different colors that will be put over, and the occasion to focus on composition, light and darkness.

The difference is: in underpainting you use white, and in imprimature you don't. The color effect is amazingly different. Warm earth colors that are applied semitransparent on a white surface, have a warm glow. The same warm earth colors get a more cold, neutral appearance when you add white to them. Underpainting is done to create tonal range and at the same time a unifying basis for the (usually realistic) scenery. Some painters, who like utter realism, do it both: first an imprimature, and over that an underpainting, or a called "dead layer", scroll down to "black and white underpainting" for more on that.

Imprimature, the gentle rubbing in of a warm brown on your white canvas, is a way of filling the surface with 'atmosphere' before you actually start to paint. A bit like meditation, or brooding. It creates a lot of warmth that will keep shining through, when layers are kept partly open.In imprimature, you don't want to see brushstrokes. You can achieve this with a wet or a dry method.

• When working wet, put the painting on its back, on the floor or table. Dilute the oil paint with turpentine, and apply it with a big brush over the whole canvas, dividing the paint. Leave it to dry on its back. The paint gets an overall watery appearance.
• When working dry, take a big dry bristle brush. Only wet the outer tips with a little paint, and work your way over the canvas by pushing the brush around in small circles. This takes a little more time, but gives a more cloudy appearance.

Artistic use of underpainting

Eugene Carriëre, 'Maternity'. In this painting most of the imprimature is still visible - only the faces have a little extra brown/grayish paint (almost like a dead layer, scroll down). Carriere worked in the 'under layers' of a painting that would be 'realistic', but he deliberately refrained from finishing the painting with a top layer. It's as if he tries to 'look behind the scenes'.

Check it at art.com .

Systems of layering

There are many systems of layering. In fact, every painter develops his/her own ways of layering. But sometimes, painting skills are taught from one artist to another. And apart from that, light and darkness have their own general, physical laws. In abstract-expressionist oil painting techniques, the layering was done randomly until a certain sense of substance was built. In ancient oil painting techniques, layering was done by proven recipes - first to make sure the painting would last (and not crack, peel etc) - but also to get carefully planned visual effects.

The layering is not just important for artistic reasons: correct layering is the only way to make your painting last. Oil paint is only a raw ingredient, you have to know how to prepare each layer. 

Black and white underpainting

A black and white underpainting was done by the ancient Greek. It's a way to save colors (bright colors were very expensive those days), but it also enables you to focus on the tonal values in your work. Which is complicated enough on itself. In this system, you first paint your picture in black and white, like a black-and-white photograph, and glaze on the colors later.

This system also helps you, to get the right tonal values for each color you want to paint (that is, if you paint realistic). It helps you create a solid basis for learning to work with color.

When you paint semi-transparent black and white over each other, you already see the effects of color trying to appear. When you paint a half-transparent white over black, you get a cold and bluish tone, and when you paint semi-transparent black over white, the black gets a warm tone.

The "dead layer"

This is a layer of black-and-white that increases the realistic effect. After doing an imprimature, you paint everything that should look like a realistic object in black and white. Don't cover the whole canvas, leave some of the imprimature visible.

Yellow ochre underpainting

A yellow ochre imprimature or underpainting is particularly suited for painting sunny blue skies. The yellow ochre provides a warm and sunny feeling. The blue should be painted over opaque, mixed with white (otherwise it'll appear green). It's best to do it opaque on places, and a little bit transparent on other places. On places where the blue is strongest, the yellow ochre should be strong too.

Yellow ochre was also used to paint the green of plants in two layers: first a white-and-blue, then over that a transparent layer of yellow ochre.

Green earth underpainting

A green earth imprimature is very good for painting flesh tones. When you also paint with white (green earth underpainting), you can paint the form of the face, before applying the actual flesh colors..Make sure you have a real green earth, not a color named "green earth hue" - that's not only a different material, but also a different color.

Burnt umber underpainting

A Burnt umber imprimature and underpainting is good when you work will be rich in clair-obscur. Burnt umber is the darkest brown. It's much easier to paint the light on with white, than to spare it out by painting dark around it. And to do that, you need a dark background. You can use neutral grey or black as well, but a warm underpainting is great for radiant blues. For very realistic effects, use the dead layer too (black and white painting of objects, etc)

Burnt sienna underpainting

Burnt sienna is one of the warmest earth colors. It was often used for imprimature in Italian Renaissance oil painting techniques. If you use it as underpainting (mixed with white), it becomes more of a skin color. It's good for greens, if you keep the underpainting light. The burnt sienna imprimature creates a wonderful warm basis - not much can go wrong from there.

An underpainting story

Sometimes the underpainting is so good that it should be preserved on itself. Once I saw the catalog of a dutch paintress, where one forest-landscape really stood out. 

The galerist told me, she had painted it without looking at it, on the end of a day, with leftover paints, only to have an underpainting for the next day. Coming back the next day, she saw she could do nothing more to improve it...

Painting Techniques: Blending Paint

Blending paint

Just a quick post since I only update yous on my work, research, ideas and photography. I thought it'll be a good idea to share some techniques that I have used within my FMP project and throughout my work.

Once you've found out how blending paint is done, you know an important painting secret. Blending is where the smooth, photo-like quality of realistic paintings come from, or the pretty gradients without any brushstrokes. It takes some skill and a good brush, but most of it is about having a little courage.

Blending in the sky

On this painting, I've used the blending technique in the sky part, using yellow ochre, white and ultramarine. I've also done an under painting first. As you see, I didn't blend the whole painting. Blending paint creates a 'closed' paint layer and I don't like to use overall because I like 'open' spots. I first paintex the mountains, but only to see where they are. When blending the sky, I partly went over the mountains, and after that I painted the mountains again.

So, what's the trick?

The blending trick is: first you apply your colors where you want them to be, in a not too thin paint layer. After that you use a big, soft clean brush to 'scumble' or wuzzle away the paint strokes. Gently have the tips of the brush touch the wet paint, and make really small movements. Then the hard edges will fade but the paint will stay in its place. The longer strokes you make, the more your colors will fade into each other. Usually blending is done in oil painting techniques, but you can use them in acrylics as well.

What do you need for blending paint?

• Apart from your paint brushes: one or two soft, big brushes - preferably dagger or matter. No bristles, they give ropey strokes
• A clean cloth over your arm, to wipe your blending brush clean.
• Good preparations: a non-absorbing priming layer that 'seals' the underground.
• Some under-layers - a colored under-painting helps a lot
• For acrylic paint, you can use a retarder medium to increase 'open' (wet) painting time.

Only when the paint is really wet, you can blend it. When the underground is too absorbing, or the paint already partly dry, the paint will get ugly when you try to move it around. Oil paints stay wet the first hours after painting, they're great for blending paint.

Blending acrylic paint

If you want to blend with acrylics - maybe even on your walls - you might need to take some precautions because acrylics dry really fast. A good primer, (or a first acrylic under-painting layer) seals off the surface. Then the paint won't suck into the underground and dry slower. A retarder medium gives you more time to work. Don't further thin your paint with water, it helps when you layer is not too thin, but do moisten your brush a little, so that it won't suck the paint dry. 

'Open' time is short, so work straight through until you're finished so, take your time to look before you mix your paints, and take your break afterwards. A tip for keeping your acrylic layer (or the paint on your palette) usable just a little longer: lay the painting on its back and use a plant-sprayer to put mists of water over your painting. I do that if I want to make a blended gesso background. You can do that for walls too, except here you need to be careful with too much water (it might cause dripping).

How to use the blending effect

Blending can be used to create a sense of depth. When you work with an old fashioned camera, only items at a particular distance are sharp, the rest is blurred. Blurriness makes things to to the background and so space is suggested, without you needing to indicate depth by a horizon or 'stuff' like architecture or furniture.

Blending can create a really slick-looking paint layer, but you can also use it to 'clean' your canvas when you're not entirely happy with what you're doing. When blending with a dry brush, you take paint off your canvas which gives some room to paint again. And it fades the lines, so it's easier to regroup. Cleaning like this always helps me a lot.

Blending your wallpainting

Blending paint can be used for wall painting techniques, but you might think up a system first. Walls are a huge surface, and most wall paints are of the fast drying kind. Some tips:

• Work over a well-dried wall primer.
• Prepare your paints in different jars, mixed in different, closely related shades. The more difference between the top- and bottomcolor, the more shades you need.
• Have a few big brushes and a lot of cleaning cloth at hand (old T-shirts will do fine).
• Work from the top to the bottom.
• Plan ahead and work fast!
• If possible: have someone there to help you.

Let's say you want to blend your colors horizontally on the way down. What you do is: first paint the corners and edges, in the shades you will use. In this way you don't only do the time-consuming edges and corners, you also plan where the colors go. You start with the top color, paint the second color underneath, and start blending these two colors right away with a clean, moist brush. Eventually use a plant sprayer to keep the paint wet a little longer. Then apply the third shade and again blend it. (and so on). ).

Dry blending

There's also a dry method for creating those gradients though I'm not sure if it's called blending paint, or rather 'scumbling'. In a way it is, only you work with a brush that has hardly no paint on it, or that you wipe almost clean first. When you hush that over a canvas, a cloud-like mist appears that really looks as if it's blended. If still too much paint went on, it ca be rubbed and blended away with a cloth or another clean brush. It save a lot of time drying. But it does need a few good underlayers to look good.

This technique is maybe less suitable for walls, unless you're really handy with a brush. Because even when the paint looks dry, there's a difference between touch-dry and firmly set, which happens fast enough with wall paint. A wall is just too big, you don't have time to make all the necessary corrections for a smooth surface. Blending it wet is the best option for walls.

Concluding works for Final Major Project

Melancholy sunrise- Acrylic on wood

Sunrise Canopy- Acrylic and pastel on wood

Rays of Time I- Acrylic on wood

Rays of Time II- Acrylic on wood

Hellooo!

Finally I can say I'm finished!! So happy that i met my targets and got these two above finished on time!

A little bit about these two pieces:

Rays of Time I and II both came as a series of ideas that I was going to produce for my final pieces however, after I had done two I found them very time consuming as it took 3-4 to prime the boards and sand them down and then 2-3 days to actually start and finish them.

The entire ideas I had drawn up for this final piece were supposed to be a series to show different techniques and view points that I wanted to express fully throughout my research and that of my pathway project piece "Seasonal Time". The board is split up into a grid to interpret different times of the day and how each detail of the foreground, sky, mountain scale and the tree will change due to time, and also my main focus of how the landscape will change over time. 

The name given "Rays of Time" was chosen as the painting shows separate compositions and techniques used to interpret the sky, foreground of the seasons. And also associate itself with the title of the project "Presence and Absence". 

The materials i had used were acrylic as it was fast drying. This was important because I wanted to create the built up look. Like Ori Gersht, he used layers upon layer in this paintings with themes of life, death, violence and beauty. Using his work as an inspiration I used his themes to reflect my own work in a sense of destruction to the landscape which therefore resulted in a change and a consequence. 

As you can see I tried to create a contrasting duo piece in which one had more substance than the other. Rays of Time I simply explains the transition of windows to show the viewer a different glimpse of what the tree, sky, mountain and foreground would have looked like a different times of the year. Though this was only my first impression on how to express what it really is, my second expression of the first painting was to include that of destruction to the forests and the melancholy doom that it has over the landscape.

Rays of Time II explains the statement above in greater detail as you can see in each vertical window there is a different viewpoint on how the scene would look in a whole different manner in terms of time and the contrasts of light into dark. I wanted to make these two piece as surreal as possible though if you have been following my blog since I created it you can see that my work have never really grasped the naturalism side of art there is always a barrier between impressionism, pointillism, abstraction and expression.

The first two pieces up above are just experiments on using a palette knife when painting and other techniques such as paint on a dry brush and wet on wet.

Photos taken: 05/06/2014