How to Paint the Underpainting for your Oil Painting with Katie Blackwell

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I'm starting my painting and I'm going to show you how I do the underpainting and my process. I always start with the middle color over the entire painting. Since both of these images are flesh tone, it's pretty easy.

I'm going to take a little Titanium White, a little Golden Barok Red, and a little bit of the Old Holland Flesh Ochre. It's kind of pink so I could also use a little bit of Transparent Orange Oxide, which I find very helpful when doing flesh. It's a bit more yellowy so it should give it a truer tone.

I'm going over the lines I've already got on there, so I'm going to use a little bit more liquid to make it more transparent so I can see what I already started.

Now when picking your image, when you're putting two separate images together in one painting, it's very important to make sure the light source is coming from the same spot in both.

Now that I have a middle tone on there, I'm going to start adding a darker tone. I love Phthalo Blue, and mix it with Alizarin Crimson, and it will make a really nice shadow color.

I'm just going to go over every spot that's dark. The colors that you pick when you first start your underpainting aren't necessarily important unless you're doing one or two layers. In my pieces I generally do anywhere from 60 to 80 depending on the piece.

So the colors that I choose at the very beginning don't usually show through. Sometimes I'll go crazy and put purple in there!

The least layers you're doing the more important it is to get the colors correct as soon as you start.

I'm just going to throw in paint wherever I see shadows. Because I already have a glaze here, the paint's moving very fluidly without me having to add anything to it.

It's okay for it to look pretty messy when you're just laying down your underpainting. If you do it too precise it's a little bit harder.

When you're looking at your images for the underpainting, you want to look at it like you're squinting your eyes. It's just a map of the shapes, shadows, and highlights. Don't look at the details too soon or you're going to throw off the layers in your piece.

Now I'm going to take Titanium White for the highlights and throw those in. Anywhere I see a highlight when I squint my eyes.

It's a good idea if you're just starting, or if you want to become a little bit more realistic, just to focus on what things look like in daily life. If you're stuck in traffic, and you're sitting behind a bunch of cars, squint your eyes and think about how you would paint those reflections.

Try to break everything down layer by layer, because the more you do it, the easier it's going to be when you start painting.

I'm going to put a 3rd color on there and I'm going to blend them all together. One of my favorite colors is Golden Barok Red, It's great for flesh and has a beautiful luminosity.

If you put it in an area really thick, it's a completely different color than when you loosen it out, so you can use it for glazes, or really thick for some shadows.

Now that I have the first layer of paint pretty thick on there, I'm going to take a very clean and dry softer brush and very lightly blend these colors together.

I want to make sure not to touch the inside of each blotch of color, so that the pigment still stays strong and doesn't blend into one big "mush."

If you could see my eyeballs right now, you'd see that for every brush stroke I'm looking at my picture before I put it down on the canvas.

I'm also cleaning off my brush on the edge of the canvas with every brush stroke.

That would be my underpainting to start with.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• oil painting
• underpainting
• cheap joes
• artist palette productions
• blending colors
• tips and tricks
• artist how to
• working with oil paint

[SuperLiz3000]

Many thanks lady, but what do you sketch the outline with from the start? I see it didn't smudge with the next layer of underpainting. Please reply.

[cheapjoes]

paint, I don't like using pencils. I hate how the graphite blends in with the paint. I know of people who use pencil then coat it with fixative so that it doesn't mix with the paint. But, that's just an extra step and I'd prefer not to do it. I'll use a small brush and paint the outlines and under paintings then let it dry before I start the first layer.

khblackwellart 7 months ago

[khblackwellart]

@asweet111 paint, I don't like using pencils. I hate how the graphite blends in with the paint. I know of people who use pencil then coat it with fixative so that it doesn't mix with the paint. But, that's just an extra step and I'd prefer not to do it. I'll use a small brush and paint the outlines and under paintings then let it dry before I start the first layer.

[khblackwellart]

@moonlightgarden12am Ha, I should do a time lapse video! It does take a long time to paint them, I always work on about 3-4 paintings at a time because of this. That way when I work on one painting until it is too wet, I can switch to another one. So, I'll work on several paintings during one studio sitting.

[titoflorido]

Por favor, no hablo ingles y quiero saber que colores usa en las mezclas para las luces, intermedios y sombras y en que proporciones aproximadamente (puede responderme por escrito en ingles). Me gusto mucho este video. Gracias!

[moonlightgarden12am]

@LastMFBreathin ...well you would be watching her for about 3 months on one painting.....red bull would be recomended

[LastMFBreathin]

60-80 layers ?? , i would like to se her do a painting from beginning to end and see what she does every single layer

[FatalRibbon]

@asweet111 I guess it's oil...Burnt umber or burnt sienna. Doesn't really matter actually...

[asweet111]

what did she draw the sketch on the canvas with?

[allyn788]

@Speekerful She's using a disposable palette...tear it off and throw it away when you're done....