 Welcome to Monet Café, Artistic Friends and Visitors. I'm artist Susan Jenkins. I think you'll really enjoy today's lesson and art is definitely better with friends. Please click that subscribe button if you'd like to have more of these videos coming your way. Now don't think you're doing a double-take with this video tutorial. This is actually a larger painting for a commissioned piece that I did. You may have seen the previous painting that was smaller and I thought this was an excellent opportunity to talk about under paintings. How and why we create them. This is my pastel palette that literally is from my previous painting. So this painting, even though it's very large, is going to go faster and I'm using the same under painting strategy as the first smaller version with a lot of warm tones that I'll talk about. So here you can just see my pastels. I love keeping them in these little appetizer trays and organize them like the color wheel. Oh and I'll also be talking about those brilliant blues. So many people were inquiring about those in the last tutorial. Alright this is a large 16 or actually I should say 20 inch by 16 inch piece of UART paper 400 grit. I am using a piece of vine charcoal also called willow charcoal just to get in a sketch and once again this will go more quickly really even though it's larger because it is a painting I've not only done once before but I'm literally following my own tutorial because I had videotaped it and made a YouTube video. I can watch myself paint and see the exact colors I used and really it's just a duplicate of my other painting just larger. The section where I do the under painting is going to be all real time but I am speeding up this sketch portion and also a bit at the end. So basically I am getting in the same sketch idea. I liked the composition of the first one. I like when your tree line has trees that are going up on the edges rather than drooping down on the edges. So that's my same strategy and goal here. Now with the vine charcoal I like using this because unlike a charcoal pencil unless you sharpen it with the lead very exposed with the pencil you can't get broad strokes like this and in this case it's very important because this is a large piece and this leads me to the first point about creating an under painting which it really creates a composition roadmap for you. By the way I'm just using a piece of pipe foam insulation you can get at any hardware store to do some blending and I find that getting an overall composition helps us to establish the large shapes the general gestural quality of the composition and it really does give you a good foundation to build upon. A second reasoning for creating an under painting is to establish your values. If you get a good value study early on your painting is going to be more accurate artistically and really values are so important. So here you'll see how I'm doing just that. I know that darker values occur in elements that are upright in the landscape such as trees and values are darker in the foreground like foreground grasses. So in a minute you'll see me also do that trail leading the viewer's eye into the background. So this is literally look how loosely I'm applying this keeping a light touch. I'm not specifically trying to draw or paint a tree in this. I'm just literally laying this little purple pastel that's a darker value on its side and I am just kind of scumbling in some of the tree shapes and just see how loose it is. One of the things that was challenging for me early on and I think it is for a lot of artists is we feel like our painting has to look like something earlier than it really does. It really does have to go through this wonky kind of adolescent stage before it actually starts to take shape. So embrace the unfinished quality of a painting early on otherwise you're going to risk your painting being too tight and really over detailed also over muddied with color. So just keeping it really loose. So here's where I'm getting the foreground grasses and that element of like a trail or something leading the eye again once incredibly loose big broad strokes. I wish I had had a bigger pastel for this. I didn't quite use all of this pastel by this time this painting was done but that's something to keep in mind with larger paintings. It definitely uses up a lot more of your pastel but again I like working really large. I am really glad I did this because I haven't done it in a while and it's worth it. It's worth using those pastels and just buying more because of the dramatic impact of large pieces. So back to the point of the value study. That is basically what I'm going to be getting here and very soon you'll see me actually do a wet underpainting of sorts. I'm going to apply alcohol. Now you could use water in this case too but what I'm going to be doing is creating a value study with literally just this purple color some alcohol and I had to find the largest brushes I had and that that one there on the left is definitely my larger no actually I have a big kind paint brush like you'd paint a house with a real big brush could have used that for the foreground and so now I just have a paper towel because I like to dab the alcohol off of my brush as I paint. I get some alcohol in my little container here and I I like it fairly wet because I do like the drips. I like the drips that happen but you've it's a strategy you learn as you go how much to add because if you add too much alcohol it's going to drip too much and it's also could perhaps curl your paper you might just get it oversaturated. Now this one actually wasn't wet enough I start to add more water you'll see in a minute so I'm kind of reminding myself of my alcohol technique that I like to use but here's what I'm doing now is I'm just using the alcohol it's going to blend it in you see how the unblended trees right now are so you see so much of the paper showing through so what this is going to do it's going to blend it together a little bit more give it more of the feeling of trees cover up some of the background of that paper so it's not so textural and I'm keeping really really loose strokes not over fussing about things being just so but I've learned that I like my trees to be gestural and not just blobs or sticking in one direction up and down I'm actually trying to get even better about that give your your trees some energy and some motion and almost personalize them like people like how would they be would they be reaching to the heavens would they be praising creation so that's just something I think that emotionally can move you and move your viewers with your artwork so I'm just kind of dabbing and working and establishing again the direction of my trees but notice what I'll be doing here I'm going to get in really really just wild loose strokes I apologize my camera sometimes doesn't know when to focus on my hand and the actual painting so it's kind of coming and going out of focus a little bit and my board shaking too I really need a better easel I hope I hope I can get that soon so I am using just big old broad strokes this is a point where I could have used my really wide painters brush one that's even larger than this and energy looseness that's another point about the under paintings is to keep that loose gestural painterly feel so both of those under painting strategies are actually happening here you'll see me even establishing the value study even more so I'm establishing value study for my under painting and a loose energetic gestural quality it really is going to make your final painting just artistically more beautiful really now what I'm going to be doing now is I've already gotten down quite a bit of my values but I use what's on the paper already almost like a little palette of paint where I can grab some of the color and it stays on the brush and then I can apply it to other areas typically flatter areas in the horizon are not as dark in value so I'm just grabbing some of the color that's already there and wetting my brush as needed and getting in the general values of the the foreground now that area where the trail is that I envisioned that like a hill kind of coming forward so it was going to be a little bit more in shadow because the sun is way in the back there behind those distant trees so this is a hill that isn't getting as much light as the distant hill in the background so now I'm going to gradually grab some more color that's kind of what I'm doing right there and I'm using some of that color to really paint kind of a sketch combination paint strategy here to get in that background field I see I grabbed a little more paint there and I know the the area behind those background trees they're going to have a little bit more shadow behind them because the sun's back there so I grab a little more color and all this might feel a bit mechanical at first I know it did for me when I first started but the more you do it the more it starts to make sense I also knew I had a stream in there somewhere so I didn't worry about the stream as much with this part because I just wanted to get the general lighter value going on back there to get the mood now can you see how we've already done three things now we've established our overall composition with big shapes not getting too fussy on details we've established a value study we've got our general values in you know just something pretty general and simple and we've got loose beginnings so those are the first three points about creating an underpainting next let's talk about my fourth principle for creating an underpainting which is color interest I know we have a tendency early on in our art careers to say oh that's a green field let me grab a green color but if we can learn some of the underpainting techniques for creating more interesting color I think you'll find your paintings become more alive and exciting and while there are many different strategies for creating colored under paintings the one that I'm using here is what is typically called a complementary underpainting and all that means is that you are using the complement to the color that is primarily in the landscape scene and most landscape scenes are greens for the fields and the trees and blues for the skies so if you grab a color wheel a complementary color is just the opposite side of that color on the color wheel and opposite to the greens and blues and cooler colors are the reds and yellows and orangey type of colors so what happens is when you put these complements down you're creating a base of color for your greens and your blues to really vibrate with color and have a lot more interest so let me talk a little bit here about the color choices I'm using basically I'm using yellow orange and red if you want to think of it that way and I'm creating a value study with those colors the lightest of these would be the yellow which is in the sky the next in value would be the orange which I'm choosing to put a little bit behind those trees and in the fields in certain places and using the darkest red that I'll get to in a minute for some of those upright grasses in the foreground now a reasoning for that is not only do values get darker in the foreground like I mentioned before we've already got our dark value base with that beautiful purple but they also tend to get warmer in the foreground so I've got that nice red that I'll be adding in a minute to those foreground grasses that's going to intensify that illusion of depth all we're doing is as artists is recreating the way that nature and the laws of physics really works so no you don't have to have a degree in physics or science or anything like that to be an artist but it does help to learn these rules all right so here's where I'm going in and I'm adding once again this is a Terry Ludwig pastel I'm using a lot of real softies at the beginning I know the general rule with pastels is hard pastels first use your softies at the end but really my strategy has been use what you have what colors you have that work the best and learn to keep a lighter touch so that you can still apply other colors at the end and now I'm adding more of that orange to the side of the field or that rolling hill on the outsides of those deepest or deeper grasses I also knew that once again I'm thinking about how nature works I know that behind those tall trees logically we can assume there's going to be darker values because again the sun is setting way back there in the back there's going to be more shadow on the other side of the trees so that's why I established a little bit of the dark red there as well now this is the same strategy as I did when I just put my darkest value down I'm basically doing an alcohol wash to this and again I'm using the same strategy of wetting my brush enough to where I can paint with it but not so wet that it just drips everywhere now as I am applying the alcohol here let me talk about another common question I get with regards to under paintings so many times the question is why do you do an under painting I've been talking so far about how but why would you do an under painting if you're just going to cover it all up anyway oh my goodness I can't tell you how many times I get asked that and it's a great question because I thought the same thing early on I would see wow there's all that color there and you're just going to cover it up and you're not even going to see it well two answers to that one is I purposely try not to cover up all of the under painting I love it when little bits of the color shows through and creates just that energy with color that I think makes the painting overall more beautiful but the second thing is it's affecting it more than you think even when you think you've covered up all of the under painting you know that's a great idea for a video I need to do one painting with an under painting and one maybe I have done that and one without and cover up most of it just to show how the underneath color really does influence the layers of other pastel colors that you put on top oh and by the way this large painting really only took me maybe two hours if that and again the reasoning is because I had already painted it and I'm literally just following my own tutorial I had my ipad sitting next to me and I was just watching myself paint the first painting I originally had some flowers in a photo for reference but I did a lot of the composition out of my head and going with working with the client as to what some of her color choices were of course what size she wanted and also she found some of the other paintings of mine that she liked and that was why I came up with this composition idea she liked the idea of flowers in the foreground and perhaps a stream she loved a little stream and I was trying very hard not to have the two competing with each other and came up with keeping the stream in the background very subtle now notice how the broad strokes that I did for the deeper grasses in the middle there and I'm doing the same thing I did with the purple in grabbing some of the color and using it literally to paint with like a little paint palette of color so I find this works really great for creating a value study type of underpainting for complementary under paintings notice too when this is wet it's much darker see the purple trees how they've dried so light now the same thing is going to happen with these warmer tones that I've applied as well also too notice that even though this is an underpainting it's still important to keep directional strokes that's going to intensify the energy and the drama of your painting so I'm using directional strokes to in my mind I'm imagining these grasses just reaching towards the heavens or that sunset in the background and so my strokes are very vertical notice the background field however I had them more horizontal in in the way they're laid out but they also look kind of I don't know if you can tell from the video almost like they're curving down I'm doing some forethought into that stream that's going to be there and the the hill is going to go down into the stream all right so now the purple that I applied as my darkest value before has lightened as it dried but it gave me a great roadmap once again that's one of the first things about an underpainting that that has allowed me to do you see how now I know where I'm going I don't have any guesswork anymore I know where my darkest values are so I'm re-establishing these darker values when I apply the alcohol also too to the pastel it actually kind of sets the pastel into the ur paper that I'm using here and I feel it gives me a little bit more layering capability it almost like it soaks into the paper and so it's almost like applying a fresh first layer of pastel not quite but definitely helps with that and so I'm just kind of gingerly working here notice again just using the broad side of that pastel to get in the darkest value now while I have it in my hand where's my other darkest values going to be they're going to be in these grasses I'm noticed to look back at the trees you see how the purple is still showing through the background and if you keep a light touch the influence of the underpainting is really going to shine through and create some beautiful drama for you with color and again using directional large strokes and my strokes get larger the closer I get to the foreground you can probably see I can see it on my screen now how the pastel dust is falling off of this so once again using these big broad strokes the way I'm doing on this large format painting is going to eat up some of your pastels but again I think I miss working large I'm going to definitely do more of that all right now I'm just very lightly my touch is even lighter back here that tree that I'm working on right now of the distant trees it's closer I would say that one's kind of middle ground along with a little bit of those on the right side that are a little further back now notice how I changed colors here this is a greenish tone but it is lighter in value than the purple values decrease in the distance now I've gone kind of off the topic of the complementary underpainting or why and how and underpainting because I'm past that stage all right so now it's just looking at the influence of the underpainting and what's actually happening here I decided to re-establish my tree line a little bit shape it out a little differently I've got that flexibility I wanted to give you know a little bit more variety in the trees instead of them all just being so more like rounded forms and now I'm using a little bit of that green just to kind of hit upon some of those four ground trees to create some unity and harmony throughout the painting and I always say while the I have economies of scale I guess you would say with my pastel approach and I think a lot of artists do is while you've got the pastel in your hand see where else you might can use it in the painting I noticed here how much of the pastel I'm using when you work on a large painting like this but once again if you have the pastel in your hand one reasoning why it's a good idea to just go ahead and use it in other places is it's practical you know I mean why have to pick it up again and the second reason is it will create a unity to your painting having color throughout the painting that works together now these are some of the blues that will be the flowers however I'm using this blue to actually kind of glaze in some of the blue in the background field there even though there is warmth in the sky I liked the fact that these blue flowers also part of the color palette selection from the client was a feature I wanted to accentuate so I'm just laying the pastel on the side I'm cooling off that orange in other words I am going to put some greens down on top of this but this blue will create a cooler final result than just doing the green right away now I went to a little bit of a darker value blue there and I know that I'm getting more towards the middle ground and also some of those behind those trees maybe a little more shadow there so that's why I switched the value I changed to a little bit of a darker blue now the main point of this lesson was about how and why would you create an underpainting and hopefully I've shared enough about the importance of it and and really how it works so well in helping you to keep a painterly approach and for your final result to be fun and exciting with color so I am going to speed up the rest of this video you're going to see the whole thing but the very first part here I've been talking for about 23 minutes now has all been real time oh I can't resist the urge to say more things I'm using a piece of pipe foam insulation here just to kind of blend in some of the darker values that I added to the trees and it also creates more of a looseness I don't always blend I try not to over blend but sometimes in the initial stages it will soften things and give a little bit more of a painterly feel and impressionistic feel I know that those background trees too you see how just blending them in gave a little bit of warmth and how you really are kind of seeing that orange behind there so and they would be warmer in the background area there because that's where the sun is setting or rising I don't know why I was thinking of this one as a sunset so again using the pipe foam insulation to blend so enjoy the rest of this I'm trying I'll try to find a lovely song for you to listen to a lot of people ask about the music that I use for these and I am limited in having videos on YouTube to use music that doesn't have a copyright and so YouTube has a very neat audio library with choices a lot of the songs aren't very long so I try to find the longest ones that I can and ones that are just ethereal and relaxing for you to listen to so it's not driving you crazy of course you have the option to turn it down so that's usually where I get my music from and I apologize for all those little beeps you may be hearing in the background that's actually my I have my discord group open my patrons I have a patreon page and I'm having so much fun with you patrons guys you are just a blessing to me patreon is a way that artists musicians all kinds of people have a way that you can support them to keep their efforts growing and to get the equipment they need that's definitely helped me with that and my patreon page you can become a patron for only five dollars a month it not only helps keep Monet Cafe me bringing free videos like this but it also gives my patrons a little more instruction and we've got a really neat little community discord the little beeps that you're hearing is a platform that I use where my patrons can just get in there and chat and learn from each other and I pop in and we have a lot of fun of course I have a facebook group I have extra lessons for them on my patreon page and I'm now going to be starting just so you know some live lessons some more of pain-along step-by-step type of lessons and I did my first one yesterday of course I was a chicken and I did it as a test I just kept the video unlisted because I have to work out the glitches before I totally go live and it's just me doing it I'm a one man or one woman show I should say so I am having to make sure I have things just right before I totally go live to the public but that's coming and that is going to be available for the public so once again your patreon support of $5 a month really does help me to be able to do these things you know I had to buy a new little GoPro camera to be able to do the live stream with one camera angle I had so it's a it's a lot of work but I tell you what having Monet Cafe over these past years has been a blessing to me I know I get so many here I go on one of my tangents I get so many messages from you guys from people from all over the world thanking me for these lessons and I'm going to get a little teary eyed with messages that literally touch my heart and bless me so much with your stories with the fact that a lot of you don't have any other way to learn you're so excited you've finally gotten some time in your life to paint so the rewards that I get from this is way more than financial it's you guys and it's the fact that my concept of my initial frustration not being able to find resources and starting Monet Cafe has returned pressed down and shaken together and doubly triply quadruply fold of anything I ever started so god bless you all thank you all right now I am going to be quiet listen to some music as I paint I'll try not to speed this up too much and please like this comment on this video please subscribe if you haven't already and continue to be part of this Monet Cafe family all right enjoy I will be back at the end well wasn't that fun I really like that song to the sped up version here so I hope you enjoyed this I hope you learned a lot especially about under painting here's the final painting and I'm so happy the client loved it thanks for watching Monet Cafe family and thank you patrons for your support and as always happy painting