We are going to paint our sky AND an underpainting for a tree, all in the same wash!
Why would we do that you ask?
Oh my goodness, this is going to transform your paintings! You don’t always have to do an underpainting, but sometimes is can produce amazing results.
As a beginner I would sometimes paint everything with such a dry brush that I would end up with white flecks all throughout my painting and it would have no watercolour feel to it. A wet in wet underpainting would have solved that. An underpainting can cover the whole paper, or just a specific part of the composition.
Here are two paintings I did a few years apart. The one on the left is painted with a very dry brush. I wasn’t sure how to paint the mountain behind the trees, and I wasn’t using much water in my brush, other than in the sky. The result is white flecks all throughout my painting and it looks very dry.
The painting on the right has a wet in wet underpainting. I still saved my white paper for the top of the mountain (by keeping that part dry) but if you look closely you will see how the sky bleeds seamlessly into the background of the bushes on the right.
Sure there are leaves painted on top of the sky, but those were added later.
If you look past the details on the bushes, you’ll see a soft green background that was painted wet in wet at the same time as the sky. No harsh outline!
Even the trees at the base of the mountain had a wet in wet wash (an underpainting) which I let dry before I added details.
So, what exactly is an underpainting?
An underpainting is the first layer of paint which is intended to be painted over. It’s a foundation for the rest of the painting.
Acrylic painters use underpaintings all the time. They might paint the canvas bright orange for example, and then paint a mountain and sky with contrasting colours, lots of blues and purples, and just have tiny flecks of the underpainting showing through to give the paintings life.
But how do you do an underpainting in watercolour without making a mess? I’m definitely not going to paint my watercolour paper bright orange if I want blue and purple mountains. Since watercolours are transparent, we know we can’t layer colours that way.
In watercolours, the underpainting is simply a wash (commonly wet in wet) that goes underneath your painting. You let it totally dry, and then you paint your layers and details on top. That’s all.
So when you painted a sky over your entire background, let it dry, and then painted your mountains on top, like we did for our misty mountains, your sky was an underpainting.
This works when you are painting from light to dark. However, if your mountain needs to be lighter than your sky, say if it has snow on it, then you’ll need to save your white paper by painting your sky around your mountain.
You might not do an underpainting in that case, or you may choose to underpaint only certain areas of your composition.
Let’s look at some more examples of underpaintings and where you might use them.
In watercolour, an underpainting can serve to:
- Establish the sky and water
Here is an underpainting and the finished painting.
I painted the sky and base layer of the water all in one wet in wet wash. The islands and trees were glazed once the underpainting was dry.
- Establish clouds and soft shadows
This underpainting was painted in one wet in wet wash as well, but a blossom accidentally formed as it dried. I talk you through the underpainting in this short video: https://youtu.be/0m8YQdO5DrQ:
If you like, you can also watch me paint the mountain in this short time-lapse: https://youtu.be/xnV_yCjai6I:
- Establish the sky and form of the land
Here I used the underpainting to fully paint the sky and also the underlying shadows of the landscape wet in wet.
If I just leave the snow white then it ends up looking very flat.
Notice that I included some pink from the sky reflecting in the snow in the underpainting too.
The only part that I left white from the paper was the sun spot. This helps it stand out as the focal point of the composition.
- Form the first layer of the entire composition
- Provide an opportunity for negative space elements
In this example, the underpainting included everything except the waterfall which was left dry to preserve the white of the paper.
To bring out the shapes of the logs and trees, I painted the negative space, which means I painted the shapes of the shadows around the trees rather than paint the trees themselves. The colours from the underpainting pop out and become the trees and logs. Then I added some final details on top.
- Create the sky and shadows on snow all at once
In this painting I left the flag, the light, the structures and some of the trees dry so I could save the white of the paper. I wet the rest of the paper and painted the sky as well as an underpainting of the mountain and snow. This is time saving and unifies the painting.
The above examples give a good idea of where underpaintings can be used. These aren’t even the only ways. Hopefully some of these ideas will inspire you in the future.
This is only an excerpt from a 55 page ebook explaining how to paint clouds and create depth and harmony with underpaintings.
This is one of 6 in my watercolour class, Introduction to Watercolour Basics, Watercolours Made Easy.
See more at https://kendraart.com/courses
In this course you will learn all the techniques needed to build a solid foundation in watercolour, and how to overcome common struggles that beginners normally encounter. You will see each technique demonstrated in a step-by-step, easy to follow manner with a pace specifically geared towards beginners. I demonstrate everything twice so you can relax and watch the first one and then paint along with me.
The course includes over 10 hours of video instruction as well as 6 e-books adding up to over 320 pages of comprehensive step by step notes.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Filed under: Online Course, Tips.