How To Develop The Underpainting

Dakota     Underpainting with raw umber oil  paint   and titanium white oil paint for high lights.

Many artists start oil paintings by first creating an underpainting, which is a simple sketch created with one color. An artist can use an underpainting to develop a drawing, as well as the forms, values, plains, and edges that are later added to that drawing.

There are no rules for creating an underpainting. An underpainting can be created as a pencil sketch, pen and ink wash, basic color wash, or wash-in with raw umber oil paints or acrylics.

I prefer to use raw umber oil paint as my medium for the underpainting. It has very little chroma (color intensity), which makes it easy
to develop the drawing and values.
The raw umber underpainting also serves as
the foundation for the final painting process.

An underpainting is similar to the foundation
of a house. A solid foundation can provide the best opportunity to create a well-developed painting. You can build up layers of oil paint over the completed underpainting.

I like to take the underpainting process a step further than some artists by sketching a thin layer of colors over my raw umber underpainting. This is the second step in the
final painting process. The color sketch will
help finalize the underpainting process and
add to the luminosity of the finished painting.

The final painting process involves adding
layers of oil paint over the underpainting
until the painting looks complete. I change the drawing and make many subtle color changes
as I finish the painting.