Studying the study

Sometimes it's fun to look under the hood and see how something's put together, especially when trying something new. I began this painting with a slightly different approach to the underpainting; I also wanted to paint thinly and allow looser, wetter passages to survive through the final touches. Here's the tack I took:


I began with the simple sketch above, transferred it onto a 5 x 7 panel, and blocked in values with Burnt Sienna as you can see here (this is different from my usual approach of blocking in color). My intent was to create a warm, glowing base that would peek through at the finished work.


Once I had a simple value structure in play, I began laying in thin areas of hue to structure the composition further. Already having some ground was useful at this stage; otherwise the thin color areas would have shown the white gessoed surface rather than these richer, warmer values.

In short order I developed an underpainting with more heft thanks to the initial value underlayment. I could live with this! I tend to think of compositions in terms of value anyway, so this is a natural... Here's a better view of how the painting looked at this stage:

Next, I began defining a wider range of hues, having pre-mixed my colors so I wouldn't have to worry about mixing the fast-drying acrylic bit by bit. I loaded my palette and kept the spray bottle nearby and just worked from large areas to small.


Final adjustments, finished piece. The underpainting is still showing through in places, adding that warmth; I like the interplay of cool and warm hues and expressive shadows, capturing the feel of evening on the Plateau.

(As always, click to enlarge)