To the underpainters

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Help: I am trying for once to use underpainting for a portrait.

I am currently working on it, but I would love to hear from the people who use this tecnique: am I on the right path, or too high in values?

My client likes Bronzino's portraits, and I am having fun trying to recapture that feeling in a more modern and relaxed pose.

I still have to think about the background - I might include a vase of orchids - and have one of my kids pose in his trousers (the boy was wearing shorts on the day) to study folds properly.

I hope someone can help

Ilaria

[Scott Bartner]

Dear Ilaria:

This is pretty close to the technique I use and have a few suggestions at this point:

1) Establish the background now before you work any further on the figure. It will play an important role when creating your flesh tones.

2) Watch the edges. When working on the background, try to soften and vary edges not only with the background paint but with the white as well. It's trickier to soften edges with this technique, but possible.

3) Re-study the hands. Make sure your drawing is correct; making changes late in the process is difficult.

4) Try to complete all of the large masses like the shirt and pants first. These masses have the same effect on flesh tones as the background does.

5) Have a color idea for the portrait in mind or better, on paper, and know which of your pigments are transparent.

6) I'll give you a few tips on glazing when the time comes.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

Scott

[Patricia Joyce]

Ilaria,

I am very interested in how your painting develops as I, too, am attempting underpainting and glazing in a copy of Girl with a Pearl (over in the Master Copy section). Your abilities, of course, are exquisite and reflect your level of accomplishment as an artist. I am a lowly beginner!!

So, I hope to learn from your painting here. I really like what you have going here. You may want to see what Garth Herrick posted in Master Copy Critiques as advice to my beginning painting. He makes some good points about luminosity, etc.

Scott,

I hope you share your advice to Ilaria here on the forum so that I (and others) may learn, too!! Can I ask one question? I see that Ilaria is really developing form and that her masses are not flat at all. I think I got confused somewhere in thinking that the underpainting should remain without detail (like the highlights in the eyes, lightest lights and darkest darks)? Are there two schools of thought on this and which do you adhere to and why? Also, when finished with the underpainting should it be varnished before the glazing begins??

[Scott Bartner]

Believe me Joyce, I will do my best to help Ilaria because it might get me out of having to buy two boxes of expensive chocolates, but never mind.

The form of the portrait comes from the under painting. It is advisable to leave the catch lights and other minor touches until last. Why? When you put in the catch lights too soon you fail to see clearly the structure of the eye, the roundness of it. I often work on a portrait placed upside down to see the form alone, not what my eye recognizes to be an eye. But putting in catch lights and little highlights before the general structure of the head is finished is tempting and I do it to.

I'm a little worried about her under painting because the shadows on the face are warm when they should be cool, so another approach may be required instead of simply glazing the under painting. I'm also wondering where the light source is coming from. But I must say I was very impressed when I first saw it; it's not easy to do.

Varnish should not be used in glazing. I use retouch varnish when the painting is finished and dry to the touch. A year later I apply a final varnish.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Scott,

I knew i could count on your advice! (bye bye to my chocolate)

Thank you very much, I will follow literally all the points you have made as I agree with everything except the hands were not done yet, just lightly whitened.

I have worked in raw umber and white, do you think that's too hot? I tried white and black but I was not happy with it., and continued with umber. I hope I will be able to fix temperatures later, maybe painting opaque.

I MUST be disciplined and wait before starting to glaze, I have a couple more decisions to make, but I am really excited about trying.

In the meanwhile I keep going at the my art school's open studio where I pretend to be super contemporary, Uglow and Gwenn John
(I found these two painters are mythical for every female art teacher in the kingdom), hiding my Mr Hyde life as a glazer.)

Joyce, thank you very much for your compliments, but I have a lot to learn. I will check on Garth's post, but I just wanted to tell you one thing.

Be careful not to confuse the underpainting with the beginning of any painting.

Like many other painters, I am very disturbed by the whiteness of the canvas, and for me normally the first step is to cover it with large areas of flat diluted colour that will also help me to establish the composition.

These masses will be completely covered by thicker paint, they might end up being totally different in hue, tone or size once the painting is completed. They are just a preliminary stage. The underpainting instead is there to stay; I would say it's like splitting up the task, first taking care of the tone, then of the colour itself. It is a discipline.

For me this painting is an experiment, I am not sure I am ready to give up a more intuitive approach, a little improvisation and the surprise a bold brushstroke might bring, but I want to have a go, since there are such masters over here

Ilaria

[Patricia Joyce]

Thank you for your input Scott and Illaria. I am paying attention, ready to learn!

Pat (Joyce is my last name, easy to confuse )

[Scott Bartner]

Pat: I was in a hurry yesterday and got your name wrong. My apologies.

Ilaria: My portraits rely on the strength of a burnt umber under drawing. When transparent white like zinc white is painted over dry, dark burnt umber, namely the shadow areas, the effect is a bluish color. Later when it

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Scott,
these are real secrets, you should pasword this thread!
Thank you again, I just put down a green plain background , let's see what happens.
Ilaria

Pat, sorry I just copied from Scott...

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Ilaria,

This is a lovely start and I'm watching this thread carefully to see how you're developing the painting.

I have to ask you, what is the ground for your painting? Wood? Do you coat it with a layer of varnish?

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Linda Brandon

Hi Ilaria,

This is a lovely start and I'm watching this thread carefully to see how you're developing the painting.

I have to ask you, what is the ground for your painting? Wood? Do you coat it with a layer of varnish?

Hi Ilaria,

I think you have a strong start on this painting as well. Like Linda, I also am watching how you develop this (I should also benefit from Scott's secret knowledge as well). I also am currently attempting a variation upon underpainting, but with a mixed and awkward start (and I may revert to my default impasto alla-prima approach at any moment!). I also quickly covered all that blinding white of the canvas with a color (but now I want to cover all that color too). Thanks for sharing this; I look forward to future developments.

Linda, this is just my guess, looking at the photo above: I bet Ilaria has a ground of raw umber or "wood" colored paint over a white ground on canvas, but my first impression was also that this is a wood panel. Is this on linen?

Garth