I’ve nearly finished the underpainting of Man Pushing a Baby Carriage. I showed the initial drawing for this painting in a recent post. By underpainting, I mean the first sessions during which I start modeling the dark tones and apply local colors. I use the neutral ground for lights, as on the shoulders of the red-capped figure. The lights are the neutral-valued ground showing through the local color (flesh). As the painting progresses, I strengthen forms in both directions–light and dark–and add details.
Unfinished ‘Man Pushing a Baby Carriage’ on the easel
In oil painting, lights are best when they’re positive statements. That is, when they’re painted and not merely light values showing through darker ones, as with watercolor. Transparent passages like the ones I’m referring to are fine in middle-dark tones. In fact, the best paintings combine solid lights with transparent middle and dark passages. Man Pushing a Baby Carriage is 30″ x 36.”
I spent the afternoon finishing the drawing for a 40″ x 50″ painting and transferring it to canvas. Afterward, I started the underpainting on that painting too.