History of Still Life Painting Exercise 1: Umber Underpainting Technique

History of Still Life Painting Part 1 Exercise: Umber Underpainting Technique

Materials and Equipment 

·       Soft vine charcoal and a soft graphite pencil

·       16”x20” stretched canvas or canvas board

·       acrylic Paints: 

o   The six double primaries: cadmium red medium, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow medium, lemon or hanza yellow, pthalo blue (green shade), ultramarine blue (red shade), burnt umber, black and white

·       acrylic matte painting medium

·       brushes: a small pointed round and a medium filbert    

·       palette, water bucket, Masters brush cleaner, lint-free rag

·       objects and drapery

·       shadow box: a cardboard box large enough to comfortably hold all of the objects in  the set up.

·       clip-on lamp with a 75 watt light bulb and an extension cord

Subject:  Three to five opaque objects with a matte sheen.

The goal of this exercise: to experience the Indirect Painting Method of Umber Underpainting -applying all darks first with the classic umber wash, continuing to build color semi-transparently and opaquely.  This painting method was used by many of the master painters of the Renaissance, including Leonardo da Vinci.

Step by step proceedure:

1).  Assemble your objects in your shadow box (a shadow box is a box, usually cardboard, that is big enough to hold your set up with extra room around it). The purpose of a shadow box is to shield your set up from ambient light, emphasizing the one light source effect on body shadow and cast shadows.  You want to be able to see the following tones on the objects:

·       The highlight/centerlight, where the brightest light is, where the object is in a direct line with the light. The surface texture affects the appearance of light, for instance, a shiny object will have sharp highlights and a rough object will have a centerlight area that has soft edges.

·       The bodytone (halftone), the local value (the lightness or darkness of the object when not affected by strong lighting) of the object, located between the light and the body shadow.

·       The body shadow (core shadow, basetone), where a form’s shape is turned away from the line the light. This is the darkest tone on the object.

·       The reflected light which is relatively weak light that has bounced off a nearby surface onto, and near the edge of, the shadow side of the form.

·       The cast shadow is connected to the shapes: The cast shadow, where a form stands in the way of the light. It is often the darkest area in the composition and will be darkest and have the sharpest edges closest to the object casting it.  It follows the surface it is cast on.  Notice how it changes direction as it goes from a horizontal surface to a vertical surface.  According to Helen Van Wyk, these are the five tones necessary to represent a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface.

2).  Direct a light from the top left or top right, a little in front, so that the three-  dimensional form of the objects is clearly seen.

3).  Stage your set-up, trying out a variety of objects and positions of the objects.

4).  Slide the shadow box to the left or right until you can see the set up and still look directly at your painting surface.

5).  Using a viewfinder, observe your set up and choose a view.

6).  Do a rough, gestural drawing with charcoal, very lightly on your support first by simplifying your shapes to ovals, indicating their placement on the support.

7).  Next, accurately but lightly, draw in the contour of the shapes with umber paint thinned with water, using a small pointed round brush or a soft graphite pencil. When the paint is dry, dust off the remaining charcoal.

8).   Observe the set up by squinting so that you can see three values: light, middle and dark.

• Now continue the underpainting as a glaze: acrylic paint mixed with acrylic painting medium, which has a viscous consistency, creates a glaze—it will be transparent but unlike a watery wash, it will stay where you apply it, even on a vertical surface.

     9). Mix burnt umber paint with acrylic painting medium to get a very transparent umber color. Apply this umber color to the drawing on your support very transparently.   Glaze the background if your set up has a middle value or darker background or drapery.  See Illustration #1.

     10). Paint an underpainting by applying the transparent umber color to the shadow side of the objects, a little lighter than you think they should be. While wet, soften the dark edges where they need to transition into the light areas.  See Illustration #2.

     11). Now you want to “heighten with white” – that is, find the areas in the set up that have very light colors, very bright colors and highlight areas and add extra opaque white paint in those areas of your painting.  You need to be sensitive to the edge treatments: soft on curved plane changes, hard on sharp plane changes.  Let this dry completely.

     12). Observe the color in your set up. Apply the colored glaze to the middle value areas.  This is where the local color and value is.  Apply the glaze over the dark areas also, but leave the lightest areas white. Layer additional color to strengthen the existing dry color, or to warm it, cool it and or neutralize the intensity by adding that color’s complement.  See Illustration #3.

13). Add opaque white highlights.  Using opaque paint, add final details and accents. See Illustration #4.

2011 Joan Kresek
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