Underpainting: Oil Technique
Today we'll talk about the Underpainting technique.
Hello there oil painting lovers, thinking of you, we've decided to create an amazing series of posts about oil painting techniques.
These techniques will help you to improve your skills and give you more confidence on your next paintings.
Underpainting is a technique that has been used for centuries by painters. It is a way of laying down a foundation or base layer of color before adding the final layers of paint. This technique can be used with any type of paint, but is most commonly seen in oil painting. There are many different ways to create an underpainting, but two of the most popular methods are grisaille and verdaccio.
Grisaille
Grisaille is an underpainting technique that uses a grey or neutral color palette. This method is often used to create a sense of light and shadow, or to create a three-dimensional effect.
Many Grisailles, in fact, include a slightly wider color range from gray-green to gray-blue usually beginning with a dark surface and using white paint to build highlights and model the subject
Verdaccio
Verdaccio was composed of yellow ocher, a bit of black, white and a hint of red.
Verdaccio is an Italian term for the greenish-hued underpaintings common to Early Renaissance Italian art. The root word 'verde' means green. In English we would say 'verdant'.
Back in the Middle Ages, when religious frescos and egg tempera paintings were mainstream, artists commonly applied a verdaccio layer as an underpainting.
Some great examples of Renaissance verdaccio paintings are Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi because the painting was only partially finished.
Both grisaille and verdaccio are still used today by painters who wish to create a certain effect in their paintings.
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