Oil Underpainting// Grayscale// Part 1
Hey everyone!!
Today I'm taking you through one of my oil underpainting processes. This is a 20x20 inch canvas. I put a layer of colored gesso on and let it dry before starting the charcoal and graphite sketch. Since this is a pretty detailed concept, I did a pretty detailed sketch. Admittedly, I may have gone a little overboard with the drawing, but charcoal was my first love and as I had just purchased some new pencils, I got a little carried away. However, it did benefit me in the end as I already had the grayscale mapped out before I even started putting paint on the canvas.
There are a few different ways to do an oil underpainting. For this I decided to do a grayscale underpainting. I mixed ivory black and burnt umber to create a neutral black and then made a grayscale consisting of 6-8 shades of gray by adding small amounts of titanium white.
I used galkyd gel to thin the paint, but also speed up the drying time because this painting will ultimately be in color. The reason I did an underpainting is so I can glaze with transparents to introduce the initial color before adding opaques.
I hope you enjoyed this process video! Part 2 will be glazing and finishing. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments! I love you guys!