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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Choosing Underpainting Colors for a Large Painting

'Listen to the Marsh Music'             18x24           pastel         ©Karen Margulis
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 It all began with blue violet. I was planning another large demo and choosing my palette.  I would be using a full sheet of Uart 600 paper 18x24.  That is big for this 5x7 painter.  I love Uart but I knew I had a limited time for the demo so I decided to do a dry wash of color for my first layer. This way I could paint quickly with a minimal number of layers.  I wouldn't have to worry about the light paper tone peeking through and being a distraction.

As I started to fill my tray with potential colors for the painting I decided to consult my Analogous Color Wheel to help me choose the underpainting colors.  The color wheel suggested Blue Violet as the compliment of my dominant hues. Ahhhh perfect. I love blue violet and I might not have thought to use it for the underpainting!

detail of distant marsh with discord color
The analogous color wheel also helped me choose some of my spice colors. I especially love the suggested discord of red violet...so I used some hot pink!  Choosing my colors in advance with the help of the color wheel allowed me to paint quickly and more intuitively.  It was so much fun to share the creation of this painting with my class.



my palette


My reference photo and small color study

1 comment:

Kay Wyne said...

What a wonderful painting...you nailed the colors and composition!