Friday, August 20, 2010

A Saturated Underpainting

my favorite way to work. straight out of the tube, saturated, underpainting. the idea is that you dont have to get the exact color right as it will go thru several transformations adding more saturated colors until its the approximate color i need. then if its still too saturated i'll bump it down with the its complement of i'll take a bit of scrapings (gray) in the right value and knock off the saturation. you do this is passes. in other words you fix them all every pass. too hard to get a color right when the colors surrounding it arent correct, so you work all over the painting getting it a "little more right", then come back and work all over the painting again.
i'll show you the finished piece after i tweak it a bit.

3 comments:

DGehman said...

I second the motion.

Before your DVD introduced me to this, the initial burnt sienna sketches I did, a solid and traditional beginning, just frustrated me. Very quickly they were painted over and all my guidelines were gone.

This way, you have an unmistakeable and never quite totally lost detailed roadmap of your values.

Not only is painting easier, the result is tons better, because a little of the raucous, energized color shows through.

Great stuff, Mike. Thanks.

mike rooney studios said...

dave- after years of playing around with different methods i've finally found one that feels totally natural both in methodology and with the final effect. the real key to finding our own voice in painting is to find a method we love to use and then stop searching/mimicking this person or that and just paint the way we paint, a lot. then we'll have a style thats clearly our own.gallery owners tell me i have a very recognizable look.
i like that my stuff doesnt look like anybody else's

Klinger Studios said...

Thank you.