Why the yellow? Why the pink?
People ask me this question every day.
Why do you bother painting the whole canvas one colour If you’re going to cover the whole thing up anyways?
There are many reasons to start with a base layer.
It gets rid of the big white space in front of you.
It is a nice warm-up for your arms and your hands before you get started on the subject of the painting.
It creates a beautiful under layer , which sets the tone for your entire painting, which then gives your entire painting unity.
Because I paint wet and wet, And I don’t wait for that layer to dry, my knife and brushes drag that under layer into the next layer, giving tones of purple or yellow into the next layer of paint. It is a nice way to tone in your paint that might not be there if you did not paint, wet wet.
Even if you were painting the next layer, after that first layer dries, you are creating a base to build your painting off of which gives it an under glow.
People can tell me a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea and they question why I would bother to do this under layer when you don’t actually see it in the final painting.
The truth is you do see it in the final painting. If you look close enough, and see the art in person. you can see that I have left a whole bunch of sections untouched by the second layer revealing that first underpainting colour.
Giselle Denis painting the yellow base layer.
You can ask anyone why they would do this first step and anything they are doing. Just because you cannot see the evidence at first of that first step, that doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Take for example, preheating your oven in cooking. That is an important step that should not be overlooked. Because we all know that heat and temperature are an important element in cooking. There are as important as the ingredients.
Or you can look at it from another angle and take a doctor for example. A doctor sits down with you and consults and ask you lots of questions in order to find out what the problem is. The doctor takes the time with the step to get to know his patient and figure out what the problem is. The step is essential in the patient’s care. This comes before prescribing any drugs, or resetting a broken arm. That first step might seem like a waste of time to some people, but his years of experience in asking the right questions makes him a great doctor.
It’s the same with painting. You are sitting down with that painting. You are getting to know it by spending time with it brushing your Paint across The canvas. Contemplating what you’re going to do next. Just sitting with the canvas thinking about what you’re going to do is just as important as painting the subject.
You can also look at it from a builders perspective. Just because you don’t see all of the wiring and framing behind the wall doesn’t mean that it’s not important. The homeowner comes in and sees the final home with the beautiful walls painted white. If they complained about the work they had to pay for that is behind the wall that they don’t see and tell the builder it’s not important because I don’t see it ,that doesn’t make any sense . Of course, the wiring and the plumbing and the framing behind the wall is ultra important for the house to have its full functionality. Those are the things that make the house work and the builder knows how important they are and he makes sure there is integrity behind those walls.
Just because it’s artwork, people feel like they can say whatever they want about each step as if they know from their own knowledge , Of why certain steps may not seem important to them.
Sure you can certainly build a painting without putting down that first underlayer. But it is the artist’s experience and years of practice to know that that first layer can add so much more visual interest to a painting. It is the ritual of layering paint that helps the artist discover little secrets along the way of what makes the painting interesting. To the naked eye, you might not be able to understand all of the layers, but you know that you love the painting. It is all those extra little details that the artist knows to do that makes a painting, beautiful and unique.
Giselle Denis painting a pink base layer.
So essentially, each step that the artist chooses to take, is important in their painting process. Whether it has an undertone, underpainting, or not, each step is important and makes that painting unique to that artists process.
Next time you’re looking at artwork, study it, look at a little bit longer, and noticed the little things that the artist did. There is a reason for every decision they made in creating that piece of artwork.
