Painting a Negative

Here is a picture of an early stage of my painting. I have this fear of getting lost in an image as I am working on it, so I do an underpainting in acrylic. I am not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to how I paint the underpainting, I just sort of go to it. I sometimes purposely use the complementary colour to try to tone down all the greens I paint, and sometimes the red poking through adds a great contrast to the greenery. This underpainting was a bit different.

First of all, it is a smaller painting (8”x10”) so the large areas of green aren’t as overwhelming. I was more worried about the detail, all those little things like the train, and the rails and the houses on the hill. I need to make sure I don’t forget about those things. I needed the contrast in the underpainting image, so that is why I used the blue and purples. I also used the orange because the end painting is going to be more grey and moody, so I wanted the warmth underneath. I may not be able to see the warmth underneath, but I will know it’s there.

So that is how I start most of my paintings.