Scout portrait in progress 6 - The underpainting step-by-step

How I made the underpainting for Scout’s portrait.

I decided to do the underpainting after I completed Scout’s head-study with colored pencil, rather than at the beginning like I usually do. This post shows the process of how I did that. First masking off the figures, then creating the underpainting.

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This is how the artwork looked before I started. It’s on “Flannel Grey” Canson paper. I am going to make an underpainting with golden-brown watercolor around the barn-hunt figure (lower left) and green watercolor around the running Frisbee figure. For straw-bales and grass, respectively. 

I completed Scout’s head study with colored pencil down to his chin. But not any further, because I will make a watercolor wash that fades upward into his neck and shoulder area. Later I will finish the rest of the neck and shoulders with colored pencil OVER the watercolor.

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I’ll mask off the figures so I can do a smooth wash without stopping to paint carefully around the details of Scout’s figures with a fine brush. That would be slow going and the wash would dry up in places and become blotchy. Mi-Teintes is not watercolor paper, it's very absorbent. It’s challenging to get a smooth wash on this paper even when I work fast.

There are many ways to mask off an area of paper.

An art term for masking materials is "frisket". You can get frisket fluid, frisket film, etc. 

I'm using translucent adhesive film. I can see the outlines of the figures through it, so I know where to cut.

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I cut a piece of film larger than the figure and press it down, completely covering the figure. Then I start cutting away the film around the figure.

I cut the film very carefully with a sharp (brand new) X-acto knife blade. I have to cut through the film, which is a little tough, but NOT cut into the paper. It requires very precise pressure with the blade.

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Cutting the film and peeling away the excess.

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Film cut on the Frisbee figure.

I have fairly simple shapes to mask off. I’m not cutting out every wispy hair on Scout. I’ll make his wispy edges with pencil strokes over the watercolor background. If I had a lot of fine detail to mask off, I would use frisket fluid (masking fluid) and paint it on the figure with a fine brush, instead of cutting out this tough film. 

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In this pic you can clearly see the film covering the figures. The figures are protected and there is open paper around them. 

Now I'm ready to put down a watercolor wash all the way across the background, in the lower half of the artwork. I don't have to worry about painting carefully around the figures. I can go right across them with a large brush.

7

Painting day.

I refer to my underpainting washes as “watercolor” because they are thinned a lot with water. Today I’m using liquid acrylic paint, thinned with water. I use it just like watercolors.

I mixed up 4 shades of green, and 4 shades of gold, from darker to lighter, and in varying degrees of watery-ness (more water added to the paint). In this pic you can see  the bottles of paint I used on the upper right corner of my work table….and the foil-covered wells with the different mixtures. This picture was taken after I’d finished painting the green and gold watercolor washes on the artwork, going right over the masked-off figures. My brushes have been washed out and are standing upright in a plastic cup. 

On the upper edge of my table is a hair-dryer used to dry paint swatches on a test scrap of “Flannel Grey” paper while mixing the paint. And paper towels that I used while working to swipe my brushes on and blot up extra water or paint on the artwork. 

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The background underpainting finished.

Note how I painted right over the masking film that covers the figures. 

I used a smaller brush to add in some lights and darks on the gold while the paint in the lower portion was still wet. I put a wash of gold-colored paint down with a large brush, and then dash those lighter and darker strokes into it as fast as I can while still wet. Even so it dried while I was doing that. If I was working with watercolor on a good-quality watercolor paper, I would have gotten a much better “wet in wet” effect. But this is good enough, it gives me the right background color and will save me a lot of work trying to cover every speck of “Flannel Grey” paper with colored pencil when I make the grass and straw.

I will use colored pencil strokes to make grass blades and straw blades. Pencils work great for things like that, but not so well for big smooth areas of color. The fade-out of green above the action figures that goes up on both sides of Scout’s head study would have been hard to do smoothly with colored pencil. (The paper is buckled but when it’s flattened you’ll see how smooth that wash is there.)

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I let the paper dry and clean up all the paint stuff.

Then I remove the masking film. 

I love peeling up the film after the wash has been applied.

It's so satisfying!

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With the film peeled off. Now I have that beautiful virgin grey paper for doing Scout’s black and white coat. It’s not tinted by the green or by gold/brown. 

If I had done the wash over the figures without masking them off and protecting that grey paper, it would be hard to completely cover that underlying green and gold later with colored pencil. Colored pencil is a “transparent medium”, so that underlying color would give Scout’s coat a greenish, or brownish, cast. The “Flannel Grey” is the perfect base color for Scout’s glossy black and pristine white coat. Now you can see my strategy for protecting the figures.

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Pulling up a tip of the masking film over the Frisbee figures with the x-acto knife blade so I can get hold of it. 

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I just love pulling up the film and revealing that clean grey figure, with my outline drawing still in place.

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The whole artwork with the film peeled off. 

Now I have that beautiful grey paper to do Scout’s figures, and background colors just where I want them. I’ll use colored pencil strokes to make grass blades (lighter and darker) on the green, and straw (lighter and darker) on the the gold. These areas of underpainting save me a lot of work as a colored pencil artist. I often use underpainting like this as the first step in creating background scenes.

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The studio window open so the paper can dry really well. 

Since this paper is not made for taking water-based media, water-based paint buckles the paper. I will press it under weights overnight to flatten it, before I continue working on the figures. I need flat paper to make smooth pencil strokes. Having bumps and bulges in the paper messes up my smooth hand motion when making those strokes.  

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Paper flattened and ready for the next step:

Triple portrait of “Scout”.

Commissioned by Annette Riehle.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil and acrylic wash on “Flannel Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper

20 x 26 inches.

From reference photos by Faith Lyman, Jackie Singer, and Donna Childs.