Imprimatura

 

Imprimatura

Hi David,

I just came from your advice on webpage
http://www.artists.ca/FCA-7cd.html and wanted to thank you. It's difficult to find someone who can give advice beneficial to beginners that is palpable. I have been contemplating seasoning my canvaseswith a color then painting over it until I saw your advice Rule no. 7 says only paint under an object with a colour that you want to have under it. Simple, easy and makes perfect sense.

I also have a tech question and can't find an answer.
I'm trying to find a middle gray, oil paint and cannot find any. Is there any such thing as an 18%-gray, oil paint?

Thanks again, Joel

Hi Joel,

I have never heard the term 'seasoning' with regards to artist's paintings but
starting a painting on a colored surface is a common practice that painters have been using for centuries. the way it works is you apply a transparent layer of color over the white primed canvas. often artists apply this over the intial drawing to seal it as well. this colored layer, called an 'imprimatura', would serve to provide a medium toned surface on which the forms and colors of the subject could then be developed. it also serves to add an overall harmony to the composition as the initial color can be seen showing thru the layers in varying degrees throughout the picture. Rubens mostly used gray tones for his imprimatura, Rembrandt, brown or gray, the great venetian artists like Correggio and Titian liked to use red earth (iron oxide red).

I am not sure what you mean by 'middle gray.' Are you
talking about a neutral optical gray like a photographer uses? the most
common gray found in artists paints is called 'paynes gray' and it is quite dark. as a rule painters mix their own grays using colors from the palette they used in the painting so that they will better blend into the color scheme. a brown and blue that were already used in the painting mixed with white for example. hope this helps, david