Watercolour, and crayon
©2014 Charlene Brown
My first impression of red
underpaintings was that they were something of a make-work project for artists
working with oils or acrylics. But then I noticed that there are wonderful
effects to be achieved by leaving just the right flashes of an underpainting exposed,
and of course, I wanted to try one.
As this technique is not really open
to watercolour painters, I decided to try something that might simulate the
result… Starting by drawing the picture in a complementary-coloured wax (paint-resisting)
crayon. Given the colours I planned to use to complete the painting, orange
seemed like a better choice than red for the fake underpainting, and Banff
Springs Hotel is the result.