It is very traditional in egg tempera painting to do an underdrawing in ink. We can see this technique in uncompleted or worn quattrocento panel paintings. I've always done a tonal drawing before beginning the work in color. (I started this blog too late to show the underdrawing for Yellow Curve.) Because tempera is translucent, I find that having the values laid out is helpful, especially in the dark areas.
For this painting and the previous one, I traced the outlines of the form in the color study and transferred the tracing to the panel. Before this, I had always done a careful pencil drawing to work out the exact composition and details. Now I find that I like starting more loosely, while closing the form as I go along.
I'm curious - in making the grayscale translation are you doing it by eye or do you turn your reference photo into grayscale and work from that? I suppose this example is pretty straight forward, easy to eyeball. but sometimes colors read differently from their tonal values.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked seeing how compositions look without their colors on, I suppose it comes from years of black and white printing.
My reference photos are shot in black and white. I don't need color photos because I have the color study, which is closer to the way I see color than a photograph would be; it is also more subtle. I find that a black and white image is more helpful in elucidating form and detail.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about colors reading differently from their values; for instance, greens always read darker in black and white. Since the underdrawing is just that, it's not essential that it be completely accurate as to value.