Tuesday, March 20, 2012

My Uncle's House.... Tuscany for Dan, Pastel 10" x 15", Painted on Uart 400 grit sanded paper

I thought I would post a work in progress here.  I'm currently working on a commission for a dear friend that visited Tuscany Italy recently.  This is a painting of his uncle's house.  I started out with a watercolor underpainting on Uart 400 grit sanded paper.  Here are a couple of stages, this top one is where I'm at currently.

© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.


This is the previous stage:
© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.


And some more steps:
© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.


© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.

The watercolor underpainting with the sky blocked in using pastels (I forgot to take a photo before starting the sky - oops!):
© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.

4 comments:

Doug Wasilieff said...

This is coming along nicely, Chris. The watercolor really helps with the texture of the walls. Love you colors. Uart is a great paper for wet under paintings, isn't it? I am looking forward to the final painting.

Christine DiMauro said...

Thanks Doug! Uart really is a great support with watercolors. No buckle whatsoever, not even a bump. I'm very impressed with it. The watercolor gives me something to respond to as I paint, its much nicer than painting on a blank piece of paper, especially with something that has as much texture as this subject has. I'm wondering how gouache would work as an underpainting, I've heard it's nice also. I may try that sometime just for fun. Thanks for stopping by!

Sara Mathewson said...

Hi Chris,

Wow, this painting has so much in it! i love the watercolor underpainting. I haven't done one yet and I think I might do one with my next painting. watercolor was actually my first love and then came pastel! Your work is gorgeous by the way. From what I have heard gouache works great but it has to be quite thin as it can fill up the tooth more than watercolor. i haven't used gouache yet but i keep wanting to try it after seeing Deborah Secors little gouache paintings. I should have gone that route instead of trying out oils. it would have been cheaper for one and no smell!

Love your blog!

Christine DiMauro said...

Thanks so much Sara! The watercolor underpainting is nice to do on Uart paper. It doesn't buckle, a real plus. Uart is not white, a bit of a negative. But, the fact that it stays flat when wet wins, so I just try to make the colors a bit more intense so they show up. Watercolor underpaintings on Wallis pro don't work, I hate the buckle. I do thing gouache would work as an underpainting also, but thinly painted, just like watercolor. The colors are more intense, so I think they would work very well. I believe that will be my next experiment. Thanks so much for your nice comments, I truly appreciate it.