Colored Grounds / Imprimatura: What is It, What Colors to Use, and Who Used Them...

Before we get too deeply into the characteristics of Direct and Indirect painting, I would like to first talk about something they both utilize: colored grounds. By which I mean the initial tonal coloring of your canvas before any other work starts.

There are several different colored grounds that have been used throughout art history in order to create a specific feel or look. Before we get into those colors, I will first cover some terms, what the color of your palette can mean, and why we use grounds.

Terms 

"Ground" is actually not the correct technical term. A ground or sizing is what covers the raw canvas or board to protect it from the oil paint. Things like rabbit glue and gesso are grounds. The imprimatura, or "first paint layer," is the initial stain of color painted over the ground.

Throughout the internet these terms are confused. Most people think the imprimatura is the underpainting, which it isn't, so from here on out I will be calling our colored grounds by their proper name, the imprimatura.

Matching your Painting Palette 

The color of your imprimatura should match the color of your palette, as you can see in the above photo. This is so that the color you are mixing on your palette appears as the same color when applied to your canvas. Otherwise you can get very frustrated when mixing what appears to be the "right" color, only to find that it looks different up on the canvas.

Allow me to give an example: an artist who has a natural wood palette and paints directly onto a white canvas may run into a color-mixing problem. When making colors on his palette, the color his eye sees is influenced by the color of the palette. When he takes that paint and puts it onto a white canvas the color will appear to be different because now it is being influenced by the pure white of the canvas verses the tan color of the wood.

Glass palettes can allow you to have more freedom with your imprimatura by simply placing different colored pieces of paper under your palette. That being said, this is a rule that lots of artist break. Me included. 

Why the Imprimatura? 

Using an imprimatura is as common in oil painting as white paper is in watercolor. The imprimatura can help create a unified color harmony throughout the colors painted on top of it and reduce the time and effort needed to arrive at a certain value range. If, while painting, you ever stand back and feel that your colors don't quite "match," try starting your work with an imprimatura to help create balance and unity. 

Colored Imprimaturas 

Traditionally the imprimatura was almost always moderate in intensity and value, and tended to rely on the low cost and quick dry qualities of earth pigments. Below is a list, from the Complete Oil Painter by Brian Gorst, of colors commonly used for imprimaturas. Where I can, I have included links to examples of each color being used in the description.    

1. Gray: The main function of gray is to remove the glaring whiteness of the original ground. A light-toned gray is the multi-purpose imprimatura and is useful for all genres. It also allows flexibility when your color scheme is still undecided. It was sometimes used by artists such as Monet. 

2. Terre Verte: This earth green was often used under areas of flesh by Byzantine and Medieval painters, such as Duccio, of the 13th and 14th centuries, but had continued use even past Michelangelo. The green helps neutralize the effects of strong pinks and reds, allowing for a natural skin color. 

3. Earth Red/Burnt Sienna: Used by landscape artists to give breath to green foliage, it also creates a mauve hue when sky and clouds are painted over it. This effect can be seen in works by Turner. These colors are also used by figure and portrait painters to help establish warm shadow masses, and was often used in the French figurative tradition by artists ranging from Poussin to Degas. 

4. Dark Brown or "bole:" A bole ground is usually an opaque mixture of Earth or Mars Red, black, and a small amount of Yellow Ochre. Still used today by traditional portrait and figure painters, a bole background came into style by artists such as Caravaggio and the young Velazquez.   

5. Yellow Ocher/Raw Sienna: These earth yellows provide a rich, warm imprimatura which maintains a sense of luminosity. Used by landscape and portrait painters to give a work a warm, golden undertone. You can see this used in works by Rubens.

6. Burnt Umber/Raw Umber: Both are cheap, quick drying, and semi-transparent, making them ideal for a thin imprimatura. These colors were used by artists such as da Vinci and Van Eyck.  

7. Light Blue: Sometimes preferred by alla prima painters as a luminous base, using a blue imprimatura allows for water, skies, and atmospheric effects to be developed quickly. I have no idea who starts out with blue. 

8. White: A plain white imprimatura is the most luminous imprimatura for glazing. The drawback is that it makes opaque paint appear darker by contrast. The white ground was first consistently used by Manet, and then later by artists such as Seurat and Derain. 

Looking back through art history's use of imprimaturas can help you decide on the look and feel you would like to have in your own paintings, and is always the first step in coping a master's work. 

For more about painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page.