Skills Corner: The Underpainting
From intuition-based painting to rigorously planned compositions, artists work in different ways. Yet across styles, many establish what is called an “underpainting” at the beginning of a new project. The underpainting of the artwork refers to its initial layers. An underpainting can be understood as a first compositional sketch or the foundational marks of a painting, inevitably becoming invisible or partially so as the painting progresses. In this blog post, I write about the underpainting as a guideline, why it matters, and the techniques I use to set myself up for a successful finished painting. Defining the Terms The first…
A Visit to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA)
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) re-opened in 2022, after over a decade of major restoration and renovation work. First opened in 1890, the KMSKA now houses both old masters and modern art. Having moved to Belgium in 2013, I hadn’t visited the museum before its recent reopening and was excited to see the building and the artwork inside. In what follows, I share my impressions of what will surely be the…
Negative Space: A Way of Seeing
Recently, I decided to pause work on a painting because I felt stuck. A garden scene with lots of shapes and colours, it had been going well but as I progressed, something felt off. It could have been the depth: not enough? Or the colours of the flowers: were there too many? I needed to slow down, focus, and think about what was going on in the painting. I thought back to essential drawing techniques…

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