Cardrona Valley Painting – Under-painting
I have completely obscured the whiteness of the canvas with an under-painting, using a thin coating of paint.  Many of the original pencil lines can still be seen.
(Oil on canvas board)

Copyright © 2010 Alan Miles, Auckland, New Zealand.

I like to cover the entire surface of the white canvas with an under-painting.  This ensures that the finished product has no white "peeking out" where it shouldn't be, and also sets the overall tone for the painting.  I deliberately make my under-paintings largely mid-toned, using colours that I expect to use in the final coats.  I use plenty of medium (thinning agents) and work reasonably quickly, deliberately merging colours.  This produces a relatively "muddy" result, but the next layer is what livens it up, with extremes of both colour and contrast to produce a range of tones and textures that will convey not just a picture-like quality, but also some sort of "feeling".