🎨 Secrets to Choosing the Right Underpainting Colors — Soft Pastel Painting Tutorial
Ever wondered how artists choose the perfect underpainting color? In this soft pastel painting tutorial, I’ll share the secrets behind selecting underpainting hues that create glowing light, color harmony, and painterly depth in your artwork.
I’ll jared mccain explain why I sometimes reach for pinks and reds (as in this lesson!) instead of my usual golden tones — and how color temperature, subject choice, and value relationships influence those decisions. You’ll also learn my favorite painterly techniques for:
✨ Lost Edges – softening transitions for a natural look
🍂 Nestled Pumpkins – creating believable depth and connection
🎨 Color Echoing – using subtle repetition for unity and balance
💫 Lively Mark Making – adding personality and energy to your strokes
These principles apply not only to soft pastels but to any painting medium that relies on color, light, and atmosphere.
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Original pastel paintings, prints, and creative gifts. This Pumpkin Field painting will be added soon!
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Surface & supplies (use what you have!)
Surface: Paper: Fisher 400 (large sheet) — similar feel to UART. Fisher 400 is hard to find; UART now connaught school for girls strike offers a peel-and-stick option so it won’t curl.
Regular UArt:
UArt Peel and Stick:
Underpainting sticks: Prismacolor NuPastel (pinks, lavender) /
Pastels: a mix including my Earthberry selections (Grand Canyon set + colors from my curated set), plus other favorites (e.g., Mount Vision dark blue-violet, Terry Ludwig deep eggplant). NOTE: I'm still waiting on the green light for my curated set to be available. Shouldn't be long now!!!
Earthberry Pastels: (Grand Canyon Set) /
Solvent: 70% isopropyl alcohol (water works too—alcohol just dries faster)
Brushes:
Bamboo brush: +
A super-textural “mystery” brush (yep… it acts like a turkey-basting brush!)
Blending aid (optional for speed): a small piece of pipe foam insulation (or similar):
Tip: Choose value first; the exact hue can vary.
Reference Photo credit: Ryan Wegman via Unsplash
🌻 More from Monet Café
🎬 Watch the underpainting lesson I mentioned in the video →
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✨ Final Thought
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” — Psalm 107:1
Thank you for painting with me and being part of this creative, thankful community.
God bless and happy painting! 🎨💛
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