Toning a canvas

[Daniel Bourbonnais]

Is it typical for PleinAir painters to tone the canvas in advance?

If the toned canvas has subtle variations in tone would it be considered an under painting.

[Gerard Toonstra]

Yes, I see them tone it in the studio. Look for Andrew Tischler on Youtube, who has plenty of plein air sessions on his channel and you’ll see he tones the canvas with burnt sienna reduced with mineral spirits prior to going out into the field.

An underpainting is more a reflection of what you see in front of you, even if there are variations in there I wouldn’t call it an underpainting. But variations in the toned canvas are totally ok.

[Gerard Toonstra]

A toned canvas can be considered an underpainting though if you start it with a technique called “tachism”, by creating random variations (stains) on the canvas, that you interpret and then develop from there. More information regarding that technique is here: http://leonardoswall.com/Chapter2.php .

 

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