How To Choose A Colored Background To Paint An Oil Painting

There are many painters who like to customize oil paintings with a white background, because it will bring a bright feeling to the whole picture, especially Impressionist oil painters like this. However, for painters, using a white background also has a bad side, because it is not good to judge the brightness of the pigment on a white background, which can easily lead to the picture being too bright, and there is a strong reflection on a white background outdoors, and it is difficult for painters to grasp the tone of the entire painting.
As a painter, it is better to control the tone of the painting with a colored base. The color with a colored base should be close to the final tone of the picture, so that when you start painting, it is easy to judge the hue and brightness of the color. A tinted background in midtones is best for painting, and you can easily depict bright or dark parts.
How to choose a colored background to paint
Whether it is an oil canvas or an oil painting board, the production of a colored base is very simple, as long as the oil paint mixed with mineral alcohol is thinly brushed onto a white background, acrylic paint can also be used to make a colored base after diluted with water. The base color can be any color, but the most commonly used are brown, ochre, blue-gray, green and even red in gray tones. The choice of background color is very important, because as the background color of the picture, it will contrast with the color of the subject on the screen, and even affect the final effect of the picture.
Some painters like to use the base color to complement the main color of the picture or to create contrast, for example, warm reddish brown can set off the green of the leaves, and ochre color can enhance the blue seascape. Other painters prefer a base color that harmonizes with the subject of the picture, such as blue-gray with seascape, or brown with portraits. Many painters always paint his figures on a yellow-brown background, so that the places that are not painted will retain the middle tone. Regardless of whether the background color is contrasting or harmonizing with the picture, painters usually let the base color be revealed in this way. Due to the repetition of small blocks of the same color, it helps a lot to unify the picture.