I’ve shared before how I don’t know how to paint for real. Meaning, I’ve never taken classes outside of arts in grade school where we used watercolors (BLEH). When it comes to some artistic endeavors, I’m afraid to learn the basics because I know that the part of me that loves rules will also cling to them and be afraid to break them (even though they say that the time to break rules is after learning them). Because of that, this is largely NOT a substack about painting education as much as just a place to process my experiences and showcase my pieces.

Okay, so now I want to talk about underpainting!

I was talking to one of my coworkers about our weeks. I’d shared how I’d finished a piece, Michael’s sales, and how I needed to buy another tube of magenta acrylic paint. She then said something like, “You should do a layer of underpaint.” And my mind exploded.

Because no, I’m not currently interested in taking a class on painting. But DO I LOVE hearing others talk about things that interest them. And I am a sucker for learning even random facts from anyone who is excited to share. So I asked her to explain, then Googled it just to be sure I understood how to do it correctly.

Pictured here: magenta-painted canvas.

I also recommend you look it up or ask someone, but this is just taking a thin layer of paint. Then after it dries, paint whatever overtop. The point is that the bottom layer color will pop through. I fear I did not make the magenta underneath today’s canvas thin enough. And I’m typing this before I go to paint on top, so you will see below how I did.

Pictured here: today’s canvas, surrender.

The next few weeks I’m basing each painting on a song from my ep These Songs, out now. You can find it here, or today’s musical inspiration, This song is about a shapeshifter, in playlists on YouTube Music or Spotify.

On Fridays I’ll share a bit more about the songs themselves, which you can read about for $5 a month. Thank you for being here. I hope you have a great day.

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