underpaintings:colors

Two oil underpaintings. The underpainting is the set-up, it decides the most important things-value and feeling. A couple of things I know:
1. hard edges aren't your friend.
2. make this small statement have a full understanding of the value.
In these two I am playing with the color variable. This one is made in a kind of payne's gray -like color. I mixed ultramarine blue, cad red light and cad yellow to make the "perfect" gray-not warm not cold. I am not quite sure if there is a perfect gray. This underpainting is for an early morning painting...cool light. I think I will add a warm glow layer over it when it dries.

This one is painted in Shale, a color made by Vasari. It's a little warmer than my mix, nice for landscape. Tomorrow I will post a third, one made in "glow colors."