EXPERIMENTING WITH BURNT UMBER GESSO GROUND

I have often painted oil and acrylics on black gesso grounds. Particularly on small pieces I enjoy working out from "the darkness". Almost feels like sculpting.

Was about to order more black gesso when Opus Framing and Art Supplies (Vancouver) put Liquatex Burnt Umber Gesso on a greatly reduced price. So I thought I would give it a try and would use it on enough starts to really get the feel for it.  All are acrylics, mostly 11x14 on linen or cotton canvas.

Burnt Umber ground - drawing with acrylic markers

Filling large value shapes

Carving negative spaces

Almost finished 24x24

Sketch and early shapes

Almost finished 11x14 - details needed on figures

I really liked working on the warmer dark ground - as compared to the black. Each piece has a greater or lesser amount showing through and the warmth of the umber seems preferable to the cool black. 

Enough small starts of different colour themes to feel comfortable working on this warm dark ground 

So now I want to try working with it on larger pieces.