When I'm painting a landscape, I'll often start by putting down a basic background using the dominant colors from the landscape. It eliminates the white of the canvas and gives a starting point in terms of color and tone.
I've set out what I do and how in my new article: How to Paint a Basic Background for a Landscape.
It's similar to painting on a colored ground except I deliberately don't make the color uniform.
Image © 2012 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.


Comments
Great ‘little’ lesson! I Was thinking similarly about this appraoch to starting a painitng recentley and i am much more confident now.