grisaille

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Grisaille work in progress

15 February 2010 in David's work, demo/in progress, oil painting by David | 3 comments

Sorry about the very long delay since the last post. That’s for two reasons:
  • I’ve been very busy with work, helping to raise a three year old, and  taking an online graduate course.
  • I’ve been finishing up the large commission I started over the summer, and I have allowed that to kind of block my ability to do other painting. That’s just about done, however, so it’s time to move on.

I had a whole day off today, so I took the opportunity to start a new painting.

Layover

This is “Layover.” It’s 20 × 20”, oil on linen primed with lead white, toned with red earth and raw umber. This is a monochromatic underpainting—a grisaille—which will be glazed over once it’s dry. I used various mixtures of Doak’s flake 1c and Natural Pigments black earth (an iron oxide black).

The key is a little too dark for optimal glazing (since glazes tends to darken what they cover). That means I’ll need to paint into the glaze with white to get the lights up.

I’ll keep you posted on this, and I’ll try not to let such a long time pass before putting up other stuff. Unfortunately, posting will probably be intermittent for the foreseeable future.

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Dead coloring

19 January 2007 in art technique, oil painting by David | 2 comments

“Dead coloring” refers to a painting tradition common in 15th century Glabnorkia, in which the flesh tones of all figures are rendered as if they were dead, as a reminder of the temporal limitations of the human body and the need to focus on matters of the spirit rather than the material world.

Well, no.

Actually, “dead coloring” refers to an initial layer in multi-layered oil painting. This initial layer is used to establish one or more elements of the final form and color of the painting, while leaving other elements to later stages of painting. Normally, the underpainting is allowed to contribute to the final visual effect of the painting. There are different ways to accomplish this. They include:

  • The initial layer is done in shades of gray; this is called a grisaille. With this method, you solve all problems of value, composition, and placement, without having to worry about the complications of color. The next layer is a glaze of full color.<
  • The initial layer is done in a monotone hue. For example, it could be in shades of blue. The underlayer provides an overall tone that affects each part of the painting. In effect, this is similar to painting in one layer while including a “mother color” in each paint mixture.
  • Paint each general area of a painting with a single color, without details or shaded modeling. So, for example, a blue shirt would be painted with a flat blue that reflects the overall average hue, chroma, and value of the whole shirt. The next layer would begin to establish modeling and detail.
  • Paint each area with the visual complement of the final color. A green tree would be underpainted in reds. The idea is that the complementary underpainting provides a visual resonance with the upper layer.
  • The initial layer is painted as a blur, with all edges blended. Throw your eyes out of focus, then paint what you see. Further layers are painted with progressively increased focus.

All of these are essentially variations on the general idea of an initial dead coloring layer. Some of them could, of course, be combined.

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