Grisaille made with verdaccio

Tito Champena · 02-09-2003, 12:42 AM

I'm finally able to send the photo of the grisaille I did of a portrait I'm working on. I used verdaccio (mixture of flake white, mars black and cromium green oxide).

If the grisaille passes the test, I will go on the next stage of applying transparent glazes of color in the dark areas and opaque color in the light. Since I'm doing this for the first time, I'll need all the advice I can get. Thank you.

Tito Champena · 02-09-2003, 05:44 PM

My first grisaille:

Tito Champena · 02-09-2003, 06:10 PM

In the first shot I placed the painting at little angle to avoid some reflexions and left a little cloth to show at the bottom, as a reminder that it was a non-professional photo.
This is another shot:

Michele Rushworth · 02-09-2003, 06:17 PM

You might want to post this under Critiques if you'd like feedback on it.

My first thought is that the catchlights are too intense when you consider the lighting that is on the rest of his face. In fact, with this top lighting there probably wouldn't be catch lights at all. These big, very white catch lights give him an overly intense look.

Very nice otherwise, though.

Tito Champena · 02-09-2003, 06:39 PM

The light at the top of the head came from a narrow, bright reflector and my intention was to emphasize the shadows in his eyes. Of course, nothing is written in stone when refering to a painting in progress. That is why I want the advice now before I start applying the color. I did not place the photo in the Critiques section because it's an unfinished work.

Michele Rushworth · 02-09-2003, 06:59 PM

Many of the paintings in the critiques section are works in progress.

Tito Champena · 02-09-2003, 08:30 PM

Thank you Michele, I just placed the grisaille in the Critiques section. The reason for having placed first the grisaille in the Techniques section, is because I'm trying to learn to paint by using a gray underpainting.

Tom Wise · 03-07-2003, 05:30 AM

Hi Tito

Looks like an excellent start to me. Robbie Wraith showed me a painting that he had in progress where he was using an underpainting. He said that he was always suprised by how light he needed to keep the darks/shadows of the underpainting.

I have just put a thin white wash over a too dark underpainting before the final over painting in order to let me have more luminosity in the shadows. A British old-master forger used to say this was a regular technique, I think he even had an italian name for it that escapes me. Just a thought - hope it may be helpful.

Tito Champena · 03-07-2003, 09:17 AM

Thank you for your advice, Tom.

I know that in order to use the galazing technique, the values of the grisaille have to be light enough to make room for the darkening that will come with the glazes. I just did not know how to paint the values light enough and still have a good balance of the light and the shadows. I suppose this can be learned with practice. I already started applying color to the dark grisaille and I'll do my best to try to keep the values well balanced, of course my intention from the beginning was to paint it in a low key to give drama to the subject.

Applying a white wash to a dark grisaille sounds like a good idea; however, I'm afraid that the wash might not look even. If I use Zinc White, which is semi-transparent, it may crack later on; if I use a more opaque white it may obliterate the underpainting. I will experiment with it anyway with other paintings. Thanks again.

Karin Wells · 03-08-2003, 11:56 PM

This is going to be a wonderful portrait!

Quote:

I just did not know how to paint the values light enough and still have a good balance of the light and the shadows. I suppose this can be learned with practice.

Practice really is your best teacher. You might find that your eyesockets are a bit dark even though they seem "balanced" now, they won't be later. Underpainting tends to be more about accurate halftones than the final balance between light and dark.

In your underpainting, the darks are not supposed to be as dark as the final darks and your lights are not supposed to be as light as the final lights.

That is, when the underpainting (grisaille) is all done, you will add more paint to your upper layers as you get into color. That is, thin warm darks added to your shadows will make them even darker. And the build up of thick warm light and the final cool highlights will appear to make your light in the underpainting areas even lighter. The addition of these final layers will upset the "balance" that you worked so hard for and will require extra time and effort to correct.

Caution: A scumble of zinc white will cool your painting more than it will lighten it. Oftentimes this can makes your dark areas cold and dead.

You can certainly work with what you have and it is a beautiful painting, but I would like to see the range of values in your underpainting be much more narrow as in the example below.

I added a square of black and a square of white for comparison so that you can clearly see how narrow the range is and that there is plenty of room here to build light....and plenty of room to deepen shadow.

A general way to describe underpainting is to say that you begin in the middle and work in two opposite directions...toward light and toward shadow.