Author: Tony O'Regan

This is an in-class demo I did recently at The Shadbolt Center (kinda quick and dirty) but shows an interesting method for producing an image. This method may also be of interest to the SSWR group at Semiahmoo, where we are using it for Painting the Coast. First, I did a blue-gray under-painting (slightly grayed down blue to avoid having to deal with intense blues – the blues will also make the toned areas recede, as in shadows, windows, etc. The grisaille method can also be done with warms such as burnt umber or even greens – experiment!). I re-did it because I didn’t photograph it the first time, in which I also masked the figures, intending to save some whites for clothing without using white opaque..  Secondly I over-painted the grisaille with actual hues. Notice that the blue does not show in the final. This is because I used slightly orange-warm washes for the buildings, which cancels out the blue as complementary color. The advantage of this is that it lets you work out the composition and values before committing to color and detail too early. I did this as a demo, but I think the method (which is actually very old and certainly not mine, originally – check out grisaille on Wiki) can be interesting and effective. In the modern era we tend do go directly to full color, but when color was very expensive and precious, it was common to do a grisaille underpainting.

.