Understanding how to see and organize values well is the first step on the journey to becoming a proficient painter. Grisaille painting is traditionally an important step in this process, in part due to the minimal amount of chromatic information involved.
In this lesson we will isolate and help to develop a particular set of skills for the student, specifically- value assessment and paint handling. From a more expressive perspective, grisaille painting also contains its own aesthetic language that has been employed by some of the greatest painters in western art history. We will go over just a few of them in the 1st lesson. Learning this technique will help you develop the foundational skills necessary to fully understand how to design a portrait in oil paint. In the 1st lesson of this series I cover how you can block in a portrait painting and keep your painting and palette organized.
Assignment
Stage 1: After watching the introduction and explanation of the materials and concepts we will use in this stage you will be ready to choose an image from the model pack provided with this tutorial. I would strongly recommend that if you have participated in the drawing tutorial associated with this course that you transfer your drawing onto the canvas you intend to work on (as described in this lesson). Once you have done that your priorities will be:
- Laying out your palette in an orderly fashion and making a couple of pre-mixtures that will make your initial blocking easier.
- Establishing a simplified block in that takes the whole composition into account. Being complete in each stage is critical to the success of the project.
- Blocking in with care and attention to the “big form” of the head. Volume and form start at the beginning of the painting. Make sure that your blocking isn’t too flat or abstract.