Special Painting Lessons

Painting a Scene in the GrisailleTechnique

Ellen Wilson-Pruitt

8515 St. Rd. 142

Martinsville, IN  46151

765-528-2513

ewilsonpruitt@yahoo.com

            I first learned this approach to painting when I studied with Barbara Bougher.  The technique works very well when painting a piece that you wish the end result to look antique.  Grisaille is a French term for the process of painting in a monochrome of a brown, grey or neutral.  The painting can be left as a monochrome or subsequent glazes of color over the underpainting for the full color effect.  Mariela Villasmil-Kaminski also uses this technique as one that is very effective for painting miniatures.  Grisaille was used my some of the old master oil painters to achieve some of those rich paintings.  It can be used for any subject:  landscapes, still lifes even portraits.  Mariela Villasmil-Kaminski uses this technique as one that is very effective in painting miniatures. 

            In the oil painting world the painting is first executed in a neutral study monochrome of values.   After the under painting is dry the artist will thin his oil colors with turpentine for example and then “glaze” over the under painting with translucent color very much like our china painting process.  The value under the color gives the painting the depth and contrast.  This particular study is from a painting by the French artist Julien Dupre’.  He is known for his landscapes incorporating peasantry caring for animals and doing farm chores. 

            We are also going to use the dry dusting technique to secure our tracing for subsequent firings.  Trace your design using “waxy” graphite.  That’s right the graphite that most teachers ask you not to use because it has so much residue.  That is precisely the reason why it serves our purpose for dry dusting.  In tracing your design you will need to trace the figures as well as any structures (buildings, fences etc.).  You may also trace a horizon line and the tree trunk if you wish.  Do not do any tracing of any clouds in the sky.  These and any tree foliage can be done freehand.  After tracing use dry china paint in a very light gray or ivory.  With a large mop brush dust the dry paint over your tracing lines.  Shake all dry paint out of the mop and dust any excess paint from the non-tracing areas.  Fire the piece to 017.

            Sand the piece after firing and rub non-waxy graphite over the design.  The fired paint in the dry dusting lines will grab the graphite and hold your tracing.  You are now free to paint at your own speed.   By that I mean you do not have to secure all of the design in the first fire if you do not wish.  You simply rub graphite over the piece again and the unpainted area of design will return.  You now will begin your monochrome under painting.  Choose a color that is rather neutral.  You may use a violet of iron (if it is not too red), purple brown, grape shadow or even a mud color.  I stay more with a grayer color than leaning toward a rich brown.  Remember the value of this color will be showing through your over painting colors so you do not want a color that may conflict with your over color.   This study includes a photo of the first fire under painting.  If you have difficulty in translating value in color to monochromatic values you may wish to make a black and white copy of your picture to help you.   Be sure to get your values secured.  You may even wish to do a second fire on the under painting if you feel that you lack definition between your darkest and medium values.  Remember to keep your lightest, brightest highlights as white china.  You can always add more color but once it is fired in you can’t get that lightest value back.  I only under paint the figures and structures.  I do not do any under painting to the landscape scenery.

            After the under painting the next fire will with begin color for the figures, animals and structures.  Do not paint any scenery in this fire.  Wash your colors over the under painting.    You may use reflected light for the skin areas of the woman (if you don’t mix your own flesh tones).  Remember to wipe back highlights in your color where needed for your lightest values.  You will see a photo of this first color fire included in this study.  You may wish to use a stipple brush on some of the animals to give the faint hint of fur texture.  Fire 017.

If you have any tracing of the landscape you may rub the graphite over the dry dusting and your design will appear.            For the next fire begin by painting red resist on all subjects that were painted in the previous fire.   You will be painting the landscape and this will allow you to easily wash over the subjects.   After the resist is dry begin by painting the sky area.  If you notice the sky is more than just blue.  There are areas of pink, cream and faint yellow.  Gently graduate the sky colors into each other but do not over work them or you will end up with all one color of sky.   You want definite areas of colors.   Use a kneaded eraser and press it into the sky in various shapes to lift off cloud areas.  You may use the wipe out tool but I find the wipe out gives you too many angular areas.  I prefer the eraser.  After you have your clouds you may hit the underside of the clouds with some gray lavender color.  As you know clouds have a darker underside.  Continue down the painting with the horizon and hill line.  Remember that this area of the landscape is in the far distance so there are no hard distinct lines to the hills and tree line.  You may also use the stipple brush to soften this area. 

Now it is time to paint the grass and foreground area using various patches of greens, golds, browns, even rubies.  A pasture is not all one color of green.  Pull out a few points of grass texture with a wipe out tool.

If you have trees in your painting paint in tree trunks and branches. You may elect to paint in the tree foliage in this fire (wet on wet) or you may prefer to fire the piece and do it the next fire.  Remove all resist and tidy up if you have any void areas between your landscape and the figures.  You don’t want any ghost lines surrounding the figures.  If you wish to intensify any color on the figures you may do so this fire or wait until the final fire.  Fire 017

This is what I call the “punch” fire.  The final fire where you put any extra color, contrast and texture to any areas where needed.  I also like to sometimes do a slight bit of pen work in some areas to pop out some detail.  This is entirely up to you.  I hope you find this technique as rewarding as I do in producing a period looking piece.  Many thanks again to Barbara Bougher for showing me this procedure.  I have used it several times and have always been satisfied with the results