Grisaille Techniques
of Painting
The grisaille (pronounced griz-eye) technique is a method of painting in shades of gray-what are known as monochrome shades. Monochrome refers to either the use of a single color or a grayscale range of shades. These shades are created by mixing black and white pigments to varying degrees. Often, grisaille painting is used either as a practice technique for beginning artists or as an underpainting method which provides the foundation over which color glazes are layered.
The Foundation
If you are a beginning painter, it can help to have a photograph to work from. Keep this next to your painting, and study it periodically for the range of tonal shades, paying close attention to where the lights, darks, and midtones fall. Try working from a color painting so that you can see how the highlights and shadows translate to a monochromatic range; this can help develop your "eye" over time.
The foundation of your painting will begin with the preparation of your canvas. Apply at least three layers of gesso on a canvas stretched over a wooden frame, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next. When you are ready to paint, have a tube of black and a tube of white paint at your disposal-you may choose to use either acrylic or oils. For beginners, acrylics are recommended as they tend to be less expensive and simpler to work with. Acrylics dry much faster-usually within hours.
Oil paints dry faster and have a longer workable time. You can add paint mediums to oil paints (such as linseed oil, liquin, or gloss varnish) to extend the drying time and increase gloss or transparency. Normally you would need to let each layer (called a glaze if thinned with medium to make transparent) dry separately before adding the next over the top. Painting in one session, while the painting is wet, is called alla prima (Italian, meaning "all at once").
Preparation
Start by looking at your sample picture. Try to gauge how many basic tones are present from light to dark, and mix your paints accordingly. Artists usually look for five shading elements: highlights, reflected light, middle values, core shadows, and cast shadows. Ideally, you will be working with a palette, which will hold an entire range of shades. Working with a selection of brushes varying in thickness, bristle flexibility, and brush shape will prove beneficial. You may choose to include a preliminary sketch in pencil on the canvas to serve as a guide.
Painting
If you make your painting relatively light, without adding too many darker values to the composition, you will be able to go over the painting with transparent color glazes after it is dry. Following the shading elements in your sample image, you may choose to add lighter and darker tones after painting an initial layer. If you added liquin or another medium, allow the grisaille layers to dry completely before adding a transparent color glaze. For an example of color glazes over grisaille, see the painting completed by surf artist Tony Spineto for a tutorial on grisaille underpainting.
