Grisaille Underpainting of Sarge

There are many methods and techniques that I use to paint a painting. Here is a quickie lesson in an Old Master technique method I sometimes use called Grisaille (or underpainting).

This is a completed underpainting (but not a finished painting) of my pooch, "John Singer Sargent, aka Sarge." 

I chose this subject as a demo because it shows how to handle a full range of value from black (the lab) to white (his blanket). The "darks" are not very dark and the "lights" are not very light in an underpainting.

Because Sarge refuses to sit for hours and hours, I used my camera and a single source of light to capture him in a typical pose.

I begin by drawing the dog on a toned canvas. I added the ball to make the composition more interesting.

I took the figure of the dog and divided it into light and shadow. I use very thick paint in my underpaintings - no canvas will show through.

Still using thick paint, I begin to blend the areas where light and shadow meet. The form is determined by how light and shadow meet - from very quickly and sharply to slowly and softly.

In an underpainting, when I define black and white first, all the other values easily fall into place.

When the underpainting is completely dry I will begin to glaze in transparent color and build light with thick opaque paint. This is what gives my work that "Old Master Look." I do not use this technique in painting a landscape.

This is a palette of my actual underpainting paint compared to the color white. They are various mixtures of raw umber plus titanium white. 

As you can see I only used 5 values. The deep shadows are not that dark and the highlights are not that light. 

The extremes of value come in the top layers of color. The underpainting layer often reminds me of an old sepia photograph.