matt harvey art
Portrait paintings, art demonstrations, figurative painting, landscapes
Jack in Burnt Umber and Titanium White
Jack, oil on canvas. Glazes over a burnt umber underpainting
When I began investigating Old Master techniques I had some brilliant instruction from James Scrase, a portrait painter who was trained by Pietro Annigoni (see his fantastic self portrait). He learned every traditional painting skill from Annigoni, including fresco painting, and he taught me to use Burnt Umber as a wash to draw the portrait first, and then build up layers of slightly opaque ‘half-pastes’ using colour and a little white. Also I was taught to add white with small amounts of blue and then glaze over it with flesh tones. This was one of my first attempts, of my cousin Jack. Of late I have been focussing on a strict grisaille underpainting but looking at this I think I prefer the slightly more fluid quality burnt umber can achieve with thinner washes.
matt harvey art 
Incredible technique Matt…have daddbled with Oils but with no formal training I struggle and admire those who have mastered the technique…! Great work…I prefer the Grisaille… 🙂 🙂
Thanks Mark, people always say they like the grisaille best!