Glazing a portrait from grisaille to colour

Portrait of a young cellist. Grisaille painted in Raw Umber and Titanium White, oil on board

This was a commissioned portrait of a young girl with before and after images to show how I developed the underpainting. I completed the grisaille underpainting first and then added some layers of colour glazes. With this method, rather than mixing the colours on the palette, the colours are ‘mixed’ optically through progressive glazes – very thin layers – of oil paint with a little medium. The are many interpretations of what grisaille actually means. It’s essentially a monochromatic rendering of the subject, where the tonal range is established before colour. Here’s an example of one that Ingres made as a demonstration for his students, from the Metropolitan Museum.

For my painting I used Raw Umber and Titanium White. Raw Umber has a lovely warmth to it, despite being much cooler than its cousin Burnt Umber. In the above example Ingres probably used Ivory Black. I personally use Ivory Black. It is a warm black. He would have also used a lead white like Flake White as there weren’t any other whites available to him. I used to use Flake white but I’m happy with Titanium white now. The Titanium version is more opaque but non toxic. I’ve seen what lead can do to painters over time. Titanium White just needs to be handled with care because if its opacity.

My preferred medium is generally 1 part linseed oil 1 part zest-it paint thinner. Of course mineral spirits is fine, it just doesn’t agree with me personally. Someone asked me the other day how much medium I use when painting in oils. Firstly I should explain that I always ‘oil out’ the painting surface before each painting session. Some people call it ‘oiling in’ by the way, but essentially it just means taking a little of the medium you are using and applying it to the painting surface. You can apply it any way you want, but I prefer to brush it on (any brush will do but I use a short wide sable brush) and when the surface I am working on is covered I rub the medium off very gently so there should be a very thin layer of medium left. I have used M. Graham’s Walnut Alkyd Medium because it has an alkyd resin in it so it will dry in 48 hours. You could use plain linseed oil, it just takes longer to dry. There are quick drying oil paints out there and also siccatives but they are usually made using mineral spirits so not for me! 

You can see me demonstrate this on one of the videos I put on youtube:

Oiling out is something you just get the hang of with practice. Sometimes I have left too much medium on and sometimes it feels like there isn’t enough. I do it between every glaze, so when a glaze is dry to the touch and I am starting the next I just repeat the process. Once all this is done the paint flows on the surface more easily, but I still add some medium to the glaze as I mix it on the pallet, being careful not to add too much otherwise it gets sloppy and ugly. Having said that I can always pull it off an area of the canvas by using a dry brush. It really depends on what kind of result you are after as a painter, everyone is different and is seeking a different quality in the paint they use. I was looking at Andrea Del Sarto the other day and his paintings have a lovely liquid quality which I attribute to him using more thinners. I may be completely wrong but this is the kind of difference and individual sensibility I am talking about. One thing I personally don’t like is my oil paint being too dry, ew!

In the portrait of the girl with a cello I used Raw Umber and Titanium white to do the underpainting, which has a nice subtle warmth to it, unlike Burnt Sienna which is nice but very warm. Looking at this painting again has inspired me to rethink how I produce portrait paintings. I have found myself pulling against the overly finished and polished style of some of my work, so I want to revisit this way of working with a Raw Umber grisaille. I’m looking for something looser and freer from the constrains of technique. Sometimes too much knowledge and technique can get in the way of painting. My goal is to be able to paint with more naivety, as well as with good technique.

Here is another example of a portrait I painted with Raw Umber and Titanium White. I left it and didn’t glaze it because I love the quality of earths. Also the whites in it appear to glitter, something I very rarely achieve, if at all.

Grisaille portrait in Raw Umber, detail

Portrait of a young cellist,70x50cm. The palette was fairly limited after painting the grisaille. Painting the cello was surprisingly done in just a 2 glazes, I guess because glazing is very similar to the polishing or lacquered finish a stringed instrument has.

I was interested in this painting again because I have been struggling with how to complete backgrounds, and finding myself overworking them. I like the simplicity of this background, completed at the underpainting stage. Raw Umber and white has a warm neutrality which works well. I painted this without really worrying too much about it, without technique or overthinking it. I’m presently trying to return to this simpler process, where the focus is on the drawing, the underpainting. This is a technique I use in all my commissioned work. If you are interested in commissioning a portrait in oil you can message me on this link.