Jack in Burnt Umber and Titanium White

Portrait painting commission by Matt Harvey, British portrait painter, Devon, UK

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.

Before and after glazing with grisaille underpainting, Portrait of Hideo in oil paint on canvas

Showing before and after the 1st glaze over grisaille underpainting on a custom child portrait by British portrait artist Matt Harvey

This clearly shows the before and after versions of this portrait. Painted in oils the first glaze transforms the grisaille underpainting

Before and after #rosycheeks #babyboy #stars #oilpainting #portraitart #portraitpainting #grisaille #underpainting #glazing