A quote I heard once is applicable to today’s blog. “Failure to plan is a plan to fail.” So many of my painting bloopers, scrub outs, and trashed pieces can be directly traced to poor planning. In my excitement to “get started,” I often fail to take the time to “think through” what I want to see happen. I skip preliminary thumb nail sketches, value sketches, soul searching questions related to purpose or message. Like a kid at an amusement park, I just want to be turned lose without constraints. …not smart at all. As difficult as it is to force myself to slow down and think, I have learned the hard way that taking time beforehand saves untold disappointment on the other end. One painting plan that was shared in the previous blog involved a craft paper study. Feel free to refer back to that blog if needed. Today’s technique involves painting a grayed value study. After deciding on an image, I simplify/arrange the general shapes of the image and designate those shapes into 4 to 5 values using a gray scale.
I paint the image using the grayed values. If values are correct, the painting should “read,” and I should have a painting that can stand alone. In fact, grayed studies such as this are often quite lovely and are called grisailles, referring to a painting executed entirely in shades of gray. The French word Gris literally means grey. In the bottom photo below is the image with selected values applied.
The top photo is the same image with chosen colors in corresponding values. Some artists who typically use oils paint the gray image using acrylic paint which dries quickly . After drying, they paint over the gray version using oil paint, matching the color with gray values. Otherwise, drying time is needed for grayed values painted using oil paint. If you have questions regarding this technique, please use the provided space below blog and I’ll try to clarify.
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