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Julia Lundman
Professional artist. I write about
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undman Flemish Oil Painting with Sadie J.
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Valeri/ Closed Grisaille
Julia Lundman Nov 1, 2015 · 10 min read

In my previous post I finished the first under painting layer, the open
grisaille, as part of my instruction at Sadie J. Valeri’s Advanced Open
Studio. After the open grisaille dried, I moved on to the closed grisaille.

When I first learned about the Flemish method’s multi-step process, I did
not understand the reasoning behind making a neutral tone underpainting,
thinking it laborious, especially coming from an alla prima direct painting
background where painting is quick and results immediate. However, after
going through the steps, doing a lot of reading and research, talking with
Sadie, visiting museums, seeing Sadie’s paintings and other classical realist
paintings, I have come to realize my painting education has been
incomplete. The closed grisaille has been pivotal in not only understanding
value ranges and creating luminous color, but also in opening my mind to
the incredible painting processes that existed before Impressionism.

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Closed Grisaille
The purpose of creating an under painting is to bring the values, (the black
and white tonal range) of the subject closer to reality. Sadie described it to
me as becoming 50% closer to reality with each successive layer that we
work on. In the first layer, the open grisaille, we broke down the shadow vs.
light areas. In the second layer we make a full value opaque tonal painting,
which acts to prepare for the color layers and, in addition, aides in creating
luminosity and softness in the color stage. From Adrian Gottlieb’s online
glossary: “Underpainting: Also called dead coloring, under painting was
once one of the most commonly used techniques in oil painting but fell into
almost total disuse among contemporary painters.

From the beginnings of oil painting, under painting has been an essential
stepping stone which permits the painter to rapidly define composition,
lighting and the atmosphere of his or her work. Under painting is the
painter’s guide through an often long and laborious process that allows the
painter to develop a clear vision of the overall sense of the painting
although it is usually entirely covered by successive paint layers.

[Generally] under painting consists of painting a monochrome version of

the final painting. Under painting is part of a step by step method that was
common practice among European painters and is still taught at ateliers
and academies teaching historic techniques and methods today.”

Richard Frederick Lack: “A mixture of Flake White, Ivory Black or Mars Black
and the addition of a small amount of Raw Umber for warmth are all the
pigments necessary for a grisaille study.” ***note: in Sadie’s studio study
we are using titanium white, burnt umber, and ultramarine blue.

There is a pre-order of Jon deMartin’s dvd on closed grisaille painting,

which promises to be be an excellent resource. Check out the preview
HERE. (available for purchase on July 3rd, 2012 — I think I will order this
one!)

************************************

Historical
During the 12th through the 13th centuries and possibly earlier, grisaille
painting was used in stained glass mainly as a decorative addition to the
colored glass. Some grisaille painting was also used in narrative panels in
churches throughout Northern countries such as France, England, the
Netherlands.

Two Grisaille Panels, 1320–1324 French; Paris, from the Chapel of Saint-
Louis, north aisle, royal abbey of Saint-Denis Pot-metal and white glass,
silver stain.

At this time, grisaille was also used in the southern countries of Europe in
plaster fresco painting to imitate bas relief sculpting in everything from
churches to civic buildings, particularly in Italy.

“Battesimo Della Gente” by Andrea del Sarto; grisaille fresco, Florence

The 15th century Flemish oil painting method incorporated grisaille, as

discussed in the previous post by Jan van Eyck, also a period sometimes
referred to as “Early Netherlandish Painting”. Later, grisaille was used by
many of the 19th century French academic painters, like Ingres, as in the
example below, who were intrigued by Flemish painting methods.

Odalisque in Grisaille, ca. 1824–34 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

(French, 1780–1867)

Today, many modern Realist artists also make use of the grisaille. It can be
beautiful in and of itself; some artists use a combination of grisaille and
glazing. For study purposes it is a useful method for training the eye to see
value ranges, and is often taught for cast painting and figure painting in a
classical ateliers. Check out this link for a beautiful Colleen Barry partially
painted closed grisaille with the open grisaille exposed underneath, HERE.

***********************************

Method
This stage continues to make use of underpainting medium as a way to
make the paint flow if it is not fluid enough. However, I found that I rarely
used it, probably only a few times at the start, and not very much. In my last
post I neglected to mention the recipe of the underpainting medium. Here it
is:

Recipe: 2 parts linseed, 1 part odorless turp

***note: use fine sharpie to mark parts on side of glass, mark top of jar
“underpainting medium”. I am using ball canning jars.

Use either Turpenoid or Gamesol brand Odorless Mineral Spirits. There are
many linseed oils available.

************************************

Value String
The purpose of mixing up a value string is so that you don’t have to mix up
values on the fly while working. It saves a lot of time to premix seven values
moving from pure white to black, as you can see in the photo below. Sadie
instructs us to use seven values, which I find to be more than enough to
describe the tonal range of any given subject.

When I first mixed up my value string, I made the values much too cool,
using far too much ultramarine blue in the mix. Sadie told me that the
value string should lean more towards burnt umber rather than ult blue.
Apparently when the under painting is too cool it will create an unattractive
pasty effect that is difficult to deal with in the color stage. Also, in a cool
North light situation, the light areas will always be cool while the shadows
are warm; the warm tinted underpainting ensures the shadows will always
have “life” and warmth.

Also notice how the white paint is spread out in a thin strip. This is so that I
can get clean pure white when I need it. Below is what the color looks like
after I’ve been painting awhile. You can see how warm the neutral grays
are.

************************************

Technique
***note: There is an unfortunate glare on some of my photos due to very strong
light in the studio. Hopefully you can get a general sense of the scene. I will try
to improve my photos for the following posts. I didn’t really know where to
begin, so I started on the easiest, the very dark, almost black background
against the lighter pinecone, which is the focal point of my painting. The
two sticks that move into the dark area are covered with lichen and heavily
textured. Sadie instructed me right away to paint these almost blurry, soft
and to avoid all detail, focusing only on the general effect of the value on
each area against the black background.

In my last post I used the underpainting medium more often, dipping the
edge of the brush into the medium and then sopping up the excess with a
paper towel. In this stage, it is not necessary to do that since the paint will
be opaque. The point is to get the paint to flow off the brush and on to the
panel, but not have it so fluid that it is transparent and drippy. Most of the
time I did not need more than a tiny bit on my brush. Once that bit was
mixed into my paint as I worked, the paint seemed to be fluid enough to
continue to work for quite awhile.

It took me awhile to get used to painting this way. I wanted to get into every
little value shift and fully describe everything. Sadie pushed me to move on
quickly. In fact, Sadie instructed me to make all of the painting soft with no
sharp edges anywhere in the painting, at all, setting up the painting for
selective focus in later color layers.

I wasn’t able to finish very much of the grisaille that first day and had to
stop. Sadie instructed me to avoid stopping for the day on a contour,
explaining that paint will form a hard edge when it dries, making it difficult
to soften in the next session and in later layers.

Unfortunately, that is exactly where I stopped for the day. As a

consequence, I will have some difficulty in making those edges soft. This is
what practice is for, though!

************************************

Next Session
I began the next session by applying a very thin coat of linseed oil on the
open grisaille, taking care to not apply too much as the the oil will slowly
drip. To make sure I did not apply too much, I wiped off the coat of oil with
a blue “shop cloth”, which made the layer extremely thin. The highlights on
the glass piece are in reality MUCH smaller than they are depicted here.
Sadie instructed me to make a large “glow” around the highlights, blurring
out the edges so that in later stages I can work up to making the highlight
soft and luminous, working up to the point of light rather than dotting on
opaque paint.

It is difficult to leave the highlights so large knowing they are not like that
in reality. They jump off the panel every time I look at this underpainting,
forcing me to be patient for the subsequent layers.

After painting the glass and the pinecones, I began working on the heavily
textured tree slice that I am using as a base. Sadie told me that instead of
worrying about all the texture, to just paint the large value shifts from one
end to the other, capturing the effect of light and keeping the edges soft.

In this photo below you can see how small the highlights are on the glass
pedestal. Also note how transparent the shadows are in the painting.

Sadie instructed me to paint the left side of the tree trunk base lighter than
the value actually is. I painted the entire left side around a value 2 or 3 in
order to get a sense of light in the painting. Also, instead of painting the
shadow areas opaquely, they are painted thinner with less paint. I
concentrated on opaque lights rather than building up a lot of paint in the
shadows.

Below is finished closed grisaille underpainting. Because I worked on the

grisaille more than one day, my warm-grays do not match precisely, even
though I tried to be accurate when I mixed up my value strings. Since the
underpainting will be completely covered, this will not matter, as long as
the passages lean toward the warm rather than cool.

I had about a week in between sessions. The painting was quite dry by the
time I began the color. If painting at home continuously, make sure the
grisaille is completely dry, either one or two days, depending on the
humidity. Do not start the color layer if the grisaille is not dry.

Originally published at julialundmanmidlock.blogspot.com on June 28, 2012.

Painting Art Oil Painting

More from Julia Lundman Follow

Professional artist. I write about my artistic experiences. Find me on Patreon for

more in depth tutorials and writing. https://www.patreon.com/julialundman

Nov 1, 2015

Flemish Still Life Oil Painting with Sadie J.

Valeri/Open Grisaille

Finished open grisaille, the first stage of painting in the traditional Flemish method of oil painting.

Continuing on from my last few posts, after I transferred the drawing and
varnished it, I began on the open grisaille, the initial application of paint
on a white panel, which I documented in detail below as a part of Sadie J.
Valeri’s Advanced Open Studio. Before I was introduced to a classical
realism, I was completely unaware of the term “grisaille”. My fantastic oil
painting teacher at the at the American Academy of Art, Ted Smuskeivich,
introduced us to an under painting technique which uses a warm earth
color painted loosely connecting all the shadow areas in one continuous…

Read more · 7 min read

Nov 1, 2015

Flemish Oil Painting with Sadie J.

Valeri/Drawing

Finished block in for the final painting

Sadie J. Valeri teaches two methods of drawing, construction and straight

line block in. While drawing, I am also taking into consideration concepts of
organic structure, which she also teaches (more on this in the second post).
The straight line block in method is new to me regarding still life painting,
but after having tried it a few times, I have found it a very accurate and
useful way of translating what I see on to the 2D surface of the paper. We
draw on heavy grade vellum taped to a few sheets of paper and foam core.
All of…

Read more · 6 min read

Oct 21, 2015

Flemish Oil Painting with Sadie J.

Valeri/Setting up the still life

My still life set up and drawing.

For the past several Sundays, I have been working on a painting during
Sadie J Valeri’s advanced still life painting course. I have taken Sadie’s
introductory Flemish method oil painting course in the past, which I wrote
about HERE. This time, I was interested in moving forward with a subject of
my own choosing and practicing the Classical Realism techniques I learned
in the first course. The Advanced Open Studio takes place all day on several
consecutive Sundays. I kept notes of each step in the process.

*****************************************************************
**

Notes
When painting still life subjects in the past, I have simply set…

Read more · 6 min read

Published in The Art Spirit · Oct 20, 2015

Notes on Drawing Methods

An examble of the sight size drawing method.

From about 2010- 1014, I studied historic painting methods at Sadie J.

Valeri’s 19th century French style Atelier. Given that Sadie’s course covers
construction and straight line block in, I wanted to spend this entry notating
other various drawing methods to make sure I have a clear understanding of
each. This is not a part of the course study, rather a culmination of my own
research. I am sure there are more systems of drawing out there; these are
the primary representational methods and theories that seem the most
popular. …

Read more in The Art Spirit · 14 min read

Oct 20, 2015

Bowie the Greyhound, Dog Sculpture

Study

The finished sculpture, a little inaccurate but finished!

On Thursday evenings, I attend a sculpture workshop with some friends.

Usually we hire a model for figurative work. This time, however, we thought
we’d tackle something different, the greyhound of one of our favorite models.

Read more · 5 min read

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