Grisaille Paintings

Grisaille is a French term for painting all in a monochromatic color such as shades of gray or brown. Many times grisaille paintings were used as sort of an underpainting for glazes of paint to go over.

My painting class completed a grisaille painting for their first project in my class. Students were able to choose their own subject matter and completed a black and white grisaille painting. Students were encouraged to practice glazing over areas of their painting with matte medium and colored acrylic paint. A lot of students ended up liking their paintings black and white and chose to keep them this way!

The whole point of this lesson was to teach students how to look for values when painting or drawing a subject. It does not matter what colors you use as long as your values are correct!

If you get a chance try to paint a grisaille painting. Choose your subject matter and then paint using only black, white and all of the different values you can make with these two colors. When your painting is completed try glazing medium ( i prefer matte medium) and a color on top of your grisaille. Notice how your grisaille changes your color immediately! If you do this send me a link so I can see your work!