For anyone interested in how fine art is created, here is one approach to creating an under-painting, which is a less highly coloured and less detailed version of the finished painting. Upper layers are then added, either with transparent coloured paint or/and with opaque coloured paint. It is a way for the artist to build a painting retaining the details of a detailed drawing as long as possible and thus render the detail more easily, it is called ‘Grisaille’, literally painting in greys.
There are inevitably variations and it has been at various times in art history a finished painting technique, not just an under-painting.
Variations on grisaille painting occur when the artist adds another tone for instance burnt umber or burnt sienna, enabling a slight variation in tone but still relatively uncoloured, this can create a beautiful effect in its own right as well as aiding the artist to separate difficult tonal areas.
In portrait or painting of nudes, artists in the Renaissance often painted their grisaille by mixing yellow ochre and black to create a green tinted black which is then mixed in various amounts to white to create the different tones of grey/green. This green tinted grisaille complements skin tones, red and green being complementary colours on the artist’s colour chart and is known now as ‘moonglow’. When choosing to finish a painting in grisaille style, this is my favourite tonal choice, it gives an eerie, ‘other worldly’ effect. It is apparent in the closed front panels of the triptych by H. Bosch, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’_1490/1510.

The photography of my under painting for the Giorgione copy
is rather rough but you get the idea, the next stage for me once this layer is dry, (less than 24 hours) is to refine it, evening out variations in tone and adding fine detail which I have hurried previously to complete it quickly.

I’d like to mention that to paint this, I used mediums by ‘Alchemist Mediums’ which are recipes used in the Renaissance and are found in the translation of the De Mayerne manuscript found in Donald Fels’ book.

The next layer, the first colour layer will involve transparent colour ‘glazes’, (thin layers of paint) applied in various depths to refine the tonal values and contrasts. I like to paint my shadows transparently where possible as this gives a greater sense of depth to them and thus adds realism to the finished painting. Here I’ve already added shadows as I know from experience that in such a dark painting, almost ‘chiaroscuro’ like, they will work with the transparent shadows I add in the upper layers. Once this layer is dry, the whole painting will be adjusted for detail, tone and contrast in any other added layers to create the finished painting.
It is understood by taking paint chips that Jan Van Eyck finished his wonderful early renaissance paintings with relatively few layers but by the time of Rembrandt, many layers where being added, Rembrandt is known for the his amazing photographic technique, which involved the painting of many layers.
As I’ve said in previous recent blogs, these copies are a way for me to build stamina and get back into extended painting sessions after illness most of last year.

This is one in a series, from the renaissance to Bouguereau.

I should have posted progress as it was made but certain factors have prevented me from making rapid progress, so paintings became a priority over net updates. Anyway here on 28.3.16 is a near finished version, Sorry once again for the dodgy photo.