Colleen Barry NYC Artist

Gradients and Grisaille

Added 2025-09-16 13:00:19 +0000 UTC

The Grisaille process begins with value tiling on the palette, placing down discrete blocks of tone from a prepared value scale. These tiles serve as structural anchors, preventing the painting from becoming vague in its early stages. Just as important is the immediate breaking through of the picture plane: the values are arranged not as a flat design but as patches of light and shadow that create depth from the very beginning. Once placed, these value tiles are stitched together with the brush, gradually fusing into a (semi) continuous tonal fabric. (I don’t go for the uber smooth finish)

Materials: Oil Paint- Raw Umber, Lead White, Palette Knife, Glass Grey Palette, prepared canvas with neutral tone ground, Painting medium and Galkyd gel (drying agent) Brushes: Rosemary Sable Rounds 4,6,8,10

I will follow up in a few weeks with the color passage.