More Open Grisalle Painting...

I had a busy week and didn't get to paint until yesterday. This month I am focusing on painting open grisailles. Open grisaille is a painting technique where we use only brown paint and try to use the unpainted (or thinly painted) canvas for lights. Personally, I like to use a cool brown (burnt umber) and a warm brown (burnt sienna). The burnt umber works well for dark shadows and cool areas while the transparent burnt sienna works well for warm flesh tones. I prefer this technique over using a single brown because it allows me to represent both warm and cool tones. Often I will use a very small amount of titanium white for highlights and accents. In open grisaille, we do not mix brown paint with white paint as we do when using the closed grisaille technique. Below is the portrait I painted:

Randy

Oil on Canvas

Open Grisaille Technique

11 x 14 inches