Timothy Jones' Daily Painting Blog

G.K. Chesterton Portrait - Finished (snapshot)

 
G.K. Chesterton - ©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
18" x 24" - Oil on Panel

 

grisalles underpainting

Hokaaaayyyy....

I think this is finished. If you'll compare the finished portrait with the last stage of the grisaille underpainting, you should notice a good deal of additional modeling, particularly on the face.

Any time you are adding some visual element from your imagination, as the color has been added here, you are basically operating from experience, example and what looks right. I kept the color pretty subtle, but didn't want to leave the image in it's tonal state. I wanted to warm up old Gilbert and make him appear more alive.

This is something of a gamble, but worth it. I showed the grisailles underpainting at our local art group, Artists of Northwest Arkansas. When I mentioned that I next planned to glaze in some color, I got a few comments along the lines of, "Are you sure you want to do that? I like the sepia look.". People wanted me to leave it be.

The tricky bit is to make sure that everything you add to a painting (any painting) improves it. Things don't always turn out that way, but that's the idea. I don't lay a brush to my painting unless I know what I want to accomplish with it. I try hard never, ever to simply thrash, - to move paint around and hope something great happens. If a painting is not coming together the way I thought, the best thing, I've found, is to walk away. Put it aside until it speaks to me again and tells me what it needs. Nine times out of ten it will become obvious with time.

Anyway, I think the color improved this image, at least it looks that way in person. This is a mere digital snapshot. I'll post a professional scan soon.



G.K. Chesterton Grisailles Portrait

I've been snapping some in-progress shots of this piece, and I'm posting a few here.

 
First stage - beginning to lay in darks 

The method I'm using for this is called grisailles (that's French for "gray", pronounced "grizz-AYE"), so called because the values are worked out first in monochrome shades, and then color is glazed on in stages after the underpainting is complete and dry. It is a very old, traditional way to work. I first discovered it and tried it out in college, after studying some of Leonardo da Vinci's work. This was the method he chiefly preferred.

 

 

 
Developing the background

This method works especially well, I think, for portraits from black-and-white photos, which this happens to be. The background street scene is from another photo, and depicts London in the 1920s, which is around the time Chesterton was writing and was popular in England. A household name, in fact.

 
Here is the (nearly) finished grisailles underpainting.

I don't know if a purist would - properly speaking - consider this true grisailles, because the toned ground is a warm brown, but the principle is the same; work out the values, and then glaze in color.

 
And here is some initial color glazing.

I do a lot of subtle adjusting as I go. A lot. In the beginning color stage, for instance, I fattened GKC's nose a bit, as it was to thin in the underpainting. I've also muted the background, which I'd planned to do from the outset. I don't really want it drawing the eye very much. It's all about layering from here on out, though, so just about the whole image will continue to develop.

New Painting "Spring Berries"

 
©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
Spring Berries - 24" x 24" - Oil on Panel

Another nature study, one I've had in the works for a while (sorry, again, for the photo quality, but I'll have better ones posted, soon). I'm not sure what kind of berries these are, so feel free to educate me. So far, all I know is "not mulberries". Anyone?... Anyone?.. Bueller??...

New Painting "Forage"

 
©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
Forage - 24" x 24" - Oil on Panel

This is only snapshot, as I'm not able to use Photoshop, at present. Better photos to come. It's a nature study of the kind I've always preferred to straight landscape. It was kind of funny in art school, because our painting class might take a field trip to a lake or some other scenic vista, and often I'd end up painting a few sticks on the ground by my easel, which I could hae done without leaving campus... or even changing out of my pajamas.