looking for instructions

The technique is called GRISAILLE, and is a way of underpainting and doing a painting in a single color with many values (the color usually chosen is grey). They taught us grisaille tonal painting for portraits in art school

You got me there, I didn't know that.

we hadda do hundreds of tonal prtraits in various shades of grey or blue or green ,THEN we were allowed to put color in. It was ameasn to build a portrait from its values and light and shadow.
My one instructor was a member of the league of old teachers who were taught by some of the great Brandywine illustrators (these guys were old when I took the studio)

Halo, you should look up grisaille techniques and Ill bet there are a gazillion CD courses available. Ive often sent for some of these DVD courses and have learnt a bunch. My fav was a guy named Jeffrey LAron. Hes amazing and he shares his stuff (I assume that hes not doing too badly from the sales of his DVD's). His courses and wprkshopes were alwayschock full by the time I looked em up.

Listening, tell more if you feel like it.

Hundreds of tonal portraits -

did you do all those evenly, bat bat bat? rush some? labor over some?

This slightly reminds me of an up there guy at the new yorker writing about learning how to draw with his chosen teacher - an article within the last year.

I don't mean that I equate your teachers and this guy's teacher. Just a certain resemblance.

Oh right... finding the weird shapes within rather than trying to draw "a face." Like if that shadow by the chin looks like a duck, draw the duck. Who was that? Adam Gopnik?

Yep!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/27/110627fa_fact_gopnik

He has a very good article about dogs in this week's issue that will be cut out and placed in strategic places around the house until E.G. reads it -- maybe several copies.

But I digress.

I did grisaille but didn't remember the name. I liked it mostly.

Are you shittin me? Remember the addage that "Nothing gets done without the imposition of severe deadlines"
When I was doing my art degree, I was also finishing a dissertation and scheduling field trips and surveying classes for mining engineeris. I was so busy that I would lose entire months.

If that guy was my teacher I might have (fill in the blank) myself.

Deadlines are the prickles of fortune.

(I just made that up)




Would I **** you?

Short cuts in grisaille method is to squint so that you see everything as maybe three values. A grisaille portrait then led me to do plein aire stuff and Id first do a grisaille of the scene on pices of gessoed cardboard. It was a real trip to see how your eye can pick out the important values of a scene and make it a center of interest. I dont regret all the time we took on this trick(It was second only to my very early (like 11 years old) lessons in lerning 3 point pwerspective and how to do cylinders nd wheels and telephone poles and massed of buildings in really great perspective.
In perspwective Ive really given up on the lessons Id learned and now I sorta draw them free hand and then check how good my perspective is by reflecting my pic in a mirror (BAd perspective makes the whole thing look lopsided in a mirror. That was another trick I learnt when I was bout 10 or 11 when I wanted to be an artist more than anything.

Good Gopnick story. He seemed to have doused his spark. As I recall, mountains of work and portraits only made me want to do more.

on grisaille, I'm a different painter - the last thing I'd do is set values of a scene, except by certain paint choices, but interested.

In my life the method had been one of trining me to really pick out nd handle values ina monochromatic style. Then"building" a plein aire painting with a minimalist pallette is much more easily done. AS I said, all these were lessons with a higher purpose, not a methodological choice for handling a subject (although Ive done chiarascuro styled pastels and jsu used three colors including the paper). Like the rules of perspective, Ive pretty much forgotten the grisaille tricks but I continually use the skills the tricks developed in me.

We're so different. I paint drew first, once I started painting, very free. I stopped myself too much, looking back. This is not a knock at you.

Re drawing, It was different. A teacher likened my work to Ingres, and not just for the arm, snort.

Painting set me free, but I sideswiped myself with different interests.

Nori taught me cheap perspective..

Meantime, I decided to link to my probable favorite painting of my own, nude with bicycle, re painting loose.

Done fast.

I can only drag it up in postage stamp size.

Consider my unhappiness with photobucket.

you had an academic art trining no? When I submitted my entry portfolio , I was allowed to skip intro courses in drawing and go right to figure, design, and some others (I forget now). My studio pinting was deficient cause I NEVER did any ils I ponly did watercolors . So my color theory and techniques (dark to light) were 180 different from watercolor .

I took a number of techniques courses including tempera and slver point. SO I was floundering around for stuff Id like best.

No. I took something like thirty courses, but at university extension. I did this after lab work. Really, I was tired for years.

There was a movie by a writer I like, The Wanderers.
there we go... good title.

I did have some artist pals and so on, had a couple of galleries, but I'm not one for anyone to follow.
Not that I think anyone else is......

I saw that I screqed up Jeffrey LArsons name (my runaway typos again). Heres a work by him that exemplifies his abilities in oils and capturing shiny surfaces.

Oh nice!

I love that it's a slightly icky fish rather than something shiny and pretty.