Portrait. From mono to blue.

From mono to blue. Acrylics, oil glazes and pencil on prepared yellow 1960’s canvas paper. 40 x49 cm.
This was a lesson in grisaille (painting in greys). This techniques makes it a lot easier to concentrate on form and tone without having colour values complicating things. I’ve been interested in smalt blue (the background for some renaissance portraits, which was once a bright jewel like blue, though it fades over the years to grey), hence the background glaze.
The work was made in layers. Over a yellow ochre wash I drew the model in pencil, then used lamp black and white and off-white acrylics and a lot of glaze medium to build up the painting. At home the blue and ochre glazes in oil paint gave the work some dynamism. The aged paper splitting and ripping gives it something, making the whole work a bit more punk.

1. A close up of the portrait. The model had a piercing at the top of her nose.
2. A version of the painting photoshopped in mono.
3. How the worked looked after the painting from life (with a little coloured pencil).