Dear painters, art aficionados, and art explorers everywhere. I would never have guessed this journal would keep my interest for so long! Join me as I learn about the processes of painting, drawing and at times, the history of art.
Studio Incamminati master instructor Natalie Italiano (check out her website)
We learned the terms Open Grisaille and Closed Grisaille.
But first, the definition of Grisaille is: monochromatic painting using shades of gray, black, white or other neutral color. Our grisailles in this workshop did use a burnt sienna making it actually a brunaille (a painting executed entirely or primarily in shades of brown, or brownish/red).
Open grisaille is a classical oil painting underpainting technique where the image is developed thinly using a single monochromatic pigment, leaving the canvas or ground exposed for the lightest areas. It relies on a "wipeout" method to define values and allows artists to easily adjust shapes before adding color.
The next two pictures are my practice pieces with the open grisaille technique. One thing we did which was very good practice was to do the open grisaille
and wipe it off, again and again. The purpose is to develop your drawing skills.
this one sort of reminds me of me
I walked around the room taking a video of all of our open grisaille work.
Closed grisaille is an opaque, monochromatic underpainting technique in which an artist builds up the full range of values and textures
using only black, white and gray paint.
Below is one of my open grisaille sketches (with model) and below that,
the closed grisaille, where I added white to my burnt sienna.
You may notice at the side of the canvas above there are small sample swatches of paint in 4 values. These are there to keep track of the dark, medium and lightest values that you see as you develop your portrait.
We also learned from Natalie a bit about how to do a color study.
A color study is usually a small-scale canvas painted
with just basic large shapes, test colors and light arrangements
to use in the larger, more detailed final painting.
Here is Natalie with her (more of a finished) color study with model Maria,
after painting for 3-hours
(and after a full day of teaching!).
This last photo of my work is when I added color as the workshop
was coming to a close. It doesn't look like our model, but
it looks humanoid, so it's a start.
Anna 20" x 16"
Workshop group photo!
Donna Catotti, bottom left in the photo, click on her link!
is the Haines home town organizer of this great workshop,
and has done it for 9 years or so!
Our top notch instructor, Natalie, who lives on the East Coast
is shown bottom right.
Thank you Natalie and Donna! and thank you to our great models
(we had four, plus Natalie's color study model).
Haines is surrounded by mountains! We had beautiful weather during the workshop.
Thank you for reading my art journal.
It began as a simple blog and has endured for over 18 years.
Today is my 18th Blogiversary. (since 2008!) Hard to fathom. I have been doing a special artist interview for a few of these anniversaries, but I have not contacted anyone yet this year. There is still time.
I am glad to post here anyway today,
to remind myself that i have a blog ... an art journal of a sort, and to post more about my struggles with paint!
The painting above is one of my favorite enplein air paintings. My husband and I were on a road trip to Alaska's interior regions and we stopped at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. We hiked back to a beautiful lake and there were a couple of swans being calm and elegant.
And I set up to paint.
I appreciate that you are reading this! Feel free to comment and share. I will soon feature a local Juneau artist for us to learn about.
Just as a reminder, my first interview (2024) was with my artist husband, Matt Robus, (that link sends you to his Working Birds Facebook page). He spoke about his passion, wood carving! ... mostly shorebirds and waterfowl. We both are pretty birdy ...
my painting of a MHR carving (Phalarope)
my painting of a MHR carving (Whimbrel)
And, last January (2025), I interviewed Timi Johnson, fabulous Juneau artist.
My husband and I lived for a short time in Torrington, Wyoming. During the days, sometimes I would walk around the town while Matt was at work (as an Environmental Inspector for a pipeline going in nearby). I walked up a hill and passed a cute blue Volkswagon bug parked along the street.
Can't quite remember if I sketched this right there, or if I sketched it when
I got back to the apartment. At any rate, I began to paint it.
The very few photos I took as I progressed are here.
Blue Bug (on a hill) 8 x 10 inches oil on Ampersand panel
