Monochrome under-painting

For the Grade 10s ..........


We will start our surreal egg paintings by creating  illusions of form and space using one dark colour and white. (A monochrome) This is a very old traditional technique used by Vermeer.

Link to a tutorial

Here is another tutorial using fruit (persimmons)
Fruit tutorial

However, we will use acrylics for our monochrome because it dries faster. Mix your own dark - try and avoid using black. Remember to work into both figure and ground.


We will work over the monochrome (the 'grisaille') with  local (representational) colours. Lastly, we will use oil paints to blend and adjust the colours and tones.