Colors for a Grisaille Palette

Grisaille is a study of values to define a form, often as an underpainting, that is painted with mixtures of gray or just a single neutral earth color. Our new Colors for a Grisaille Palette set offers both warm and cool choices, with two distinctly different whites, a rich black, and five neutral earth colors, as a limited palette to follow this traditional Atelier training technique.

Pure Titanium White pairs perfectly with the cooler French Vine Black, to use unmixed for Black and White poster studies that simplify values and map a given composition. When mixed together, a full range of cool, flat grays, representing specific values, can easily be created. Use the Flake White, a pure white lead, for greater nuance and warmth.

Both warm and cool natural earths complete the selection, ranging from yellow to brown to red, as Umbers and Ochres, all chosen for their soft chroma and authentic pigmentation. The Colors for a Grisaille Palette set offers unique choices for creating monochromatic underpaintings with any of the earth colors, or combining several of the earths along with white for studying form in executing cast paintings or more finished tonal paintings.

Imaged above is a detail of The Attributes of the Arts..." by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1766, oil on canvas, which depicts a plaster model of Mercury painted in values of gray, symbolizing both the art of Sculpture and its use by artists for the academic study of form using casts, like this plaster model, to practice painting and drawing the figure. 

An oil on canvas painting by Frans Hals, in 1626-8, Young Man holding a Skull (Vanitas) is an example of neutral earths and values of gray painted alla prima without a formal underpainting. National Gallery, London

Lessons in Classical Painting, by Juliette Aristides, is a recommended reference offering detailed instruction to explore the techniques used in classical realist painting. Visit her website at www.aristidesarts.com

Colors for a Grisaille Palette - Presented in a slim, cardboard box with foam lining for safe and easy transport. Eight colors, 40ml size tubes:

• Flake White - Containing only genuine pure white lead pigment, our Flake White has a warm iridescent translucency to gently enhance a color mixture. In use since antiquity, toxic pigment.

• Titanium White - Without any Zinc White added, our pure Titanium White is the perfect neutral white for mixing. Robust in color strength yet natural in brilliance, it is ideal used in small amounts to soften mixtures to a subltle warmth.

• Cyprus Umber Yellow imported - Uniquely colorful raw umber, our Cyprus Umber Yellow is a golden Natural Brown Earth that's transparent in mixing with a subtle warmth and deepness.

• French Raw Sienna Light imported - Deepened Natural Yellow Earth, our French Raw Sienna Light is an earthy green gold, gently warm and subtle in mixing.

• French Ochre Red imported - As a rich red ochre that is delicate in warmth and mixing strength, our French Ochre Red produces earthy pinks especially useful in building flesh tones.

• Cyprus Umber Green imported - Delicate and warm raw Natural Brown Earth that's wonderful for adding nuance to mixtures where you want the slightest more warmth and shadow. Elusive gray tints.

• Raw Umber - Unsurpassed for silvery grays when tinted with whites, our Raw Umber is a slightly green, richly dark Natural Brown Earth that is distinctly neutral in mixing.

• French Vine Black imported - Rich but gentle cool mixing black, our French Vine Black is a modern version crafted from imported Natural Black Iron Oxide, not charred vines, and is neutral in mass tone and semi-opaque.

All milled with the finest alkali refined Linseed Oil in limited quantities for a naturally drying durable paint film.