Duke Of Wellington -Diary Of A Painting #2

Sketching, Painting, And A Load Of Brain Trickery!

In my previous post in this 'Diary Of A Painting' series I told you that I was having difficulty in measuring the dashing Duke and his horse, and showed how I created a digital grid in the same dimensions as the physical canvas that I was using, to try and help me with the proportions.

Here's the stage where he's at now.

The grisaille, or 'dead layer'

I've done a grisaille, or dead layer, which basically just means trying to sort out some tonal values. It's usually done using a grey tonal value scale.

This layer is basically to set up the piece for the further layers to come. You can be as detailed as you like when doing a grisaille, but for this piece i'm just doing the basics. For me, as long as I kinda know where i'm going with it, i'm fine to leave it as rough as this.

I should point out that even getting to this stage and having a grid, my brain was still trying to trick my eyes into seeing what i thought should be there rather than what actually was.

A way to get round this is to draw/paint the composition upside down.

painting and sketching in with charcoal and a raw umber acrylic

Another trick that can help here too, is also to cover up areas on the canvas and just focus on the area of the grid that you are interested in, and each piece should still match up at the end.

Completed sketch in charcoal and acrylic. Painted upside down to combat brain trickery!

I then turned him back up the right way (to save him from getting a headache and shaded in a little detail in umber.

Added in some raw umber acrylic mix for toning, and then on to the grisaille stage.

Now that I've done the grisaille, I have to wait for that layer to dry before commencing the next. The great thing is that it gives me a chance to return to it with fresh eyes.

I can see him coming along and look forward to sharing some pics from his next stage.

Thanks for following along so far!

​Davy