Petunia – Grisaille
Copyright Valerie Jones
The petunia was done with the grisaille technique of layering grays (in this case, graphite) with colored pencil. The grays being laid down first allows the shadows to be in place, thus a lesser need for more layers of color in the shadow areas. I think this took me around 5 hours to complete. I didn’t keep track of my time very well. It is done on a 4”x6” piece of smooth bristol paper.
- Merriam-Webster’s definition of grisaille -
grisaille
Main Entry: gri·saille
Pronunciation: \gri-ˈzī, -ˈzāl\
Function:noun
Etymology: French, from gris gray, from Middle French
Date: 1848
: decoration in tones of a single color and especially gray designed to produce a three-dimensional effect
