Learning objectives
Last month I showed you how to use a grisaille (black and white) underpainting, which can be done in water-based paint. Over the top of this base layer the painting was completed using coloured oil glazes, and gradually thicker oil paint. This was a common method used by painters until the mid-Renaissance. The result tended to look quite stiff because the appearance of the finished picture was decided in the early stages of the underpainting. The next big step in the craft of painting was the development, in the middle of the Renaissance, of the ebauche method.
In art we use the French term to describe this method, because it is difficult to find an equivalent in English. It means a dark shape or mass. Using the method we make a dark shape that describes the objects in the composition, and the shadows cast by them as one conjoined mass then, out of the darkness, we can find the highlights. This can all happen quickly when concentrating on the forms in the picture, rather than the detail or outlines. Right from the start it can be spontaneous and lively.
