Seeing in
Shades
of Gray
START YOUR WATERCOLOR WITH A
GRISAILLE UNDERPAINTING
TO ENSURE THE WORK IS GROUNDED WITH
A POWERFUL VALUE STRUCTURE.By Tim Saternow
U
nity. It’s the basic building block of any visual
composition. It’s what makes a painting a harmonious,
integrated whole. In both representational and
abstract painting, there are many ways to achieve
unity: placing elements close together; using repetition;
continuing a line, an area or an edge of a pattern; using
a grid; or using a dominant color, texture, line, size,
shape or value. How an artist unifies a painting is a
highly personal aesthetic choice. I love to paint New York City, but it’s a
cacophony of color, texture and shapes that can be overwhelming to the
eye and brain. I’ve found that using value to unify my watercolor paintings
helps me grapple with this complex landscape. Value is the structure that
holds my paintings together, and it’s the first paint I put down on paper.A grisaille technique works well to capture the dramatic canyons of
New York City or the majestic mountains of Colorado. I used various
values of Payne’s gray to paint Broadway to the Flatiron Building
(watercolor, 60x40) on Arches triple elephant size rough paper.