Grisaille

DEFINITION

Pronounced Gri-Zay, the term is derived from the French term "gris" (grey), and refers to monochrome painting executed entirely in shades of gray. Historically the method of Grisaille has been used by artists in several ways: 1) Preliminary sketch where tonal values are worked out before using color. 2) As under painting for an actual work of art, something that was used extensively by the Old Masters. 3) A teaching method whereby educators illustrate line and shape or composition with Grisaille before letting the students proceed to using color. 4) Depicting objects intended to represent the color gray for actual gray objects such as marble statues or temple columns depicted often in Renaissance paintings. Source: Butch Krieger, &#39;Shades of Gray&#39;, "The Artists Magazine"; http://www.artistsmagazine.com/tam_terms.asp<br><br>The technique of painting a highly-modeled, black and white monochromatic base painting and then glazing it with transparent colors.<br><br> Painting entirely in monochrome (tones of one color), in a series of grays. Strictly speaking, monochrome is in any one color, such as red, blue or black; grisaille means in neutral grays only (French term). Grisaille may be used for its own sake as decoration, or may be the first stage in building up an oil painting (to establish the tonal range of the image). Grisaille was also formerly used as a model for an engraver to work from.