A Color Junkie Gets Clean

If you're at all familiar with my artwork, you know I love color! I'm addicted to color.  My studio is painted lemongrass green and my kitchen is painted mango yellow.  My art goes big with pinks, yellows, greens and reds.  Imagine how I felt this morning when I randomly chose my next art prompt: paint using only black and white. Luckily I already had a drawing on a canvas with no specific plan in mind for it. So, using only black and white I have begun this painting (still a work in progress).

So far so good.  Although you caught me cheating.  Caught me red handed.  Caught me red penned. Like all junkies I returned to my habit; luscious color.  In this case I added a few restrained strokes of lipstick red.

Actually, I'm no stranger to painting in grey scale.  All of my paintings start out this way; as a grisaille underpainting. Here's a perfect example of how I usually use black and white.

If I had decided to paint this week's painting in color, I would have started adding color at this point:

Believe it or not, a painting that starts out as a grey scale underpainting can turn out very colorful.  I use grisaille to create a foundation of depth and lighting.

I'll continue working on this week's painting and I promise to try hard to keep it black and white (with a dash of red). Ooh color, I miss you already!

And while I'm slaving away, my favorite fuzzy model will be keeping me good company on her day off.



A model's life is a hard life.