Learn from the OLD MASTERS: Michelangelo
What they learned from the OLD MASTERS? Michelangelo
Oil Painting
Secrets of Vermeer’s painting technique.
Vermeer’s painting technique: Underpainting After the initial outline drawing was completed Vermeer began the underpainting, one of the most important stages in his working procedure. Without a thorough knowledge and mastery of the underpainting technique, many of the artist’s complex compositions, accurate depiction of light and chromatic subtleties could not have been easily achieved. Underpainting, or “dead color” as it was called in Vermeer’s time, is rarely practiced today. For the last century, most artists have simply begun painting directly on the canvas with full color surpassing the underpainting stage entirely. Therefore, neither the function or the practice of underpainting is well understood. In its simplest terms, underpainting is a monochrome version of the final painting which fixes the composition, gives…
Art Terms: Vellum
Art Terms: Vellum Vellum (from the Old French Vélin, for “calfskin”) is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, and scraping of the skin with a hemispherical knife. To create tension, scraping is alternated by wetting and drying. A final finish may be achieved by abrading the surface with pumice, and treating with a preparation of lime or chalk to make it accept writing or printing ink. Modern “paper vellum” (vegetable vellum) is used for a…
Painting Techniques – Working in layers
Painting Techniques – Working in layers Oil Painting Working in layers is used extensively in oil painting for paintings that require more than one session. For a painting that develops over several days, allowing for the oil paint to dry for a given layer, it is helpful to work with explicit painting layers. The first layer may be a ground, usually applied all over the surface. Then an underdrawing in outline may follow. Then comes underpainting, overpainting, and finally semi-transparent glazes and varnish. All of these layers will affect the appearance of the final painting. To understand the role of underpainting, one can use metaphor and think of the underpainting as a base-rhythm in music, and the overpainting as a…
Art Terms: Underpainting
Art Terms: Underpainting In art, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help to define colour values for later painting. There are several different types of underpainting, such as verdaccio and grisaille. Underpainting gets its name because it is painting that is intended to be painted over (see overpainting) in a system of working in layers. There is a popular misconception that underpainting should be monochromatic, perhaps in gray-scales. In fact, a multi-color underpainting is much more useful and was used extensively by artists such as Giotto (whose technique is described in detail by Cennino Cennini), as well as by…
Art Terms: Brunaille
Art Terms: Brunaille A Brunaille is a painting executed entirely or primarily in shades of brown. Such a painting is described as having been painted “en brunaille“. Brunaille has its roots in 12th century stained glass made for Cistercian monasteries which in 1134 prohibited the use of color in their art. However, it was only in the early 17th century that the French term “brunaille” was coined to describe pictures painted in shades of brown. Brunaille are less common than paintings executed in grey (grisaille).
Painting techniques – Chiaroscuro
Painting techniques – Chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro (Italian: “light-dark”) in art is characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for using contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body. Further specialized uses include chiaroscuro woodcut, for coloured woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink; and chiaroscuro drawing for drawings on coloured paper with drawing in a dark medium and white highlighting. Similar effects in the lighting of cinema and photography are also chiaroscuro. Origin in the chiaroscuro drawing Chiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on coloured paper,…
Painting techniques – Tenebrism
Painting techniques – Tenebrism Tenebrism, from the Italian tenebroso (“murky”), (also called dramatic illumination) is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. Caravaggio is generally credited with the invention of the style, but the term “Tenebrist” is more likely to be applied to later painters under his influence. However, Caravaggio is so closely associated with Tenebrism, that the word “Caravaggism” is sometimes applied in an almost synonymous fashion, or the phrase “Caravaggesque tenebrism” is sometimes used. The term is less used by art historians in recent decades, and lacks a clear definition. The word is capitalised by some art historians, and…
Classical painting techniques – Sfumato
Classical painting techniques – Sfumato Sfumato is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (the other three being Cangiante, Chiaroscuro, and Unione). It corresponds to the concept of ‘low-contrast’ in photography. The Italian word sfumato (pp. of sfumare, ‘to vanish’ or ‘to shade’) captures the idea precisely. The finished product appears as though a veil of smoke had drifted between the subject of the painting and the viewer, adding some brightness to the pure darks and blocking some of the pure brights of the subject. It is not a difficult technique in practice. It requires competence in brushwork and judgement of value (brightness) but does not necessarily require a high degree of skill. It consists in painting…
Painting techniques – Cangiante
Painting techniques – Cangiante Cangiante is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (the other three being Unione, Chiaroscuro, and Sfumato). The word itself derives from the Italian cangiare (“to change”). Cangiante is characterized by the painter’s changing to a different, lighter, hue when the original hue cannot be made light enough or, on the converse, changing to a darker hue when the original hue cannot be made dark enough. The painter may change, for example, from the color yellow to the color red (regardless of the object’s actual color) when painting shadows on a yellow object simply because the yellow he has to work with cannot be made dark enough to render shadows on that object…