Old Masters Academy

Posts Tagged "Paint"

Whistler’s Oil Painting Technique

Whistler’s Oil Painting Technique

Whistler’s Oil Painting Technique Whistler’s approach to portraiture in his late maturity was described by one of his sitters, Arthur J. Eddy, who posed for the artist in 1894: “He worked with great rapidity and long hours, but he used his colours thin and covered the canvas with innumerable coats of paint. The colours increased in depth and intensity as the work progressed. At first the entire figure was painted in greyish-brown tones, with very little flesh colour, the whole blending perfectly with the greyish-brown of the prepared canvas; then the entire background would be intensified a little; then the figure made a little stronger; then the background, and so on from day to day and week to week, and…

Read More

Oil painting essential materials: BRUSHES

Oil painting essential materials: BRUSHES

Oil painting essential materials: BRUSHES An old brush that has been properly cared for is generally better than a new one. It seems to have accommodated itself to your way of painting, and falls in with your peculiarities. It is astonishing how attached you get to your favorite brushes, and how loath you are to finally give them up. What if you have no others to take their places? Don’t look upon your brushes as something to get as few of as possible, and which you would not get at all if you could help it. There is nothing which comes nearer to yourself than the brush which carries out your idea in paint. You should be always on the…

Read More

Oil painting essential materials: Easels

Oil painting essential materials: Easels

Oil painting essential materials: EASELS The important thing in an easel is that it should be steady and firm; that it should hold the canvas without trembling, and so that it will not fall as you paint out towards the edges. You often paint with a heavy hand, and you must not have to hold on to your picture with one hand and paint with the other. Nothing is more annoying than a poor easel, and nothing will give you more solid satisfaction, than the result of a little generosity in paying for a good one. The ideal thing for the studio is, of course, the great “screw easel,” which is heavy, safe, convenient, and expensive. We would like to…

Read More

Oil painting materials: CANVASES and STRETCHERS

Oil painting materials: CANVASES and STRETCHERS

Oil painting materials: CANVASES and STRETCHERS Grain.—The question of grain is not easy to speak about without the canvas, yet it is often a matter of importance. There are many kinds of surface, from the most smooth to the most rugged. Some grain it is well the canvas should have; too great smoothness will tend to make the painting “slick,” which is not a pleasant quality. A grain gives the canvas a “tooth,” and takes the paint better. Just what grain is best depends on the work. If you are going to have very fine detail in the picture use a smoothish canvas; but whenever you are going to paint heavily, roughly, or loosely, the rough canvas takes the paint…

Read More

How to Make a Painting Look Old

Acrylic painting techniques How to Make a Painting Look Old 1. Allow the painting to dry if just completed. Apply clear acrylic to the painting to act as a base for the crackle paint application that will give your painting some age. The clear acrylic should be applied evenly to the surface of the painting following the original brush strokes. Allow the clear acrylic to dry before moving forward. 2. Prepare the crackle paint by adding the colors to it that closely match the areas you are trying to age prematurely. Not using color will result in the crackle paint turning white. Use colors that match the painting so that when it dries, it will look as though the paint is aged. Use…

Read More

Palettes of Famous Artists. Art materials

Palettes of Famous Artists. Art materials

Palettes of Famous Artists Gauguin believed in: “Pure colour! Everything must be sacrificed to it.” Yet, overall, his tones were muted, and quite close together. Marion-Boddy Evans draws our attention to a portable palette found in his painting studio after he died, from which it would appear Gauguin didn’t lay out his colours in any particular order. Nor does he seem to have ever cleaned his palette, instead mixing fresh colours on top of dried-up paint.

Read More

Victorian Classical Realist Painter

An English Classical Realist painter and sculptor. Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, an English Classical Realist painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter. The Classical Realist movement is currently sustained through art schools based on the Atelier Method.  These ateliers are founded with the goal of revitalizing art education by reintroducing rigorous training in traditional drawing and painting techniques, employing teaching methodologies that were used in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. These schools pass on a method of instruction which melds formal academic art training with the influence of the French Impressionists. Under the atelier model, art students study in the studio of an established master to learn how to draw and paint with realistic accuracy and an emphasis on rendering form convincingly. The foundation of these programs rests on an intensive study of the human figure, renderings of plaster casts of classical sculpture, and the…

Read More

Top Tips – How To Paint a Landscape

Check out the video version of this guide on Howcast.com: How To Paint a Landscape Get more great tips on art and painting on Howcast.com: Art Techniques Step 1: Choose your paint Choose if you want to work in oil, acrylic or watercolor. Whatever you decide, choose the appropriate paints for your medium. Step 2: Get a filbert brush Leave all of your brushes at home except for a single filbert brush. As you progress in landscapes, add and experiment with other brushes. Step 3: Bring water and rags Bring lots of water and rags. Step 4: Set up your easel In the middle of the day, go set up your easel In a comfortable location that has a good…

Read More