There is no more rewarding medium than oil painting. The fact that oil opens up endless possibilities for the artist is also indisputable. Since its inception, oil has been very popular and most of the discoveries in the world of painting have been made in this technique.
Of all the painting techniques, oil painting is the most complex. Especially this difficulty arises in the transition from watercolor. A completely different principle of composing shades appears. In watercolors, paper was involved in everything through the light; when working with oil paints, the white color of the soil has almost no meaning. The mixing of colors takes place with the constant presence of white.
In nature, there are seven primary colors. If you start mixing these colors, it is easy to see that some primary colors are obtained by mixing other primary colors. Only three colors - red, yellow and blue - cannot be composed by any mixtures, and they must be present on the palette in finished form. Knowing this, an experienced painter will not look for ready-made paint for each color of an object, but will think about how much red, yellow and blue will enter the desired shade of color.
AT oil painting paints are lightened by an admixture of white (zinc or lead) to them. Therefore, the painter must learn in practice how to obtain shades of color by bleaching the basic colors.
What is the best order to squeeze the paints onto the palette? The order may be different, but constant. It is impossible, for example, today to apply ultramarine in upper corner palette, and tomorrow - in the lower left. The painter is so firmly accustomed to the constant position of colors that he selects mixtures of colors without looking at them. Everything is done mechanically. Similarly, knowledge of the location of colors developed in practice allows you to look at nature and canvas more often than at a palette.
Paints mixed with one another often lose their saturation (brightness). It is difficult, for example, to obtain sufficiently bright oranges, greens and purple paint. That is why, sometimes, ready-made tube bright orange, green, blue and purple paints will not be superfluous on the palette. But this is optional. Only black paint may be necessary separately in a tube, since it, composed of three basic colors, is not dark enough. Although black is considered the result of almost complete absorption of all parts of the spectrum, in nature we almost never meet pure black, since there is no absolutely complete absorption in nature. In practice, white (reflecting all light rays) and black have color tints. This should be remembered in the work and do not use white and black paint in its pure form. Black paint, skillfully used, makes it possible to obtain very beautiful and subtle mixtures with other paints. For example, mixed with cadmium orange, it produces a beautiful warm green. Black, mixed with warm colors, gives complex warm shades, mixed with cold colors - cold.
Opaque paints lay down thickly, so that the bottom layer is not visible. Transparent, on the contrary, can give a different shade to the underlying layer that shines through them. This is glazing - a very strong technique in classical painting. Nothing prevents opaque paints from diluting thinner with a thinner and making them seem like transparent paints, the glazing effect will be, but not as juicy as with real transparent paints. Translucent ones will make it a little better. But still transparent paints are unique. The secret is that if you put them on bright White background, then they create a watercolor effect, as if glowing. The old masters used glazing, transparent paints to make soft transitions of skin tones. They can "combine" a picture of different colors by covering it with a thin layer of transparent paint, this will give it a general shade.
The principle of any paint is a pigment and its binder. It can be different, the main thing is that it holds the pigment, and retains its strength when dried. The properties of binders to dry quickly or slowly give different techniques for their use. In this sense, "oil" is universal. Oil paint allows you to imitate quick-drying paints if it is diluted with solvents. Or, if diluted with oil, it allows you to slowly style it, blending with other colors, which gives very smooth transitions. It is opaque, which allows you to write in several layers. By applying varnish on top, you can adjust the glossiness (juiciness) or haze of the picture. Its shortcomings, for example, slow-drying white, can be "winned" by using acrylic white in places, or adding desiccants to them (an additive to speed up drying). Acrylics can be applied over oil paints and vice versa.
It is also necessary to know that individual paints(ultramarine, kraplak), laid on a white surface with a transparent layer, are very little like the whites of these paints. Thus, in order to successfully paint with oil paints, it is necessary to have only five colors in the sketchbook: lead or zinc white, yellow (lemon cadmium), blue (cobalt blue or ultramarine), red (thioindigo pink, cadmium red, cinnabar), black in pure form (burnt bone, thioindigo). From these five colors, you can make any color that exists in nature, any paint that is commercially available.
It is impossible to say in advance what colors must be mixed in order to depict the visible. Do not mix more than three colors, not counting white. Composing a color from two or three colors, you do not need to mix them on the palette for a long time. When pure colors are kept in the mixture, a variety of shades are obtained on the canvas.
The stretching of the canvas on the stretcher is done as follows. It is advisable to wash the new unprimed canvas in hot water to remove sizing agents from it. When washing, the canvas shrinks somewhat, which subsequently has a positive effect on the preservation of the painting. Raw canvas should be straightened and hung to dry. It is better to stretch the canvas in a slightly moistened state. Place the subframe horizontally on a table or shield, face up, remove the blades from the grooves, knock down the subframe more tightly, check for distortions. Then put and level the canvas on top of the stretcher, slightly stretching it diagonally and temporarily fixing it with nails in the corners (nails should be hammered in about one third of the length). Then, in the center of the sides of the stretcher, the canvas is stretched and fastened with 2-3 nails every 3-5 cm, preferably also temporarily. The canvas is stretched, it is necessary to carefully ensure that the sides of the stretcher and the threads of the canvas are strictly parallel. For this, it should be noted with a simple pencil one of the threads at a distance of 5-6 cm from the edge of the canvas and make sure that when stretched, it goes strictly along the edge of the stretcher bar. The same can be done when stretching the canvas on the other sides.
Nails are not hammered in a straight line, but somewhat randomly, with a snake. This is done so as not to split the subframe. Nails are driven in at an equal distance from each other, and each nail on one side must correspond to a nail on the opposite side of the stretcher.
Gluing and priming the base is a very responsible and difficult stage in working on a sketch or painting. The quality of the painting, the preservation of the painting, as well as the course and method of conducting the painting process, largely depend on the quality of the soil.
The practice of fine arts knows many recipes for the preparation of various soils. Each artist, based on his creative needs, knowledge, manner, temperament, empirically develops his own recipe for soil. Of course, such experimental work should be carried out thoughtfully, taking into account technical and technological patterns. It is necessary to know well the materials for soils, the methods of priming, the technique of working with colorful materials.
While doing artwork the painter must set himself the task of fulfilling his idea not only by the creative method, but also by the most advanced technical methods, ensuring long-term preservation of his work.
There are many different systems of painting, but the most common of them, especially when working for a long time, is multi-layered. With a multilayer system, the entire work process is divided into separate main phases, performed in a more or less definite sequence: 1) toning the soil; 2) drawing a picture; 3) underpainting; 4) registration; 5) glazing; 6) completion.
Soil toning. The color of the soil is great importance, because the color effect of the picture largely depends on it. A beam of light, passing through layers of transparent paints and falling on a tinted ground, will be partially absorbed, and partially reflected and will come to the surface of the picture painted in one color or another, depending on the shade of the ground and the transparency of the paints. In order to use the color of the ground most effectively, it should be prepared from strongly opaque paints, and in further registrations, mainly transparent paints should be used, while maintaining the translucence of the ground tone, since body and dense paints will cover the color of the ground, and it will not matter. Transparent paints laid on a tinted ground give the painting depth, expressiveness and brightness of tone. Translucent paints give a large number of different tones and shades, depending on the thickness of the layer and the intensity of the color. Dense and opaque paints give a very small number of shades, and in mixtures with transparent ones, they reduce the purity of their tone. Covering paints are used mainly in pure form or as a base on which transparent paints are applied. It is true that when mixed abundantly with varnishes or glazing fillers, some transparency of opaque paints can be obtained, but, in any case, with a very limited color range. The color shades of paints can be enriched by introducing transparent fillers into them: aluminum stearate, chalk, blancfix, kaolin, alumina, crushed glass, etc. In practice, artists usually use white. The advantage of the white pound is that it can be used with any method of writing, in addition, it, almost completely reflecting the light, imparts intensity to the colors.
Dark primers give depth to paints, when applied with a pasty layer of zinc white, strong lights are obtained. For many artists, the color of the ground was the main semitone, and they subsequently withstood the light in additional colors to the ground. Often, the tinted ground was left completely unwritten in some places or slightly covered with transparent or translucent paints. Rembrandt preferred a slate-colored primer, Rubens - red-brown and umber, Levitsky - a neutral green tone of the primer, Borovikovsky used a neutral gray primer, Bryullov used light brown, Alexander Ivanov tinted the primer with light ocher. Compared to dark primers, light and white primers are less dangerous, in case of a change in the color of the primer and a decrease in the density of some paints, the primer will not darken and color the painting with its own tone.
Drawing drawing. A drawing is prepared either separately on paper with subsequent transfer to canvas, or directly on canvas. It is often recommended to draw on canvas with a brush. If the drawing is done with a brush, it is necessary to ensure that the paint layer is evenly distributed on the canvas, avoiding paint streaks along the contours of the drawing.
Underpainting It is customary to call the first registration of a picturesque foundation a color. It is a preparatory stage of work on a painting or a long study with a multi-layered painting method. Unlike imprimatura, underpainting, as a rule, performs three functions: compositional, plastic and coloristic. Underpainting in many ways predetermines the course of work and final result picturesque buildings.
Underpainting using white can be multi-colored. White, taking into account further glazing, is slightly tinted with the desired color shades. In this case, the underpainting looks very light, the colors are very whitened. In both examples of underpainting using white at this stage of work, the main attention is paid to the texture of the colorful surface. The surface of the paint layer underpainting can be smooth or, on the contrary, body-like, thick-layered with a strongly pronounced texture of the relief, up to the illusory transfer of the texture of the material of the object with a plastic solution to the shape, a large mass of light and shadow.
In the process of working on underpainting, it is recommended to use well-drying paints, zinc white, etc., or add a binder that speeds up drying. Well-drying paints with the use of varnishes provide a strong bond between the paint layer and the ground and serve as a basis or, as they say, "bed for painting".
As such a binder, a small amount of cobalt desiccant should be used, and for diluting paints, a tee of the following composition: mastic or dammar varnish 200 g, polymerized oil 20 g.
At the next stages - in registration - on a well-dried underpainting with thin transparent glazes and a translucent overlay of colors, the artist achieves the final pictorial-plastic, coloristic and figurative integrity of the work.
Do not randomly and haphazardly apply strokes of paint. This destroys the form, introduces variegation, disorder and does not contribute to the transfer of material, volume, space. The shape, direction and nature of the stroke in painting depend on the shape of the object, the nature of its surface and material. You should know that a brushstroke applied thickly (pastoly) brings the image closer to the viewer, while a brushstroke applied thinly and smoothly moves it away. For this reason, the background in a still life or landscape should not be as pasty as foreground objects. When depicting the sky, the distance or the color of the fog, one should not apply paint as heavily and thickly as we put it, depicting the earth, dense or heavy objects. It is better to lay them in a thin and loose layer. The nature of the smear surface is different. It depends on the tool, how the stroke is applied, the thickness of the paint, the base on which it is applied. All this, taken together, has a certain influence on the quality and beauty of color, the pictorial-plastic and emotional solution of the study, its integrity. In other words, the texture of the colorful surface is an important means artistic expressiveness. Invoice constructions are constantly being modified, improved, and their new solution is found.
To what has been said, it should be added that the scale of color spots, a stroke, a stroke depends on the size of the pictorial plane. The size of the stroke must be adjusted to the size of the study or painting. AT monumental painting the scale of color patches is of particular importance.
You can write in oils only on a wet or only on a dry layer of paint, but in no case on a semi-dry one. If you write on wet paint, the painting will lose color, wither. When the paint has already begun to dry out, and a film forms on its surface, an attempt to apply another layer on top of the dried layer may lead to the fact that the work will be completely ruined. If you need to rewrite some place, then it is best to remove the paint with a palette knife, without touching the ground of the canvas. If the place to be rewritten is completely dry, to bond the new paint with the old one, wipe it with raw potatoes or onions, and when dry, write on a starchy surface.
Methods and techniques for imposing a paint layer and, accordingly, the textures of the colorful surface of paintings and sketches obtained in this case are different. You can paint with paints in a thick or thin layer, with strokes or shade the paint with a brush, make mixtures with other paints, with white or put it in its pure form without mixtures, liquidly dilute paints and apply transparent layers so that the lower colorful layers or the base color are visible and thereby create new color tone, etc. .
Among the whole variety of methods for imposing a paint layer, one can single out the leading ones, such as the vision of the pictorial process by the method of multi-layer painting and the conduct of the pictorial process by the alla prima method, in which the paint is placed wet in one layer. Often these methods of painting are combined in one work. Within each method, various ways and coloring techniques.
The first method of multi-layer painting involves the mandatory division of the painting process into a number of successive stages - underpainting, registration, glazing (sometimes they are called the first, main and final painting layers). On top of all paint layers, when the work is completed and well dried, a protective top layer of varnish or other compounds is applied. Completion of work on each stage should be accompanied by breaks for complete drying of the paint. The method of multi-layer painting involves the widespread use of glazing, optical properties of paints. So, it is sometimes difficult for an artist to achieve the desired pictorial effect at once. To do this, he can use two or three overlays of transparent and translucent paint layers on top of each other. The method of multi-layer painting has remained the leading one for many centuries. It is indispensable when performing long-term works, genre thematic compositions, large-sized paintings.
A completed painting or study, painted in oils, and sometimes tempera paints, varnished and other compounds. The top layer protects the paint layer from dampness, dust, dirt, soot, gases and at the same time increases the intensity of the sound of the colors of the picture, study. It is recommended to apply a top layer not earlier than one to one and a half years after completion of work. This is due to the need for complete drying of the paint layer and the oil in it. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that with a lack of light or in a dark room, without an influx of fresh air, the drying of the oil slows down, it can turn brown and change the tone of the painting. A painting exposed to light is better preserved in the future.
Lacquering and drying of the top layer should also be done in a bright, dry, ventilated room at normal room temperature and humidity. It is not recommended to apply and dry the top coat in damp rainy weather, as dampness adversely affects the strength and transparency of varnishes.
For work, you can use a flute or a wide squirrel brush. Lacquer should be applied slowly, otherwise it will foam. Hairs from the brush that have fallen into the covering layer should be removed immediately.
The varnished picture, until the varnish is dry, must be protected from dust, dirt, mechanical and other damage to the varnish film.
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Various Oil Painting Techniques
Oil paints fit well on the appropriate primer and make it easy to model, shade and achieve the finest imperceptible transitions from tone to tone, as they remain wet for a long time, moreover, when dried, they do not change their original tone.
All best tricks oil painting developed during the renaissance. Knowledge of the properties of the material enabled the old masters to create a style of oil painting that has never been surpassed. Throughout the history of oil painting, this style, in its harmony between material and artistic achievements, is the only one.
Knowledge of painting techniques was preserved in the workshops of painters until the 18th century, but then, with the separation of painting as an art from a craft, under the influence of the birth of new ideas in it, it was gradually lost.
Already in the first academy of Carracci, the former technical and artistic education of the painter was replaced by philosophical and artistic. Since that time, technical knowledge, which in the past was always the support of the painter, already seems to be a constraint on artistic freedom.
A particular decline in the technique of oil painting is observed in the era of the French Impressionists, who laid the foundation for unsystematic work with oil paints, which was brought to grandiose proportions by their followers (Neo-Impressionists).
Pointillism has an undoubted meaning from an artistic point of view, but it does not follow from the properties and character of oil painting; new ideas in art must seek other material for their embodiment if they run counter to the old. Thus, from a scientific point of view, impressionism gave birth to a fake style of oil painting, which, unfortunately, still has adherents among painters.
Work in the field of painting technique, both representatives of art and science, at first consisted mainly in the disclosure and revival of the lost ancient techniques of oil painting, ignorance of which made one feel so later painting. Much of the lost was found and revealed, but painting itself at that time had gone too far from the tasks and principles of ancient painting. Of course, in our time it is not possible to reconcile the methods of the ancient technique of oil painting with the modern understanding of painting, but the technique of oil painting, whatever its tasks, claiming to create durable works, must follow from the properties and nature of the materials of oil painting.
All normal methods of oil painting come down to two characteristic techniques.
1) Painting in one step " alla prima"(alia prima) - a method in which painting is carried out in such a way that, with the artist's artistic knowledge of the matter and favorable conditions, the work can be completed in one or several sessions, but before the paints have time to dry. In this case, the color resources of painting are reduced only to those tones that are obtained from the direct mixing of paints on the palette and their translucence on the ground used in the case.
2) Painting in several steps - a method in which the painter divides his pictorial task into several steps, of which each is assigned a special meaning, intentionally with a certain calculation or due to the large size of the work, etc. In this case, the work is divided into the first registration - underpainting, in which the task of the painter is reduced to a solid establishment of the picture, general forms and chiaroscuro. Coloring is either given secondary importance, or it is carried out in such tones that only in further prescriptions with overlying paints give the desired tone or effect - on the second, third, etc. registration, in which the task is reduced to resolving the subtleties of form and color. This second method makes it possible to use all the resources of oil painting.
Painting "Alla Prima" (alla prima). In technical terms, this method of painting is the best, since with it all painting consists of one layer, the drying of which, with a moderate thickness, proceeds unhindered and quite normal, why, with an appropriate primer, it is protected from cracks, just as the paints themselves retain their original - freshness. But not always this method can be implemented in practice and, moreover, it is not always included in the task of the painter.
The primer for painting "alla prima" should not be too pulling, as well as too impenetrable and slippery, therefore, when using adhesive primer, all necessary measures are taken to prevent too noticeable a change in colors on it in tone due to loss of oil. An oily soil, especially one that has dried out and is therefore impenetrable, is given some permeability, which is achieved by rubbing it with alcohol or pumice; in addition, choose a soil with a rough surface. As for the color of the primer, the most suitable in this case are light primers with different shades, according to the painting task, as well as pure white primer. Pinkish, yellowish and other shades of ground are obtained by painting white ground with transparent paint.
The described method of painting often does not require the execution of an ordinary drawing, and the artist can proceed directly to paints and writing, depending on the painting task and the experience of the master.
If the drawing is necessary, then it can be limited to a light charcoal sketch. Black charcoal drawing with its fixer should be avoided, as any sharp black outlines will later show through a thin layer of paint and thus spoil the painting. The composition of the fixative is also not indifferent to its strength.
In order to be able to finish the painting "on the raw", i.e. before the oil paints begin to dry, all sorts of measures, but harmless to painting, are taken, starting with the selection of paints. Slow drying paints are preferred here.
In order to delay the drying of the paints as long as possible, the painting being performed is placed in the intervals between work in the cold, in the dark, and, if possible, the free access of air to it is blocked. The implementation of these last measures, unfortunately, cannot always be used, especially when the size of the painting is large; meanwhile, these measures are very effective.
Essential oils are used for the same purpose.
Painting by this method is carried out differently and depends largely on the individuality of the artist; that is why, in presenting this method, one can confine oneself to the most essential and important indications.
Under the painting "alla prima", in the direct meaning of these words, one must mean one of the methods in which the artist sets himself the task of immediately reproducing in paints everything that he sees in nature, i.e. color, shape, chiaroscuro, etc., without resorting to dividing this complex task into separate moments of work. The difficulty of solving this problem is, of course, great, and becomes all the more so if the artist strives to finish his work "on the raw side", i.e. before the colors dry.
Painting is done differently. It can be started with smears of semi-thick paints, applied freely, tone to tone, without mixing them for a long time on the palette, until the entire canvas is revealed.
Painting should be done with tube paints.
When applying too thick a layer of paints that makes further work difficult, you should remove their excess with a palette knife, spatula and knife, as well as applying clean paper to the layer of paints, which is pressed against it with the palm of your hand and then, after removal, takes on all the excess paints .
It is possible, when painting “alla prima”, to start it by rubbing, diluting the paints for nothing and applying them liquidly, like watercolors. This laying is carried out flatly, without modeling forms, having the task of only a broad overall effect. For her, it is better to use body paints, introducing white into them. Then, in further work, pasty colors are introduced, and real painting begins.
When working "alla prima" on a too pulling ground, oil paints give a matte painting, which is inferior to tempera in terms of color and, moreover, if the paints are too strongly de-oiled, it is devoid of strength.
The painting performed by "alla prima" has a peculiar beauty, it is pleasant with its freshness and immediacy, revealing the "stroke" of the author and his temperament. I. Repin's sketches for his painting "The State Council" can serve as examples of this kind of painting.
Painting in several stages. Such painting is called multi-layered.
tricks multilayer painting different. It can be carried out from beginning to end with oil or oil-lacquer paints, as well as a mixed method of painting, the beginning of which is given with water-based paints, and the end with oil and oil-varnish paints.
Depending on the painting method chosen by the artist, the canvas primer used in the case is also selected.
The drawing from which the work begins is made with different materials, depending on the color of the soil, its composition and the methods of pictorial underpainting. As mentioned above, it is best to do it separately on paper and then transfer it to canvas, where it is outlined over an adhesive or emulsion primer with watercolor and tempera and liquid diluted oil paint, which dries quickly on an oil primer.
With such an approach to business, the primer retains the purity of its color, in addition, its surface, which may suffer during corrections and changes in the drawing with charcoal, pencils, etc.
This is followed by underpainting, the technical side of which should, perhaps, better suit its purpose.
Underpainting. Since the underpainting in the picture is the first layer of painting, which should then take over the subsequent layers, then, in the interests of the strength of the painting, it should be done in such a way that it makes it possible, with full guarantee of the strength of the work, to short term proceed with further enrollments.
The most appropriate technique for this task will be water paints: watercolor and tempera.
Underpainting with water paints is carried out only on emulsion primer, on which both watercolor and tempera fit quite well. This primer should contain in its composition a significantly smaller amount of oil than an emulsion primer for oil painting.
Watercolor, however, is suitable only for works of small size; in addition, the tone of watercolors under varnish is not similar to the tone of oil paints. This is why watercolor underpainting requires full coverage with oil paints.
Tempera painting should be considered the most applicable in underpainting. It is especially appropriate when performing works of large sizes. Here, of course, only tempera can be used. superior qualities, i.e. casein or egg tempera.
Tempera underpainting gives great strength to paints, which become so intense under varnish that the oil paint that finishes the painting can give in to them in terms of color strength. This circumstance must be taken into account when performing underpainting. best material for registration, the underpainting will be in this case oil-lacquer paints.
Tempera underpainting is carried out with liquid body and transparent paints, but always in a thin layer without any paste.
Underpainting with oil paints, both in technical and pictorial terms, is performed differently.
Painting according to this method on adhesive and semi-adhesive primers is the most appropriate, since with the use of the latter, the number of oil layers is reduced, which has a very favorable effect on the strength of the painting, but an impeccably prepared oil primer can also be used.
One of the frequently used and quite productive ways of painting in underpainting is to perform it “rubbed” with oil paints, diluted essential oils, turpentine, oil, etc., which is somehow practiced in “Alla Prima” painting.
The forms, the general color of the picture and its entire ensemble are established here with a thin, as if watercolor layer of paints.
The drying of the underpainting made by this method is very fast if the paints are fast-drying, and, moreover, through, due to the thinness of the layer of paints, which, of course, is of great importance for further work above the picture.
But it is possible to carry out underpainting with impasto writing, and its technique will depend entirely on the properties of the soil used in this case.
Paints are applied to the adhesive pulling primer in the form in which they are obtained from tubes, without any diluents.
The positive properties of this underpainting are that its paints dry quickly and are firmly bound to the ground. The disadvantage is the change in the tone of the colors in the process of painting, as well as when rubbing the underpainting with varnish before its further registration.
The old masters, especially those of a more distant time from us, looked at their work in underpainting as a preparatory rough work, where all the attention of the master was absorbed by the staging of the drawing, the modeling of forms, the details of the composition; as for the color, only the necessary base was prepared for it in the underpainting, based on which the color of the picture was subsequently created, the freshness of which is largely due to the method of work described above.
Modern painting adheres, in general terms, to the same system in work, but the method of painting "alla prima" has received very great importance in it. Each era, as we see, creates its own system of painting, which, of course, cannot be ignored.
Underpainting in a picturesque sense should be carried out in such a way as to simplify, if possible, all its further registration. A correctly executed underpainting is therefore easy to finish with a small load of paints at the second registration.
An underpainting filled with tempera will be ready for registration before other underpaintings. Then, in order of readiness, follow oil underpaintings on adhesive primer and, finally, pasty oil paints on emulsion and oil primers. A well-dried painting is recognizable by the following features: it does not tack; when scraped with a fingernail and a knife, it turns into powder, but not into shavings; when breathing it does not fog up.
If underpainting is necessary, it can be well scraped and smoothed with a knife, a special scraper, etc. before re-scribing.
Scraping, pumice and smoothing layers of oil painting is especially appropriate when underpainting with impasto (greasy) layering of paints, as excessive roughness is cut off here and, most importantly, the top crust of dried oil is removed, which, when the oil paint is very dry, prevents the layers applied on top of it from attaching oil paints. After this operation, the underpainting is washed clean water and dry.
With a non-pastose letter, the underpainting does not need to be scraped off. In order for the dried layer of oil paint to regain the ability to take on paint, if it has not been scraped and polished, it is rubbed with bleached oil, which is rubbed into it with the palm of the hand. The oil is applied in the smallest amount, so as only to moisten the surface that is supposed to be re-registered.
Instead of oil, underpainting can be covered with a liquid warm solution of Venetian turpentine (balm) in turpentine, as was once practiced in the old days, or with a liquid solution of turpentine varnish, since essential oils easily wet dried oil paint. The same goal is achieved by admixing paint varnishes containing essential oils with paints.
If the rules for handling the underpainting are not followed, the upper layers of the painting acquire a tendency to crumble, and the greater the longer the underpainting has stood; There are many examples of this in the works of painting of the later era.
With further underpainting, glazing can be introduced if they were included in the plan for painting, or secondary prescribing is carried out by the so-called “semi-painting”, i.e. a thin layer of body paint, and painting ends with this technique. It must be borne in mind, however, that too much build-up of colors in oil painting is considered unacceptable; each newly applied layer must be dried, and only then can further work be started.
Fundamental rules:
1) do not apply oil paints in thick layers in general, and even more so oil-rich paints;
2) to use in painting always a moderately drawing (oil) primer, as well as underpainting and, in general, the underlying layers of painting, saturating them with oil if its content in the latter is insufficient.
The best method of painting in the second registration is the painting "alla prima", which gives freshness to the pictorial performance.
The second registration is carried out with more liquid paints than underpainting. Varnishes for painting and condensed oils are applicable here. The latter are introduced into paints mixed with turpentine varnishes. The second registration in terms of content in its colors binders thus exceeds the underpainting. The old principle of layering oil paints - "fat on skinny" - is completely observed.
If the underpainting was carried out in conditional tones, then to facilitate the work it is useful to start the second registration in local tones of nature with glazing or semi-glazing, on top of which body painting already follows.
Glazing. Glazes are called thin, transparent and translucent layers of oil and other paints applied to other well-dried similar paints to give the latter the desired intense and transparent tone.
Almost all paints are suitable for glazing: some for transparent, others for translucent. Less suitable are cadmium, cinnabar, Neapolitan yellow, English red, caput-mortuum, black cork and peach and some others.
Transparent glazes only change the tone of the underlying preparation into a denser and more transparent one, without affecting the detail of the modeling and the main chiaroscuro. Translucent ones can significantly change, depending on the degree of their transparency, the detail of the underpainting modeling.
Glazing can be used to supplement or finish almost any painting begun one way or another, but even better results are achieved on an underpainting specially prepared for this purpose. In this case, the underpainting is done in such a way that its painting is lighter and colder than it is supposed to be in its finished form; the proper tone and chiaroscuro are given to it by glazing in combination with underpainting tones.
The glazes of the old masters were of great importance. Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez, their contemporaries and other masters of an earlier time used them perfectly in their painting. The popularity of glazing in past eras indicates that they were the best suited to the pictorial demands of the artists who used them.
Glazes, due to their physical structure, strongly absorb light, and therefore a picture executed by them requires much more light for its illumination than painting sustained in body paints, which reflect light more than absorb.
For the same reason, painting done with glazing lacks airiness, which is best achieved in painting with paints with a matte surface, which strongly reflects and scatters light.
The tones produced by glazing come forward rather than recede back. Therefore, the sky in the picture is not painted with glazing.
Of great interest to the artist of our time are semi-glazing applied in translucent tones.
Semiglazing is paint applied in a thin translucent layer. From an optical point of view, such a layer of colors is one of the types of so-called "muddy environments" to which some of the visible colors nature. The tones obtained in painting with the help of semiglazing have a peculiar beauty. They do not shine with strength and brightness, but it is not possible to obtain them by physically mixing colors on the palette. The old masters of a later era made much use of the described method of painting; contemporary artists also use it, often accidentally or unconsciously.
Corrections. Oil paints become more and more transparent over time. Such an increase in transparency is also observed in body paints, and some of them, like white lead, become translucent due to the loss of their hiding power, as well as the thinning of the layer when dried. Taking into account this feature of oil painting, it is necessary to be very careful about all kinds of correspondence and radical alterations in oil painting, which the painter sometimes needs, since all corrections and notes made by a thin layer of body paints, after a long period of time, become again visible.
So, in the equestrian portrait of Philip IV by Velasquez, eight legs (gallery of Madrid) are visible, of which four protrude from the tone of the earth, with which the author covered them, being apparently dissatisfied with the position of the legs.
In the portrait of the artist Litovchenko by I. Kramskoy ( Tretyakov Gallery) through the black hat worn on the artist’s head, Litovchenko’s forehead shines quite clearly, on which the hat was put on, apparently later, when the head was already painted. In the portrait of Rembrandt "Jan Sobiessky", the stick that Sobiessky holds in his hand had at first big sizes and then shortened. Many such examples could be cited.
The examples given clearly show that corrections made with a thin layer, even of opaque paints, in oil painting do not achieve their goal. Here, thorough re-layering of paints is necessary, with which alone it is possible to make forever invisible those places of painting that they want to destroy. In this case, it is even better to clean the places intended for alteration completely from painting and then write them down again on clean ground. With the help of chloroform, acetone and benzene, even very old oil paint can be quickly and easily removed clean.
With small corrections in critical places (for example, the head, hands of a portrait, etc.), it is necessary to take into account the possible swelling and the usual darkening under the varnish of the corrected places. And therefore, when starting to correct, the places to be reworked are dried well, covered with liquid varnish and corrected with paints with varnish for painting, in order to avoid the appearance of sagging. In the same case, if sagging has formed, it should not be covered with retouching varnish, but the lost brilliance and tone should be restored to it by oiling alone.
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| Introduction |
| General information about paints |
One of the achievements of oil painting was the creation of improved rules for writing - a system of clear sequence and organization of work, consisting of three main parts: 1) preparing a drawing and transferring it to the base; 2) preliminary work with paints - underpainting; 3) final glazing.
Another, no less important, and perhaps the main advantage of this technique is the unique capabilities of oil and resinous materials directly related to them - varnishes, which make it possible to spread paint over the surface in a very thin layer and significantly increase their optical properties. Of course, the order in the work and the sequence existed in other technologies. However, neither the encaustic, nor the tempera, nor the fresco possessed such glazing advantages, technical capabilities and optical properties that distinguish oil painting. Undoubtedly, many of the techniques of early technology have passed into oil painting.
Ground color
All stages of creation classical work are closely related. Work can be started on white ground with subsequent modeling of forms with one paint or on a colored lining - imprimatura, where modeling is done with grisaille. As a rule, the previous stage is carried out taking into account the subsequent one. In the underpainting, the problem of “texture” is solved and already partially - the local color, but somewhat in a chilled (whitewash) manner of painting. The subsequent execution of glazes depends on the quality of the underpainting.
The Italians were already familiar with the oil technique at the beginning of the 14th century, but a clear organization of work came to Italy from the north, where Dutch artists at the end of the 14th century. for the first time they began to write on white ground on wooden bases with brown modeling of forms. This painting technique was later called the "Flemish method". Gradually, white grounds are replaced by colored imprimaturs, which are quite light at first. Later, under the influence of the schools of Giorgione and Titian, the color of the ground changes from light gray to dark to very dark brown and red-brown. The concept of "grisaille" appears in the new method. Distinctive feature this method from the Flemish - the artists immediately began to work on colored soils. The method was subsequently called the "Italian method". Comparing the methods, it can be seen that the artists at the second stage in both cases continued to paint according to the dark background. The only difference was that in the first one, the drawing was applied on white ground, and then brown modeling of the form followed, in the second, the drawing was applied on colored ground.
When painting on white grounds, after transferring the drawing, the old masters carefully shaded the forms with tempera or oil paint, always transparent, so that the white ground could be seen through it, which in some places was barely covered or remained white. Modeling color - golden brown. Sometimes a transparent pink flesh-colored paint was added to the oil varnish and the whole picture went through it or some areas were shaded. Already at this stage, the picture could be very beautiful. In the earliest stages of the development of oil technique, a work prepared in this way could be completed with multiple colored glazes or semi-hulled inscriptions, each color of which was prepared separately. Another way to work on white grounds - after a brown-pink preparation with transparent paints, painting was continued with body and semi-body water or oil paints, counting on further glazing, or simply finishing the picture in one go. In all cases, separate colors of a certain shade were prepared. On light gray soils they painted with warm brown paint and shadows, dark draperies and other more or less dark places were laid with it. Often this was done with tempera or glue paints, which, after finishing, were fixed with oil varnish. In light areas, work was carried out on a desiccant oil varnish with ordinary or slightly tinted grisaille, carefully working out the forms. After such preparation, the painting was given a smooth, shiny character - scraped, polished, wiped with varnish. At the same time, the hull (or semi-hull) insulated shady areas and prescribed reflexes. In halftones over gray preparation, the grisaille paint was subtly shaded, connecting it with the shadows. Halftones always remained cold. This coloristic construction - warm lights, cold midtones and more intense "hot" shadows - was characteristic of the underpainting of the naked body. The preparation was finished with thin repeated glazing and accents in the lightest and darkest places.
The system of execution of painting on light brown and red-brown grounds was approximately similar to work on light gray grounds. But if on gray grounds they started with shadows of brown paint, and cold lights were left untouched, then on brown grounds they started with light areas of grisaille, and the shadows were left warm. Then the work was carried out in approximately the same way as on light gray soils.
In the XVI century. soils gradually darken. And at the end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII century. artists, mostly of the southern schools, began to use very dark, almost black grounds, often adding charcoal to them. The painting on dark soils began, covering the entire surface of the painting with a body underpainting. The speed of execution increased significantly, but later this led to the fact that the work was carried out with local paints without traditional underpainting and glazing, and ended in one go.
Underpainting
If we consider the painting of the old masters, we will notice that at all stages the painting was carried out easily, without overloading the forms with tone and, if possible, at one time. Thorough drying followed after each session.
While working on the tinted underpainting and glazes, the artists could return to the shadows and reflections, the basis of which was laid at the beginning. But often the shadows and reflections remained in their original form even at the stages of the last glazing.
The technique of oil painting developed against the backdrop of the established traditions of tempera painting. One important detail - water-based paints, while wet, have a dark, dense tone, which, after drying, becomes whitish, light. This difference in tone depends on the optical properties of the wet material and the dry adhesive film. To consolidate the general tone of the picture, the underpainting, made with water-based paint, was dried, scraped, removing excess paint with a sharp knife so that its layer was as thin as possible, and covered with oil varnish or well-prepared oil. The work immediately took on a different look - greatly reduced in tone, acquiring elasticity, depth and a golden hue. The painting was allowed to dry and the result was an oil painting. Sometimes it was polished with a fine abrasive material several more times, after varnishing, and always with oil.
The task of underpainting is to carefully work out all the lights in the picture in case, impasto painting, giving an enhanced, often significantly contrasting effect of light and shadow. It mainly involved tinted white. Underpainting with pure white is extremely rare. In its final form, it always had a colder and light tone than after the final glazes. This “cooling” intensified after drying. In the underpainting, the illuminated areas of the painting were prepared the stronger and more carefully, the greater the role given to further glazing. The texture of the brushstroke, which could be smooth, shaded or embossed, with obvious marks left by the brush, which became more apparent in further glazing, was of great importance in underpainting. To achieve the effect of a smooth brushstroke, they often used the method of fluting - shading the body of a stroke with a dry flute or shading paint laid in liquid. For this, brushes of different textures, sizes and shapes were used. Dry shading in the final stage of underpainting gave the painting a smooth, shiny character. It was often used in nude work.
In the painting of the old masters, a technique was used that gives strength to the illuminated places in the picture. If you put a liquid thin layer of light opaque paint, then it will be colder and darker than the same paint laid thickly. Body, thick paint, reflecting the rays of light, will be incomparably lighter and retain its true color than a liquid bleached color.
But if the corpus of colors was always used in the illuminated areas of the picture, and especially when expressing brilliance, then the shadows wrote very thinly. Often, the color of the ground was visible through the layer of paint, a thin layer of paint gave transparency, lightness and at the same time depth to the shadows, especially after glazing. If the underpainting is made in a bleaching, slightly colored or grisaille manner, but heavily modeled and contrasted, given in full strength of light, and the midtones and shadows remain almost untouched, then the task of glazing (except for enhancing the color) is to weaken the contrast of the underpainting. Glazing, placed on the light parts of the picture, lowers their tone, enhances the color. She slightly tints the shadow areas, giving them more depth.
In the old painting technique, there are solutions when chiaroscuro is weakly expressed in the underpainting. In this case, the task of glazing is to enhance the contrast of light and shadow. Such glazing is applied more intensely in the shadows and very thinly in the light areas. Often, at the stage of glazing, one has to re-introduce into the illuminated places of the picture and strengthen them in the body, by retouching.
In painting underpainting, brushes of various shapes and sizes were used: bristle, kolinsky, ear hair, ferret, squirrel and others, depending on the purpose. Long, flat, bristled brushes pick up a lot of paint and can be used for a long time. The largest ones pass through large surfaces and organize the texture of the stroke, which can be wide and short or long and narrow. They can draw lines or put strokes one next to the other, slightly overlapping one another. The thickness of the drawn lines depends on the rotation of the brush blade. They give the hardest textured smear. It is convenient to shade the paint with flat bristle brushes - to flute. It is convenient to end with round bristle and other brushes, inflicting small and frequent blows with the end of the brush on densely or semi-hulled paint. This is one of the types of leveling the paint layer. Soft kolinsky, squirrel and similar brushes give a delicate and gentle stroke. Thin brushes of all kinds are more suitable for finishing work. They prescribe small details: stones, earth, grass, foliage, and in general everything that requires careful study. For finishing strokes in the foreground, finishing the rough surface of the earth, stones and other details, disheveled old bristle brushes and various palette knives are used.
Glaze
The third canon of the classical painting. Exaggeratedly, it can be imagined as dressing a naked body in colored transparent clothes. In oil technique, this is the final technique, prescribing or rubbing a thin layer of transparent paint on already completely dried parts in order to modify or enhance the underlying tone. Glazing always lowers the work in tone, generalizes or reveals individual sections in it, enhancing the color sound and depth of the picture. Glazing often in general insulates or cools the color of the picture. Transparent glazing does not change any of the elaborated details, giving more strength either to close plans, or warming up or cooling down other parts of the composition, striving to achieve the fullness of the effect. Glazing was always performed by the old masters according to body preparation.
Valer
Translated from French, it is “value”, and in painting it is a certain shade of tone, expressing a specific state of light and shadow. It is carried out by retouching the painting with liquid paint mixed with white. In this it is similar to glazing and is often misnamed as such. It is more related to the second hull stage of work, although it is often used in the process of glazing. But if glazing is a way of writing only with transparent paints, applied, as a rule, repeatedly in a certain technological sequence, then valer is the painting itself with mixtures of paints, executed in one go - sometimes easily in shadow areas, sometimes more corpusally in highlights.
The technique was often used by many old and modern artists when prescribing the second plan of a picture, in depicting morning fog, in working with nudes, portraits, etc. This is about the same as what we call aerial perspective today. Leonardo da Vinci first used it in painting, calling it sfumato (literally, "disappeared like smoke"). With the finest glazes and virtuosity of work with very liquid and thinly laid semi-hulled whitewashed paint, he achieved unsurpassed lightness, elegance and depth in the development of space. bright representative a similar technique was also Rubens.
retouching
A painting technique used in the final stages of the work. It is to some extent akin to valery and glazing.
Artists in the final stage of work are not always fully able to express their intentions, and in this case, retouching is required. Sometimes it consists in a more corpus study of light and deepening of halftones and reflexes; sometimes it is a combination of painting in a tone, always liquid, which can be semi-hull or transparent. In the first case, it can be attributed to valery, in the second - to glazing.
E. Berger writes about Rubens’ technique in the following way: “Overloaded artists like Rubens often gave underpainting for their paintings to students and then “retouched” them, that is, they went through the whole picture in such a way that it could be considered their own work. Such retouches could be done partly with glazing, partly half-hull, and sometimes in a strong expressive manner in order to give the whole work a masterful handwriting.
Armenini, in his treatise, speaks with great approval of the retouching technique, saying that it can achieve great perfection: “In oil technique, this is easy to do if the underpainting is very advanced; since the colors always fade, or the shadows blacken, you need to return to them several times in order to make them alive, fresh, uniform, soft and pleasant again. To do this, wipe the place well with a piece of linen, lightly dipping it in light nut oil, making the fragment appear smooth and shiny. This works better on wood than on canvas; as soon as the oil is carefully wiped off with a dry white cloth, the already written things immediately pass again, where necessary, retouching, brightening, softening, glazing, making body registrations and never leaving even the smallest thing that could defile the eye.
Thus, the concepts associated with the third stage - glazing, which are often found in modern everyday life, must be considered as the whole variety of working with liquid oil paint.
The finished product of the old masters, executed in the oil painting technique, is like deep transparent, often bottomless, water. When you look into its depths, you see the color and texture of the bottom, sometimes clearly, sometimes barely noticeable: sand, stones, grass and living creatures that are in it. This is the whole essence of the expression - "deep painting". The beauty of painting also depends on this depth and coloristic purity.
deep color
This is the name of any basic pure color without whitening. Deep colors give great importance to the color of the picture and, with the purity of the tones, do not irritate the eye, do not disturb the harmony, even if other pure contrasting colors are placed nearby. The greatest depth of color is achieved by glazing, in which resin varnishes play a dominant role: the higher the melting point of resins, the more they contribute to a greater depth of painting. No matter how strong contrasts the picture is painted, but if it is covered with a thin transparent layer of one of the bright basic colors with a generalizing glaze, then all the colors of the picture will find harmony.
Paints used at the stage of glazing are more or less transparent. Less transparent colors in combination with white become colder and lose their freshness; transparent paints combined with white retain more purity of color.
For glazing, the following paints and their mixtures are most often used: sienna - natural and burnt, umber - natural and burnt, natural brown vandik, transparent mars of all shades, red kraplak and other types of kraplak, as well as other varnish paints of different shades: transparent red ocher natural, emerald green, volkonskoite, natural ultramarine, artificial ultramarine. This list does not limit the number of paints used. In other words, all types of transparent and translucent paints that are used in painting take part in glazing.
Some bright colors cannot be obtained otherwise than by working on a light background with transparent paints. The finest glazes with barely perceptible transitions of some colors to others are most conveniently carried out on well-prepared, refined, compacted and clarified linseed oil. The oil is not a solvent (like pinene, for example) and hardens slowly, for this reason, using it, you can work for a long time and slowly. Glaze over a well-dried colorful surface, which is thinly wiped with a swab before that, and preferably with clean fingers with very thin oil. If the surface is dry, then it must be lightly rubbed with turpentine, pinene, purified turpentine or white spirit before rubbing with oil, but you need to be sure that these weak solvents will only soften the paint film without dissolving it.
The oil film has lower optical properties than the lacquer ones, so the lacquers give the painting more depth and are always involved in the glazing process. Glazes on pure pinene or turpentine are meaningless, since pinene, thinning the oil in paints, quickly evaporates and a thin, weak, matte oil-paint film with low optical properties remains on the surface. In this case, the oil thickens and hardens faster, preventing the painting from being processed for a long time and finely.
Large surfaces that do not require subtle transitions from one color to another, so as not to make dirt, it is better to glaze in one step with retouching varnish without oil. Colorful lacquer films dry out faster than oil ones due to the active volatilization of pinene, therefore, when re-scribing, the brush will get stuck in the semi-dry lacquer paint, forming dirty spots. But if it becomes necessary to re-register on the varnish film, then you need to let it dry enough and re-register in condensed oil. It gently combines with semi-dry varnish and gently blends the paint. It is better to conduct small shading with the fingers of the hand, and large areas with the edge of the palm. At the same time, so that the oil does not sag, it must be taken as little as possible and shaded as dry as possible.
In some cases, to enhance the texture of a relief stroke or to show the graininess of the canvas in the course of work with glazing, the artist removes excess transparent paint with the palm of his hand, removing it from the bulges and leaving it only in the grooves.
There is an unconventional work in a way close to glazing, when white, very liquid tinted paint thinly and easily covers individual pieces of underpainting. Such liquid whitening paint on a dark underpainting gives coolish-greenish tints, which, after 2-3 hours, are completed with strokes of the same, but thicker paint in light areas. So, for example, lace of white veils is painted in one go, so you can “revive” the naked parts of the body (faces, hands) in the final stages of painting. Sometimes you have to return to this technique several times, repeating the recipes after drying and wiping with retouching or retouching with oil of the previous layer of paint.
There are cases of work with glazing at the underpainting stage, which consists in the fact that on the next day of work, a clean glazing, semi-glazing or even very liquid colored body paint is applied to the semi-dry underpainting.
More often this technique is used, diluting paints with retouching varnishes. In this case, there is some clouding of the painting, when the paint is slightly mixed with the white part of the underpainting, literally "melting" into the still wet painting.
But it often happens that even after the end of the glazing, the picture is not completely completed, after a while the artist returns to work with an already dried layer of painting and, if necessary, goes through retouching, makes accents in the lightest parts of the picture, shading the forms and emphasizing the details.
One of the most unconventional cases of painting corrections in the process or at the end of the work with glazing was used by Van Dyck, when he urgently made corrections to a seemingly finished work. He used garlic juice, which has the surface-active properties of "degreasing" the dried surface of oil paints, rubbed the dried oil surface with the juice and, when the juice dried, forming a film, he made corrections in this place with water-based paints on gum. After drying, the artist rubbed them with oil varnish and finished painting. As a rule, after drying of an already almost finished thing, it is covered with a unifying glaze using retouch varnish or turpentine-oil mixtures, after which the picture becomes complete.
A modern artist, working endlessly and operating with a large number of colors, tries to give each stroke a special status on the entire surface of the picture. old master,
as a rule, he limited the number of colors and used each subsequent tone as widely and varied in texture as possible, taking care of color purity. As a result, his work always ended with glazing.
Describing the painting of the old masters, Erns Berger says: “In my opinion, main reason the high flourishing of art of that time should be seen not in one or another masterful recipe (which, according to many, was lost over time), but in a conscious and expedient method of using all available means, both optical-aesthetic and handicraft. The correct understanding of all the indicated
auxiliaries in the right place and in the right amount, and not individual recipes, no matter how good they may be.
The power of artistic expression based on knowledge of anatomy and perspective,
a high culture in understanding and depicting forms and lines, light and color, space, etc. - all this taken together made it possible for the masters of the Renaissance to bring art to such a peak, which was subsequently achieved by very few.
Glossary:
Imprimatura (translated from Italian - “to begin”) is a colored upper layer of soil, or the first (lower) layer of painting, which performs the main coloristic role in the picture. Texture - laying the foundation for further glazing, relief underpainting with a more loaded paint in illuminated areas.
Whitewash, made with warm (or neutral brownish) or cooled colors, is a color whitewash preparation in which a small number of colors were used. In the first case, colors could be involved: white, black, yellow ocher, some dark brown (for example, burnt umber) and a little cinnabar. Paints of a cold shade were called by the old masters "dead paints", i.e. unnatural. They performed underpainting, which included grayish, greenish, ocher-greenish, bluish, pink, etc.
Grisaille (French grisaille from gris - “gray”) is the second stage of working with paints, when, according to the imprimatura, after transferring the drawing, a monochrome underpainting is applied in the usual local whitening manner. Trimming paints - a technical technique for leveling and creating a thin, barely noticeable texture of a colorful surface. This technique was a preparation for the next stage - glazing.
Concepts: color, color and tone must be distinguished. Color is a physical concept, the property of light to cause certain visual sensations. It is impossible to cover this or that place in the picture with color, but only color.
Kohler - paint or a mixture of several colors.
Hue is one of the signs of a color - its "quality" or shade, due to which this color differs from another.
Shrinkage of linseed oil refers to its property to form a surface film when exposed to oxygen from the air. At the same time, the upper layers of the oil harden faster, and the lower ones, for lack of air access to them, slower. In a thick layer of oil (and paints), due to the difference in the rates of oil hardening in depth and on the surface, the film wrinkles in its upper parts, which is called "shrinking".
Gummi (lat.) or gums (Greek) - natural vegetable adhesives, which are thick juices flowing from cuts in the bark of some shrubs and trees, hardening in air and forming resins that are soluble in water.
Garlic juice is prepared in the following way: squeeze the head of garlic into a small ceramic medical mortar, pour in some warm water and rub the mass with a pestle. Then squeeze it through four layers of gauze into a separate bowl. Before that, prepare the oil surface for corrections: wipe it dry sandpaper or fine abrasive, loosening the oil film and removing an excess layer of paint; carefully remove paint dust by covering the surface with garlic juice with the palm of your hand or fingers until the juice rolls into drops, forming an even film.
The greatest masterpieces were painted with oil paints, it was they who gave, and still give, their preference to masters of painting and famous artists. But working with such paints has its own unique features and peculiar differences in techniques. Therefore, many novice artists have some difficulties in writing pictures. In this article, we will try to figure out how to paint with oil paints, what they are, and also consider several techniques in oil painting.
In specialized stores, oil paints are presented in a large assortment, there are many brands under which such art products are sold. What is special about oil paints?
The composition includes various pigments: mineral, organic, synthetic and earth. The same components are present in the composition of other types of paints, be it acrylic or watercolor.
Oil paints differ from others in the binding component - this is linseed oil. It is it that gives the brightness and saturation of the color, and it is because of it that such paints dry for a long time. But on the other hand, a fresh layer of oil applied to the canvas lends itself to change, that is, you can repeatedly adjust the drawing and apply new layers on top of the old ones.
Another feature of oil paints is that they are diluted not with water, but with a special solvent, which is also used as vegetable oil. Such a thinner is sold in art stores, as are the paints themselves.
What types are there?
In each specialized store you can find three types of paints:
- Highly artistic. These are paints that are purchased by professionals in their field. They consist only of high-quality components, therefore they have a high cost. But for a good picture, good paints are needed, which over time will not lose their luster and will not change color.
- Studio. They are in no less demand than the first option, they behave well on canvas. Suitable for both professional and beginner artists.
- Sketchy. They are more suitable for beginners in the art business, since for a low cost you can buy a sufficient amount of paints and choose your own application technique.
Manufacturers of oil paints are located in many countries of the world. Experienced artists have already chosen for themselves those options that are suitable for work. Many combine their kits from different companies, which is also acceptable.
Still oil paints are divided into transparent and opaque. The latter are denser in structure and therefore do not let light pass through them. Each package must have special markings. For example, the designation "*" indicates the durability and durability of paint on canvas. The more such symbols on the paint, the longer the finished canvases will last. The best paints last over 100 years.
The symbol in the form of a filled black square means that the paint is not transparent, if it is half, then it is translucent.
Pigments that give the paint a particular color can be divided into organic and inorganic. The first type gives brighter shades, and the second natural colors. With a good ratio of pigments, manufacturers achieve beautiful and high-quality shades.
For the production of oil paints, imported linseed oil is usually used, since flax growing outside the territory Russian Federation, has unique properties due to which artistic paints have their own unique quality characteristics.
On the video: how to choose paints for oil painting.
About drawing techniques
Preparation for creativity does not take much time, especially since in modern art stores you can buy everything you need for work. Already stretched and primed canvases can be found in any size - from the smallest to the largest.
The picture painted with oil paints looks very impressive. The strokes applied by the artist look as if they are separate from each other. Many people think that oil painting is a fairly simple activity, but this is absolutely not the case. Let's try to figure out how to learn how to draw with oil paints.
Each master has his own drawing technique, which is distinguished by its own characteristics. The standard ones are:
- multilayer overlay;
- alla prima - one layer.
The execution of a multi-layer overlay is a very complex technique in which you need to be as careful as possible, knowing all the properties and characteristics of oil paints. It is necessary to work in the same style and not dilute the paint in order to finish the job faster. The diluted composition may appear on the canvas more matte and dull than the rest of the details. With this technique, not one or two tubes of paint will take the whole job.
When applying one layer, you must remember that the paint can shrink, and cracks will appear in the picture. Artists in this case let the first layer dry completely and paint the second one. Many craftsmen use this technique more often, since the material consumption is lower.
Fundamental rules
So, we are learning to paint with oil. What rules must be followed:
- A prerequisite for writing any picture is light. Only the right lighting can achieve the desired effect.
- Artists begin their work with the outline of the future painting. Charcoal works well for this. It can be easily wiped off with a rag and redraw the failed element. The lines that are drawn in charcoal must be fixed on the canvas.
- In the picture, all the tones and shadows are obtained by constantly mixing colors. You need to clearly understand what colors need to be mixed in order to achieve one or another shade.
- Masters begin to paint their picture with the brightest elements of the composition. That is, first you need to select the darkest element and the lightest. Then you can start all the other details.
- Once the basic sketch is done, you can move on to drawing. But do not focus on one element. It is necessary to gradually engage the entire canvas.
- Artists recommend taking white in much larger quantities than paints of other colors, as they are used more often.
- The finished painting dries within three days, so you can make adjustments on the canvas the next day after the work is completed. The missing place can be removed with a spatula. This will not harm either the canvas or the whole picture as a whole. The work will remain the same.
- For novice craftsmen and amateurs, it is unprofitable to use professional paints, since beginners will mostly draw sketches.
- For oil paints, it is necessary to prepare a special place for storage. What you need for painting (paints, brushes, canvas, palette) should be in one place, and they can be taken and used as soon as necessary.
- After the canvas has completely dried, it is impossible to wipe the surface with a dirty cloth and touch it with your hands. It can hurt appearance general drawing.
Step by step painting with oil paints looks something like this.
How to draw your first paintings will be prompted by artists who can boast of a large number of canvases. There are certain painting techniques for oil painting on canvas. A novice artist needs to start working under the supervision of an experienced teacher. As soon as the written drawings begin to turn out, and your own methods are revealed, you can paint with oil yourself.
On what to write with oil paints and how to start drawing, sellers of art supply stores can also tell you. There are many schools where people of all ages learn to paint. Learn to draw only from good craftsmen painting!
Oil painting workshops (2 videos)
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Hello dear friends and followers! I have been preparing for this topic for a long time, because I understood that it is generally very extensive and multifaceted. You can talk about oil painting techniques for a week without saying everything that can and should be said.
And yet, it is simply necessary to say the most important things. Just try to find it anywhere on the internet. a complete selection of basic techniques with descriptions them, so that it becomes clear to a person who has never painted before what basic techniques exist, how they are characteristic and how they differ from each other.
See how difficult it is. And it turns out that a person learns that there is alla prima, there is a multi-layer technique, and that's all ...
In fact, there are many techniques. And to know their features, and even more so to be able to put them into practice exactly where they are really needed, is very important for a professional artist. After all, such possession of them ensures professionalism and the ability to convey any details of the image on canvas.
Various writing techniques in oil painting
Each method (technique) of applying paint to canvas has its pros and cons. Somewhere the writing of the picture plays a significant role, but somewhere the complexity of the painted layer of detailing the picture is important.
From what method of applying the paint layer you used, and the surface texture in your picture will look like
Therefore, an overview of oil painting techniques is in order. If you are new and just take the brushes in your hands, then this material will be especially useful to you. So let's start. And let's start, nevertheless, with the most popular ...
Multi-layer technique
This technique is the most traditional, and most of the world's masterpieces of oil painting are written in it.
Its essence lies in the fact that when writing a picture colors are applied on top of each other, and the next layer is superimposed after complete drying the previous one.
The main feature of this technique is that it allows you to create "subtle" plots of paintings, indicate important accents in it and paint a picture for a long time, paying attention to every millimeter on the canvas, carefully working through its details.
It all starts with a light underpainting, which determines the tone of the picture.
The principle of work in multilayer painting is as follows: first, a sketch is made of the drawing and underpainting in dark tones, plus, the time for complete drying. The second layer is the main prescription of the painting with a colorful layer, plus drying time. The third layer - detailing and refinement in the picture ...
This technique itself is very diverse and, depending on how and what separate layers are formed, it is divided into other styles of writing.… Read more about it below⇓
Alla prima
This is a common and popular technique among professional artists as well as amateur artists. It is also called the technique in a raw or fast technique.
According to the method of applying paints, it is completely opposite to multilayer: with it, the paint is applied to the canvas in one session ... And the painting is measured in one to three days, until the paints dry completely .... And voila! The picture is ready!
An example of my landscapes in fast technique
It does not require very careful work on the details, but at the same time it is difficult because of the need to work, which is called "raw in raw". If you apply a new layer of ink to an existing wet layer, there is always the risk of mixing the ink layer and making the image more difficult to form.
So, the second paint layer in the Alla prima technique is applied immediately, which is not allowed in a multilayer.
Pictures painted in this manner, as a rule, do not always convey the accuracy of images and objects. Their task is not to document what the artist sees, but to capture on canvas his feelings from what he saw…. mood, atmosphere, feelings!
In other words, you won't be able to paint a finely detailed landscape, still life, or detailed genre painting... because for detailing, you may need more than one layer to refine the picture after drying. What is meant by working in multi-layer technique… But you can certainly write an interesting picture!
The Alla Prima technique is in great demand among professionals and amateurs of painting.
It is not surprising that the alla prima technique when working with oils has become widely known. It is this style that requires the transfer of mood, the fixation of a quickly passing moment, and it is alla prima that is most suitable for these purposes.
It is interesting that alla prima, despite its popularity, remained an independent and self-sufficient technique. You can learn more about this technique. But the multilayer technique, with a centuries-old history, like a lush fertile tree, gave rise to many of its variations. They, in turn, have become independent technicians. For example…
Technique of seven-layer painting, technique of old masters and glazing technique
Many people assume that such complex techniques are forgotten... But in fact, a lot professional artists working in these subtle techniques. Write complex work, revealing all the possibilities of oil paints can only be a special approach to writing.
For example, to copy the work of the old masters, we need just such methods of applying paints, as well as thin transparent glazing layers. Or, popular and in demand paintings in the style of hyperrealism, using glazing techniques to subtly convey the plausibility of the subject.
Although, for mastery in the style of hyperrealism, everyone uses: pencils, paints, airbrushes, markers ... that is, works are created, which in turn opens up great opportunities for art and humanity as a whole.
Techniques of the old Flemish, Italian masters
Perhaps, seven-layer technique- one of the most complex options for multi-layer technology. This technique provides the most reliable reproduction of colors and play of light. There is no single recipe and exact sequence. For example, some items may change places, but the essence of the work remains. In short, the sequence with it looks like this:
- The soil is tinted (imprimatura);
- A drawing is drawn with a pencil and fixed with ink;
- Underpainting is done - translucent, watercolor grisaille;
- A "dead layer" is applied - registration of grisaille of light and shadow;
- Color writing - the main layer, taking into account the lower layers of imprimatura and registration;
- Glazing - thin tinting layers of transparent paint;
- Detailing, texture formation if necessary, for example, in still lifes, finishing touches.
Eventually, work on one picture in this technique can last for months and requires the ability to work with different types colors.
An example of a technique in layered painting
There is another name like glazing watercolor technique... these are all the same multi-layer techniques with the application of transparent paints - 3-layer, 5-layer, if necessary, then 9-layer.
Its essence lies in the fact that translucent layers of paint are applied one on top of the other. As a result of such an overlay, new shades appear, a play of colors is created, which is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to achieve by overlaying opaque strokes.
Glazing layers applied on top of each other are translucent, which makes the picture unusually complex in shades and effects!
For glazing equipment must have very smooth surface canvas so that the transparent layer can lie flat on the surface. Previously, they wrote on wood, its surface is smooth, but the canvas appeared much later.
The tinted primer plays an important role in the case when the painting is done with glazing paints and the primer shines through the transparent layers, changing their color.
The color of the ground facilitates the transitions of tones and is often the main tone in certain places of the picture and sets the color of the work. If placed on tinted ground s covering paints, its color will not matter for painting.
The glazing technique in oil painting is very complex. and requires not only mastery of paints and brushes, but also an understanding of how they are combined in various dilutions.
Specialists also share many of the narrower techniques of oil painting. For example, Italian technique, Dutch technique, various transitional techniques are known, which differ mainly in individual nuances of applying different layers of paint.
And also the favorite method of applying paints by Leonardo da Vinci is Flemish (glazing). Knowing about the existence of such techniques is useful for the general outlook, but it is not necessary to use them to write great pictures. Indeed, in the Renaissance, there was an important feature, this document the image as accurately as possible, for example, a portrait of a noble person, or a juicy still life.
Now there is no such need, and with the advent of cameras in our world, painting has every right to develop in other directions and manners of writing!
Few people know that in addition to a particularly complex manner of painting, many painters and old masters, used a camera obscura, which conveyed the exact proportions. And what is this miracle device, ⇐
Impasto, Pastose, or body technique
This is the opposite of the glazing technique.
In principle, these are very similar techniques in meaning: pasty technique or body (pastoso), and impasto (impasto) , translates as dough... That is, the picture is "molded" like dough
Here dense opaque strokes are superimposed on each other, and the overlying layer completely overlaps the underlying one. In this technique, the master can actively work with the relief of the picture.
The plot of the picture seems to be molded on the surface of the canvas.
Moreover, you can apply paint in this technique not only with a brush, but also with a palette knife. You can also create various patterns with a palette knife or something else, for example, with an ordinary plastic brush from a building materials store.
The technique allows you to get a pleasant feeling of the materiality of objects. This technique is good because allows creative energy to express itself brush, palette knife, or spatula, for example. Vincent van Gogh I felt sorry for myself as an artist, it was with this painting technique that I applied thick paint to the canvas.
Grisaille
This is not so much an oil painting technique as a manner of writing in general. And she is one of the options for writing oil paintings. Its main principle- use only one color to paint a picture. Here, all borders and accents are formed by separate shades of the same color, and not by different colors. With amo name comes from the wordgris, which is French for grey.
Grisaille technique in oil painting
The grisaille technique is used in monumental and alfreine painting for painting walls and facades, and this technique also allows you to perfectly imitate sculptures and sculptural reliefs. But it also occurs in writing interesting pictures.
Dry brush technique
It's rather graphic method of applying paint in one color. Can be on canvas, paper, wood or metal. It has little relation to painting, but the image is applied with oil and brushes.
A rather rare manner in which the author uses slightly diluted, very thick paints. That is, it is written almost with a dry brush. As a rule, with such dilution, paints do not allow working with shades, but provide greater depth and saturation of the canvas.
Dry brush technique on paper
It is said that this style of writing was brought with them by Chinese students who drew portraits in ink on paper about 30 years ago for those who wished on the street. Well, our artists thought of it... and created their own version, no worse than the Chinese one!
And immediately a question for you, dear readers: what, in your opinion, is more important in the picture: to convey feelings, atmosphere, or details of some specific subject or phenomena? Which technique is closer to you - multilayer, or alla prima?
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