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| Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, 1892, Self-portrait Jan Van Eyck, 1437, Saint Barbara Indirect Painting: Step 2 - Underdrawing When an underdrawing is done is based off of the artist's preference. Some will make an underdrawing before laying down the imprimatura, but modern artists tend to complete the imprimatura before starting an underdrawing. Underdrawings can be quick and rough, as you can see in Anna Bilinska-Bohdanowicz's Self-Portrait, or increbily detailed as in Saint Barbara by Van Eyck. A good underdrawing will have the following characteristics:
Below are three videos which highlight three different ways to create an underdrawing:
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Showing posts with label Indirect Painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indirect Painting. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Indirect Paintings: Step 2 - Underdrawing
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Indirect Painting or Flemish Technique: Step 1 - Imprimatura (cont.)
Indirection Painting or the Flemish technique can be broken down into five steps:
- Imprimatura or Ground
- Underdrawing
- Underpainting / Dead Color
- Brunaille
- Verdaccio
- Grisaille
- Overpainting
- Semi-Transparent Glazes
Why the Imprimatura?
The imprimatura, or "first paint layer," is the initial stain of color painted over the blank ground of your support. This is usually done before a sketch is laid down. Using an imprimatura is as common in oil painting as white paper is in watercolor. The imprimatura can help create a unified color harmony throughout the colors painted on top of it and reduce the time and effort needed to arrive at a certain value range. If, while painting, you ever stand back and feel that your colors don't quite "match," try starting your work with an imprimatura. This can help create balance and unity.
Colored Imprimaturas
Traditionally the imprimatura was almost always moderate in intensity and value, and tended to rely on the low cost and quick dry qualities of earth pigments. Below is a list, from the Complete Oil Painter by Brian Gorst, of colors commonly used for imprimaturas. Where I can, I have included links to examples of each color being used in the description.
1. Gray: The main function of gray is to remove the glaring whiteness of the original ground. A light-toned gray is the multi-purpose imprimatura and is useful for all genres. It also allows flexibility when your color scheme is still undecided. It was sometimes used by artists such as Monet.
2. Terre Verte: This earth green was often used under areas of flesh by Byzantine and Medieval painters, such as Duccio, of the 13th and 14th centuries, but had continued use even past Michelangelo. The green helps neutralize the effects of strong pinks and reds, allowing for a natural skin color.
3. Earth Red/Burnt Sienna: Used by landscape artists to give breath to green foliage, it also creates a mauve hue when sky and clouds are painted over it. This effect can be seen in works by Turner. These colors are also used by figure and portrait painters to help establish warm shadow masses, and was often used in the French figurative tradition by artists ranging from Poussin to Degas.
4. Dark Brown or "bole:" A bole ground is usually an opaque mixture of Earth or Mars Red, black, and a small amount of Yellow Ochre. Still used today by traditional portrait and figure painters, a bole background came into style by artists such as Caravaggio and the young Velazquez.
5. Yellow Ocher/Raw Sienna: These earth yellows provide a rich, warm imprimatura which maintains a sense of luminosity. Used by landscape and portrait painters to give a work a warm, golden undertone. You can see this used in works by Rubens.
6. Burnt Umber/Raw Umber: Both are cheap, quick-drying, and semi-transparent, making them ideal for a thin imprimatura. These colors were used by artists such as da Vinci and Van Eyck.
7. Light Blue: Sometimes preferred by alla prima painters as a luminous base, using a blue imprimatura allows for water, skies, and atmospheric effects to be developed quickly. I have no idea who starts out with blue.
8. White: A plain white imprimatura is the most luminous imprimatura for glazing. The drawback is that it makes opaque paint appear darker by contrast. The white ground was first consistently used by Manet, and then later by artists such as Seurat and Derain.
Looking back through art history's use of imprimaturas can help you decide on the look and feel you would like to have in your own paintings, and is always the first step in copying a master's work.
Monet vs Manet
Looking at the top image of this post you will see two paintings by famous artists, Monet and Manet.
Manet was known for using white as his imprimatura, and this is exactly one of the reasons why the French Salon rejected his work. A white imprimatura can be difficult to work with when you do not understand how it can affect your color palette.
Using a white imprimatura should be done with purpose, as Manet did. You can see in Manet's Luncheon on the Grass how the white creates an unbalanced color harmony. The darks become too dark and lights too light against the white background. The blues and green seem to stand apart verses meld together and the yellows don't quite work wth their surrounding browns.
Manet did this on purpose. If this is also your purpose, run with the white, but be careful and aware that sometimes it just doesn't work out.
Monet on the other hand almost always used a colored imprimatura. While he did occasionally use white, you will usually see light blue (left), gray (middle), or yellow (right) coming through his works. His use of the imprimatura is a perfect example of how the correct imprimatura can help brightly painted, multi-colored works maintain a balanced color harmony.
Traditionally the imprimatura was almost always moderate in intensity and value, and tended to rely on the low cost and quick dry qualities of earth pigments. Below is a list, from the Complete Oil Painter by Brian Gorst, of colors commonly used for imprimaturas. Where I can, I have included links to examples of each color being used in the description.
2. Terre Verte: This earth green was often used under areas of flesh by Byzantine and Medieval painters, such as Duccio, of the 13th and 14th centuries, but had continued use even past Michelangelo. The green helps neutralize the effects of strong pinks and reds, allowing for a natural skin color.
3. Earth Red/Burnt Sienna: Used by landscape artists to give breath to green foliage, it also creates a mauve hue when sky and clouds are painted over it. This effect can be seen in works by Turner. These colors are also used by figure and portrait painters to help establish warm shadow masses, and was often used in the French figurative tradition by artists ranging from Poussin to Degas.
4. Dark Brown or "bole:" A bole ground is usually an opaque mixture of Earth or Mars Red, black, and a small amount of Yellow Ochre. Still used today by traditional portrait and figure painters, a bole background came into style by artists such as Caravaggio and the young Velazquez.
5. Yellow Ocher/Raw Sienna: These earth yellows provide a rich, warm imprimatura which maintains a sense of luminosity. Used by landscape and portrait painters to give a work a warm, golden undertone. You can see this used in works by Rubens.
6. Burnt Umber/Raw Umber: Both are cheap, quick-drying, and semi-transparent, making them ideal for a thin imprimatura. These colors were used by artists such as da Vinci and Van Eyck.
7. Light Blue: Sometimes preferred by alla prima painters as a luminous base, using a blue imprimatura allows for water, skies, and atmospheric effects to be developed quickly. I have no idea who starts out with blue.
8. White: A plain white imprimatura is the most luminous imprimatura for glazing. The drawback is that it makes opaque paint appear darker by contrast. The white ground was first consistently used by Manet, and then later by artists such as Seurat and Derain.
Looking back through art history's use of imprimaturas can help you decide on the look and feel you would like to have in your own paintings, and is always the first step in copying a master's work.
Monet vs Manet
Looking at the top image of this post you will see two paintings by famous artists, Monet and Manet.
Manet was known for using white as his imprimatura, and this is exactly one of the reasons why the French Salon rejected his work. A white imprimatura can be difficult to work with when you do not understand how it can affect your color palette.
Manet did this on purpose. If this is also your purpose, run with the white, but be careful and aware that sometimes it just doesn't work out.
Monet on the other hand almost always used a colored imprimatura. While he did occasionally use white, you will usually see light blue (left), gray (middle), or yellow (right) coming through his works. His use of the imprimatura is a perfect example of how the correct imprimatura can help brightly painted, multi-colored works maintain a balanced color harmony.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Indirect Painting: The Flemish Technique or Classical Approach
Indirect Painting has a long and complicated history. It is often referred to as the Flemish Technique as it was first widely used during the early 15th Century by Northern Renaissance artists. It is also thought to have been first invented by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck.
For centuries the indirect painting style was the only way to use oil paints. It wasn't until the late 1800 and early 1900s, as Impressionism's direct style started to become more and more popularized, that indirect painting went out of vogue. Although initially its techniques were still taught in artistic academies, it was during the 1950s that, at least in general, it was removed from almost all academic platforms both in the United States and abroad.
Indirect Painting is different from direct painting as it is painted in stages or layers, allowing each stage to dry before continuing.
Each artist or academy had slightly different approaches to the style, but the basic stages to Indirect Painting are:
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| Jan Van Eyck, "St. Barbara," 1437 Jan Van Eyck, "The Arnolfini Portrait," 1434 |
For centuries the indirect painting style was the only way to use oil paints. It wasn't until the late 1800 and early 1900s, as Impressionism's direct style started to become more and more popularized, that indirect painting went out of vogue. Although initially its techniques were still taught in artistic academies, it was during the 1950s that, at least in general, it was removed from almost all academic platforms both in the United States and abroad.
Indirect Painting is different from direct painting as it is painted in stages or layers, allowing each stage to dry before continuing.
Each artist or academy had slightly different approaches to the style, but the basic stages to Indirect Painting are:
- Imprimatura or Ground
- Underdrawing
- Underpainting / Dead Color
- Brunaille
- Verdaccio
- Grisaille
- Overpainting
- Semi-Transparent Glazes
Over the coming weeks I will be writing a separate post about each of these stages as well as a small history of indirect painting. In this small history I will show that indirect painting was not the creation of an individual man, but rather the culmination of decades of manuscript illumination.
To read more about other painting techniques, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Direct vs Indirect vs Combination Painting: Differences, Terms, and Artists
Understanding the strict difference between Direct or Indirect Painting will help you create your own painting method and style. Here we will be covering the terms, along with a few examples of those who used the different methods. Each method will be covered in more detail in their own, individual posts.
Direct Painting
Sargent, Self-Portrait (detail), 1907 Monet, Woman with Parasol, 1875 Vincent Van Gogh, Room at Arles, 1889
The Direct Painting Method is referred to by many names: Alla Prima, En Plein Air, Wet-on-Wet, Impressionistic/Impasto, etc.
The basic idea is that a true Direct Painting is finished while all layers are still wet. This can be done in one session or several, as long as the different layers are worked into wet, versus on top of dried layers. Direct painters who paint over several sessions prefer their paint to remain wet for several days in order to work as long as possible. Two mediums that allow for such a length of time are poppyseed and safflower oil.
The Daily Painting movement are artists learning to be strict direct painters. Direct painters tend to have more spontaneous, colorful, and effortless (looking) works. If you are an artist who would like to have more color and freedom in your works, I highly recommend checking out Carol Marine's blog, as well as her book, Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often in order to become a more Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist.
Below is a short video from the Web Art Academy talking about Direct Painting, as well as a great demo by David Kassan.
Indirect Painting
Raphael, Madonna of the Meadow, c. 1506 Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-1523 Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego, late 1630s
Indirect Painting is done in stages or layers, with each previous stage dried before continuing.
The basic stages to Indirect Painting are:
Note: You will sometimes see people refer to the "Seven Steps of the Flemish Technique," they just break my own steps 4 and 5 into two additional steps.
To be fair, most artist are a combination of the two. Sargent was one artist who would paint the majority of his work directly, allow it to dry and then do final color-correcting glazes over the top. Some other famous artists who used both methods were Rubens, Frans Hals, and Rembrandt.
Again, each method will be covered in greater detail in separate posts. For more about painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page.
Direct Painting
The Direct Painting Method is referred to by many names: Alla Prima, En Plein Air, Wet-on-Wet, Impressionistic/Impasto, etc.
The basic idea is that a true Direct Painting is finished while all layers are still wet. This can be done in one session or several, as long as the different layers are worked into wet, versus on top of dried layers. Direct painters who paint over several sessions prefer their paint to remain wet for several days in order to work as long as possible. Two mediums that allow for such a length of time are poppyseed and safflower oil.
The Daily Painting movement are artists learning to be strict direct painters. Direct painters tend to have more spontaneous, colorful, and effortless (looking) works. If you are an artist who would like to have more color and freedom in your works, I highly recommend checking out Carol Marine's blog, as well as her book, Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often in order to become a more Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist.
Below is a short video from the Web Art Academy talking about Direct Painting, as well as a great demo by David Kassan.
Raphael, Madonna of the Meadow, c. 1506 Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-1523 Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego, late 1630s
Indirect Painting is done in stages or layers, with each previous stage dried before continuing.
The basic stages to Indirect Painting are:- Imprimatura or Ground
- Underdrawing
- Underpainting / Dead Color
- Brunaille
- Verdaccio
- Grisaille
- Overpainting
- Semi-Transparent Glazes
This is the "classic" method to oil painting, also called the Flemish Technique. Name any Northern or Southern Renaissance or Baroque painter and this is the way they painted.
Note: You will sometimes see people refer to the "Seven Steps of the Flemish Technique," they just break my own steps 4 and 5 into two additional steps.
Combination Painting
To be fair, most artist are a combination of the two. Sargent was one artist who would paint the majority of his work directly, allow it to dry and then do final color-correcting glazes over the top. Some other famous artists who used both methods were Rubens, Frans Hals, and Rembrandt.
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