Also, I mentioned in my first post about Madam Octopus that I like octopi. Turns out that octopi is the incorrect pluralization, who knew? Also as much as I like octopuses, I don't think that I would ever like to hold a Giant Pacific, but they are still pretty great.
Before we get too deeply into the characteristics of Direct and Indirect painting, I would like to first talk about something they both utilize: colored grounds. By which I mean the initial tonal coloring of your canvas before any other work starts.
There are several different colored grounds that have been used throughout art history in order to create a specific feel or look. Before we get into those colors, I will first cover some terms, what the color of your palette can mean, and why we use grounds.
Terms
"Ground" is actually not the correct technical term. A ground or sizing is what covers the raw canvas or board to protect it from the oil paint. Things like rabbit glue and gesso are grounds. The imprimatura, or "first paint layer," is the initial stain of color painted over the ground.
Throughout the internet these terms are confused. Most people think the imprimatura is the underpainting, which it isn't, so from here on out I will be calling our colored grounds by their proper name, the imprimatura.
Matching your Painting Palette The color of your imprimatura should match the color of your palette, as you can see in the above photo. This is so that the color you are mixing on your palette appears as the same color when applied to your canvas. Otherwise you can get very frustrated when mixing what appears to be the "right" color, only to find that it looks different up on the canvas.
Allow me to give an example: an artist who has a natural wood palette and paints directly onto a white canvas may run into a color-mixing problem. When making colors on his palette, the color his eye sees is influenced by the color of the palette. When he takes that paint and puts it onto a white canvas the color will appear to be different because now it is being influenced by the pure white of the canvas verses the tan color of the wood. Glass palettes can allow you to have more freedom with your imprimatura by simply placing different colored pieces of paper under your palette. That being said, this is a rule that lots of artist break. Me included. Why the Imprimatura? 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 to 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 Painterby 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 coping a master's work.
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.
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, 1520-1523Poussin, 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.
Again, each method will be covered in greater detail in separate posts. For more about painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page.
I think that I am really happy with the way the ram turned out. See, originally I was very frustrated with my pronghorn and grizzly bear, but then I found the works of Kevin Earl Taylor, which I loved. I decided that I would copy his ram (see image blow) in an attempt to move my works in the direction I want them to go. I think I did okay.
Below are the progress photos with the final image.
Ram After Blue II, Oil on Panel, 18x24 inches
I am calling it Ram after Blue II, because the splatter marks were borrowed from Joan Miro's Blue II:
Remember these puppies? Probably not, I first wrote about them a long time ago. Mr and Mrs Smith are the second to last pre-Cousin paintings that I have to finish. I did work on them once, like back in May, but got frustrated and put them away. Yesterday, however, I got them out again and thought, "hey that isn't all that bad," and finished Mrs Smith. Below are the progress photos:
I really like the pink nose and toe nails. Now on to Mr Smith.
Both Husband and my friend Zillah are super into hedgehogs. I am not entirely sure why... but this one is not for either of them. hahahhahaha
Below is the underdrawing and underpainting:
I thought that having a color gradation would look cool, but it turns out that it just makes him look like he wet himself. I think that I am going to do some random colored needles instead.
