classical oil painting technique

Welcome to 1art.com Teaching Zone! INTRODUCTION COMPOSITION PRIMING THE CANVAS DRAWING IMPRIMATURA I. UMBER UNDERLAYER II. UMBER

UNDERLAYER DEAD UNDERLAYER I. COLOR LAYER II. COLOR LAYER FINISHING LAYERS CONCLUSION

This TEACHING ZONE has been created specifically for those who are uncertain whether theyshould by the Video Workshop but are interested in learning more about the classical painting technique.As I said elsewhere in my site, my main goal is to share my knowledge with as many people as possible;and the membership fee is so low that using the Teaching Zone will be affordable to practically everyoneinterested in the Old Masters' oil painting technique. The Teaching Zone was created on the basis of the

my Video Workshop and takes the form of an Internet book with appropriate interactive multimediatechnology.

Introduction

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Hi, my name is Alexei Antonov. This is my first video course of classical painting technique. It is notjust an art workshop. This is my first action for the ecology of culture. Exponents of modern art may find

some of my ideas politically incorrect. This course, however, has been made for those who treasureeternal values in art. Enjoy the show!

When we come in the museum and view pictures of Old Masters of the Renaissance epoch, we arefascinated by their art, or, rather, by their craft. Subtle nuances of tone and color, precision of expression

of texture and surface details. And the enigmatic lunar color in half-tones! We begin to feel that OldMasters were different from us. Were they better than our generation?

Then, entering a modern art hall, we see pictures that depict triangles, squares, and other unidentifiableforms, produced by splashing and slapping paint, and not only paint, with brushes, and sometimes not

only brushes, on canvas, and sometimes not only on canvas. To make an abstract picture requiresneither skill nor time, unlike a classical still life or portrait.

But if you were offered a choice of a beautiful still life and an abstract painting, showing a black or redtriangle, which one would you chose if, say, the price were the same? Perhaps you will agree with me

that most people would choose a beautiful still life.

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In conclusion of this brief introduction, some words should be said about every artist's material concerns.Experience has shown that the classical school of painting can be studied without having a special

"talent." The only condition is a passionate desire to learn and a little patience. The material aspect israther important in this world of ours.

If you feel you can be an artist and support your family and yourself with the money earned by painting,remember, the competition in the art market is fierce.

And in the struggle you have to win not by begging the gallery owner to take your painting onconsignment explaining verbally how extraordinary and talented you are. You can win by simply

showing the gallery owner fragment of your painting and all avant-garde painters will then flee thegallery and go to work at the factory to earn their bread honestly. It is impossible to deceive the world;clarity, virtue, and beauty are returning, throwing deception, ugliness, and sin back into oblivion, where

they belong.


This video course of classical painting will give you an opportunity to understand and practice the OldMasters' technique. You will learn how to paint a classical still life from the beginning to the end. The

course consists of the following sections:

I. Composition.II. Priming the Canvas.

III. Drawing.IV. Imprimatura.

V. Umber Underlayer.VI. Dead Underlayer.

VII. Color Layers.VIII. Finishing Layers.

INTRODUCTION COMPOSITION PRIMING THE CANVAS DRAWING IMPRIMATURA I. UMBER UNDERLAYER II. UMBERUNDERLAYER DEAD UNDERLAYER I. COLOR LAYER II. COLOR LAYER FINISHING LAYERS CONCLUSION

CompositionThere is no democracy in the world of classical art education. If you are trying to do something in your

own way, or trying some new technique, you are outside the classical art temple.

The background in Old Masters' still lifes is in most cases dark.


When you have placed the objects for your composition, you have already started to create. When youplace items on the table, try to create the exact image of your future painting. The first law of

composition: place the source of light on the left. There are many various types of still lifes; we willdiscuss them in our future workshops. In this course we will analyze a simple still life composition. A

glazed jar, white drape, and a few fruits may be a good example for understanding the basics of still lifetexture.

A lovely pear prefers to show itself to the world only by one certain side.

A lemon is just a lemon, but it must tell the world about all its brothers. You should be very careful whenchoosing object for the composition of your future still life. Don't take modern design objects, for


example, telephones, food processors, plastic things. Remember, even Rubens, who lived in the 16-17thcenturies, chose the then antique objects for his paintings. You should not try to be original when

constructing the composition. All compositions have been made before; and they are not very numerous.Learn from the Old Masters, and your future admirers will be grateful to you.

Light and shadow on the white drape change with every touch. As a sculptor, you must decide right nowon all the nuances of your painting. For inspiration look into the paintings of Old Masters and ignorereproaches of the contemporary school. Its exponents have different goals and ideas about beauty. A

silver knife doesn't want to be shown together with a country-style jar. Now that we have an arrangementof a jar, drape, and fruit, we have to decide on the format of the future still life. If we are painting a

vertical composition, we have to change this composition to make it suit the vertical format. We can dothat by rearranging the drape. Particular attention should be paid to the folds.

Each fold should be viewed as a separate detail of the entire composition. Relying on a happy accident inlaying out the drape, you have at the same time to correct certain details.

Dew or raindrops add unbelievable freshness to the painting. It is difficult to find a still life of an OldMaster without sparkling drops of water.


It is conventional wisdom that drawing is the skeleton of the painting, color is the muscles, andcomposition is the soul of the painting.


Priming the canvas

To prime the canvas, you will need the following things: - a confectioner's knife;

- a palette knife;

-a razor blade with corners rounded at the wheel machine.


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Similarly, you need to prepare the confectioner's knife. Its blade should have an elliptic shape.

To remove tiny scratches from the blade of the knife, use fine sand paper once in a while.

For study purposes, use ultra-smooth cotton canvas.


Prepare a mixture of gesso and modeling paste: 50 percent of gesso, 50 percent of paste.

Even if you use primed canvas, you must prime it again. Apply as many layers of the priming mixtureas is needed to achieve the surface that will make the canvas texture almost invisible.

When applying the priming mixture, change the direction of the movement of the knife as long as themixture is soft. The movements must be energetic and confident.


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Stop before the mixture begins to thicken.

To speed up the process, use a hair dryer.Make sure that the priming layer is well dried.

Then use the round-cornered razor blade to remove excessive priming. Never use sand paper for that:there can be a large grain of sand that will make a deep unrecoverable scratch.


The desired smoothness of the canvas is usually achieved after priming the canvas three or four times.After you have finished priming, the surface of the canvas should feel like the surface of the eggshell.


Drawing

To become an artist, you first need to learn to draw: drawing is the basis of art. Drawing is a means ofthinking: the artist must be able to think without difficulty.

Constant drawing from nature, constant exercise in that is as important as copying the works of GreatMasters. However, this topic requires a special workshop; now we are discussing painting technique and

preparing the canvas for the next stages.

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If you have problems in drawing, don't be put off by that; use the advantages given by moderntechnology, such as a camera, slide projector, opaque projector, or similar gadgets. Leonardo da Vinci,for example, to achieve a better precision of painted objects, invented a camera obscura, grandfather of

modern photo cameras. Don't be afraid to use technical devices in your work, a camera is just a tool, likea paintbrush.

Each step in making a painting, beginning with priming the canvas, must be carried out with the highestpossible quality. Each step should produce an impression of a finished work. If you manage to make

seven finished works on one canvas, you are bound to be successful.

Trey to make as many details as possible in the pencil drawing: it will make it easier for you to achieve abetter quality in the next steps.


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The main of the pencil drawing is to create a precise structure of borders between areas of highlight andlight, light and half-tone, half-tone and shadow, and reflections.

It is also advisable to draw some details of texture. This, however, is done only for your ownconvenience: it will help you to memorize texture characteristics.

After you have made a pencil drawing on the canvas, draw it out in ink.

Imprimatura, the first oil layer, will wash away the pencil, leaving the ink drawing as the first layer ofyour painting.


Many unfinished paintings by Old Masters give us evidence of the importance of the ink drawing.According to Cenini, the painting in that form was already capable of fascinating the viewer.

It is obvious that the ink drawing is not only good in itself; it has an important functional; value,particularly, for the beginning artist: the beginner sometimes has to wash away everything he or she has

done in the umber underlayer. The ink drawing remains, and the artist doesn't have to draw thecomposition again

A little advice: pay particular attention to such details as the ornament of the tabletop, lace ornament, andother structurally complex elements.



ImprimaturaImprimatura is the first oil layer in the Flemish painting technique. Imprimatura must have a neutral olivehue.

The degree of darkness or lightness of imprimatura should be chosen in relation to the largest light areaof the future painting, such as a white drape or a face.

You can use only yellow ochre and lamp black. However, Prussian blue and burnt umber are added toaccelerate drying of the next layers.

The presence of Prussian blue and burnt umber in imprimatura enables you to make your mixture warmeror colder.

Flake white is added to make brush strokes softer.

Prepare the mixture on a white palette: it will help you see the degree of transparency of the mixture. Themixture should be thinned with 20 parts of turpentine and one part of damar varnish.

Add paints to the yellow ocher very slowly and carefully.

Be particularly attentive with Prussian blue: it is a very intensive pigment.

Spread linseed oil on each well-dried previous layer immediately before you begin the next layer.This


leads to a better contact of the paint of the dry layer with the paint of the next layer. It also improves theprocess of dry brush blending.

Apply the linseed oil with your hand: the warmth of the hand helps the oil penetrate into the pores of thedry layer.

Then remove excessive oil from the surface with a clean cloth. Wipe the canvas well: excessive oil isharmful for the paint layers.

The mixture should be spread on the canvas with a bristle brush as evenly as possible.


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Then blend the brush strokes as carefully as you can with a soft squirrel or camel brush.

Then blend the brush strokes as carefully as you can with a soft squirrel or camel brush


The dry brush that you use for blending should be cleaned with a cloth regularly, to remove paint thatgets on it from the canvas. Imprimatura completes the main preparatory stage. This layer must dry very

well; it takes about 7 days. During that time you can begin work on other paintings.


I. Umber Underlayer

Imprimatura is now well dried,


and before you begin the next layer, you should scrape the canvas with the round-corner razor blade inorder to remove an occasional brush hair and dust that covered the canvas during the 7 days of drying.

Use the razor blade very carefully; otherwise you can damage the imprimatura layer.

After that oil the canvas and remove excessive oil the way you did before.

Do the same thing with the palette.


You will need several round and flat kolinsky brushes of different brushes to paint with, and several softsquirrel or camel brushes for dry brush blending.

The working medium is composed of approximately 2 parts of turpentine, one part of damar varnish, andone drop of lavender oil. From time immemorial lavender oil was used to stimulate intellectual and

physical activity. Old Masters knew that and added lavender oil in their working media. However it maybe, a drop of lavender oil kills the heavy smell of turpentine.

Apply burnt umber to the canvas with confident movements, but stick to the drawing contour.


The technique of making this layer differs significantly from the traditional concept of oil painting:although your medium is oil paint, use it as if you were using watercolor.

This means that light and shadow depend on the degree of transparency of the applied mixture; thepigment you add to the medium, the darker it will be.

As soon as you feel that you have covered an area with a desired tone, begin blending with a mediumsize correcting brush. Begin blending with the lighter areas, moving gradually to the darker ones.


After the correcting brush, which you use to spread the paint masses more or less evenly, use a bigblending brush to achieve the final smoothing effect.


One of the aims of making imprimatura is to reduce the amount of applied light paint. Therefore, therelationship between imprimatura and the umber underlayer must be carried out in a way that would

bring the future corrections to minimum.


Remember the golden rule: you make the next layer not to correct mistakes in the previous layer, but youmake the previous layer to facilitate work in the next layer.


II. Umber UnderlayerIn the first stage of the umber underlayer it is very important to maintain the construction between lightand shadow of the individual object, leaving the tonal relationships between the still life objects for the

next stage of the umber underlayer. Be sure you don't make dark areas of the still life too dark.Remember, in the umber underlayer we shall only be able to make them darker, but never lighter.

The umber underlayer should consist of several well-dried stages. Don't decide on the number of umberstages in advance, make as many as necessary to achieve the tonality that will not require improvements


in the next layers. Naturally, for some dark objects, for example, black cloth, a violin neck, some parts ofblack grapes, the darkness of umber will be insufficient. Nevertheless, the tonal construction of the

darkest areas must be made in umber with the greatest possible precision. Don't spare your time in theumber underlayer because in the next stages you will rely on it. If you are able to avoid major tonalcorrections in the layers that follow the umber underlayer, you painting will be fresh and beautiful.

Don't forget to scrape the canvas with the razor blade to remove dust and excessive texture of brushstrokes. As the result of scraping the canvas after each layer the surface of the canvas should become as

smooth as silk

Scrape the canvas carefully, however, don't despair if you scraped some areas more than you wanted;these areas can be easily restored.You will avoid scraping the dry layer to the white canvas if you made

the priming correctly, that is if there is no uneven areas after priming.

.

The classical composition laws require that light shall concentrate in the center of the painting and fadeaway near the edges of the canvas.

If you are painting a portrait or a complicated composition, you will need to make more umber stages. Inour case, the umber underlayer is completed in two stages.


The finishing stage of the umber underlayer may be called the generalizing stage. In the generalizingstage you can use larger brushes than in the previous stage.

All details of the composition were made in the previous stage. In this stage we only have to show tonaldifferences between the objects. This means, for example, that the lemon is darker than the white drape,

but lighter than the pear. The jar is darker than the background, but is brighter lit. This is the last task thatyou carry out in the umber underlayer.



Dead UnderlayerIt is not coloring that is most important in painting but tone.

If you follow the technological rules, then even the most successful colorist of the Realistic school willenvy the delicacy and depth of the classical painting.


Old Masters believed that the painting should be made in gray; color pigments can easily be bought later.

The main purpose of the dead layer is to make half-tones of the painted objects.

The laws of the classical painting say that the half-tone should be cold, whereas a realistic artist can seein the half-tone any imaginable color.

If you make the dead layer well, then, working on the color layer, your creativity will be free from thenecessity to solve tonal tasks.


Remember, the colder the dead layer is the hotter and brighter the color will look on it.

It is because of the dead layer finished paintings look lighter or darker, warmer or colder.

To keep mixtures prepared for the dead layer, you may use empty tubes, or, for shorter periods ofstorage, you can use film boxes.


Pigments used in the dead layer have passed the test of time. They are flake white, lamp black, yellowocher, Prussian blue, and burnt umber.

Prussian blue and burnt umber accelerate drying and balance cold and warm colors in your mixture.

Now, after preparing the palette, we begin making mixtures.


To make a black mixture for the dead layer, we take two parts of lamp black, one part of burnt umber,and about one eighth of Prussian blue.

To make a white mixture for the dead layer, we take flake white, and decrease the intensity of the openwhite by adding a little bit of black mixture.


After that, we make a middle tone between the light and the dark mixtures.The approximate proportion istwo parts of the black, and one part of the light mixture. The middle tone mixture should be colored byadding yellow ocher, burnt umber and Prussian blue.The proportion depends on your vision of the deadlayer, whether you want to make it bluer, greener, or browner. You should avoid violet tones in the dead

layer. And remember, the dead layer is dominated by the gray color.

Then, on the basis of the light and middle tone mixtures, you make five more intermediate tones.

Two more intermediate tones should also be made between the middle tone and black mixtures.

The umber underlayer dries in about three weeks.

To make sure that the layer is well dried, you can oil slightly a corner of a white cloth and rub it on thedark area of the canvas. If the white cloth gets brown, you must leave the canvas to dry better.


When the canvas is well dried, scrape it with the razor blade, oil, and wipe the canvas the way you didbefore

.


Now the canvas is ready for further work. Always begin with dark areas

.

By touching lightly the painted area, identify the suitable tonality of the mixture. All the next layers willbe made with two brushes: one brush for dark mixtures, the other for light mixtures.

Sometimes, when the mixture on the canvas gets sticky too fast, and it becomes difficult to makeblending with a brush, you can blend with your fingers.


In the umber underlayer, you have already chosen the tonality. Now you have to rely on it, that is youmust repeat the chosen tonality in the dead underlayer.

You can make corrections in the tonality without making radical changes.

You can alter the tonality towards shadow or light only to a small extent.

If we take the range between black and white as consisting of seven tones, in the dead underlayer you canchange the tonality only by one tone, up or down.


A good guide in selecting the right tone is the areas of the umber underlayer seen between deadunderlayer brush strokes.

Visible umber areas must not be in a dramatic contrast to your working mixture.

For that reason it is very important to work with small brushes even in large areas, such as thebackground.

You should work as is imitating pen strokes.

Visible umber areas function as the third brush.

Begin blending with the dark areas: they get sticky faster.


After blending it may seem that the umber underlayer has become invisible.

However, it will continue its function, particularly, in the shadowed areas, which must have a thinnerlayer of paint in the dead layer.

Sometimes blending may take as much time as applying paint. To finish work on a certain area, use thebiggest soft blending brush.

On the contrary, lighter areas require thicker layers of paint, because it is the light areas, the areas with agreater amount of white pigments, which become transparent faster than the darker areas.

Besides, the blending brush cleaned from the dark paint with a dry cloth will not damage the light area asmuch as the blending brush with the remains of the light paint can damage the dark areas.


You can ask why you should make so much work in the umber underlayer if you have to overpaint it.The best answer is found

in the museums: paintings made in the classical technique look best of all. You should feel creativesatisfaction after finishing each stage: while the painting dries between stages, it lives in your studio.

Your visitors and yourself see it; don't deprive yourself of that pleasure. The tone in the dead underlayershould be made lighter in light areas and darker in shadows, compared to the umber underlayer.

However, the tone should be darker in light areas and lighter in shadows than in the following colorlayer. It is important to make half-tones as precise as possible because they will hardly be corrected in

further layers. There will be places that you will not paint at all.

In future workshops we will discuss other methods of making the dead underlayer, such as Ian vanHaisom's technique. His method is characterized by detailed and careful work in the umber underlayer

that results in different tasks to be performed in the dead underlayer. In future we shall also discuss someother possible shortcuts. Now it is advisable for the artist beginning to work in the classical technique to

make the dead underlayer by painting all elements of the still life in order to understand the tasks andmeaning of the dead underlayer in practice. It is recommended to make ten or fifteen paintings using this

method before learning other ways of making the dead underlayer. Don't work on the texture in this


stage, but begin thinking about it while making blending smoother at places, or leaving more visiblebrush strokes in other places.

Speaking about the qualities of oil paints, it should be remembered that oil paints stick well on thecarefully prepared canvas, and are an excellent medium for modeling, shading, and achieving most

delicate transitions from tone to tone, because they remain wet for a long time. However, it is a mistaketo think that oil painting does not require any methods, and you can make layer after layer without any

system. On the contrary, oil painting requires strict adherence to a certain technique. It is true that defectsof incorrect use of oils are discovered not so soon compared to other mediums, but they inevitably

become visible sooner or later. The best techniques of oil painting were developed in the Renaissanceepoch. They make the best examples of painting, both from the artistic and technical points of view. Theknowledge of the physical characteristics of the materials enabled Old Masters to create the technique of

oil painting that has never been surpassed.

In the entire history of oil painting their style and technique are unique in their harmony of materials andartistic taste. The knowledge of that technique lived in the artists' guilds through the 17th century. In the18th century, due to the emergence of new ideas in painting, that technique was gradually lost. As early

as in the first art academies the technical artistic training of the artist was replaced by philosophic artisticeducation. Since that time the knowledge of painting technique, that had been the basis of the artist's

work, begins to be viewed as limiting artistic freedom.

Dramatic neglect of the oil painting technique occurred in the age of French impressionists whointroduced a non-systematic use of oils. Impressionists' destructive ideas were brought to gargantuan

proportions by their followers, particularly by neo-impressionists. Pointillism may have a certain sensefrom the artistic point of view, but this method does not arise from the intrinsic properties of oil painting.

New ideas in art should look for other materials for their realization if they contradict established andtime-honored traditions. From that standpoint, impressionism brought in a false style in oil painting that,regrettably, has its followers up to now. Research into oil painting techniques carried out both by artistsand by scholars was primarily aimed at discovering and regeneration of the lost Old Masters' methods.

Many aspects of the forgotten technique have been discovered, but painting itself went far away from thegoals and principles of Old Masters' painting. Naturally, it is now possible to relate the Old Masters'

technique with the modern understanding of art. But an oil painting technique, whatever its goals may be,that is employed to create long-lasting works of art, must arise from the properties and characteristics of

oil paint materials.


I. Color LayerColor Layers Now we are beginning the first color layer.


Make sure that the canvas is well dried. Our canvas dried for four weeks. After the usual preparation ofthe canvas and the palette before the next stage, we begin work on the color layer.

We'll be using ivory black, Prussian blue, transparent oxide red, burnt umber, permanent madder deep,red ocher, extra fine Indian yellow, yellow ocher, cadmium yellow deep, flake white, and our regular

dead underlayer mixtures.


The main principle of the first color layer is that you should make shadow areas darker and morecolorful.

Working on shadows you should use more transparent mixtures.

Working on medium-light areas, apply semi-transparent mixtures.When painting middle tones on largeareas, add a little semi-transparent mixture with some Prussian blue. Semi-transparency is achieved by

making sparse brush strokes with a small brush with subsequent blending with a dry brush.


Lighted areas should be made lighter and more colorful too. Working on light areas, use more paste-likemixtures, applying them rather thickly.

Painting the wall that is our background, you can make it warmer or colder.

To make it warmer, you should cover the shadow areas of the dead underlayer with a darker and warmermixture of ivory black, burnt umber, and permanent madder deep. To make the background colder, don't

overuse that mixture.

The wall will look much colder even if the lighted areas on it will be made with very warm mixtures.

By cold colors we mean colors closer to that of ice, whereas warm colors are closer to that of flame.


Applying color mixtures on a well prepared shape in the dead underlayer, leave visible as many deadunderlayer areas in half-tones as possible.

Keep in mind that literally a couple of color brush strokes may be enough to make, for example, the tabletop made in gray in the dead underlayer become dark mahogany.


Each layer brings us closer to the concept of texture. Texture is the degree of reflection of light by thesurface.

We do not carry out texture tasks in the color layer, but gradually intensifying lighted areas on theobjects, we notice that some objects reflect light brighter and sharper, for example, the surface of a glassor polished furniture, while other objects reflect light more dimly and dispersedly, like our white drape or

the mat wall in the background.

Now you can see the advantages of this technique, particularly, for the beginning artists. The detail that


you think went wrong is wiped away with a cloth from the previous well-dried layer.

To make a correct degree of light on the surface of an object for a certain texture, stick to the followingrules. In order to achieve a mat effect in the next layers, you should use mixtures that are closest to the

tone of the dead underlayer whereby avoiding excessive contrast in transition from light to shadow.

The matter is the surface the smoother the transition will be.

On the contrary, in order to achieve a glossy surface, you should intensify the color, raise the tone, andreduce the lighted part of the surface.


Remember, that in the last layer the glossiest surfaces will be those that have the lightest and sharpesthighlight. Unlike the dead underlayer, that is made rather mechanically, in the color layer you begin to

think by means of the brush: you paint objects, wipe paint away with a cloth or with your fingers, you tryvarious color mixtures

This is, undoubtedly, the creative part in our craftsmanship. The main thing in this stage is not to overdoit. You should leave some color in tone work for further layers.

Remember that you won't find anything whiter than the white paint, or redder than the red paint. Thebrightest and sharpest highlights in the finished painting will be the sun reflected in the sparkles of water,

the shiniest elements in our still life.


In the jar we can see hints at the texture: gray patches, blackened at places, cover areas where the glazewas lost.

It is better to start with the white drape because it requires a greater amount of paint, which therefore willtake a longer time to dry.

The lightness of the white drape can't approach the light intensity of the water drops.

Accordingly, we express the whiteness of the white drape not by means of the intensity of the white


color, but by means of the darkness of the objects around the drape.

We paint the white drape in the color layer with little difference to the previous layer. Orange beams ofthe imaginary sun color the bulging parts of the drape very delicately.

From time to time add more fresh mixture to light areas in order to increase the thickness of the layer.

The transition from light to shadow should be made as smoothly as possible, transforming the dead colorof the underlayer into the emphatic bluishness of the half-tone contrasting with the orange light.


The folds of the drape are made according to their own laws. In some places they form sharp anglesbetween which there are soft round folds. We can view a highlight as reflecting the blue sky and the

shiny orange sun.

Paint details of the ornament without going into the texture of the threads and the nap of the cloth.Remember that the mixture for painting the light areas of the white drape should be the same; that is why

make a sufficient amount of that mixture.


As you can see, blending of the delicate tonal transitions of the drape's surface becomes particularlysignificant.


Compared to highlight, the reflection is a hot glittering of a fireplace or candlelight. The reflection isalways warmer than light. Don't spare your efforts when blending the soft drape.

As you can see, there is little work in painting the shadows of the white drape because the half-tonereplaced the shadow. The mixture for painting the white drape is made of the corresponding dead

mixture with a small addition of a lighter mixture, so that you can achieve a mixture one half-tone higher.


In the deep shadow that is not lit by the sunlight, the drape is lighted by the imaginary fireplace to theright of us. Be careful not to make the tone too high.The resulting mixture should be colored with

cadmium yellow deep and red ocher. We can correct the dark areas of the drape only in the constructionof the folds; the color and tone of the dead underlayer are quite satisfactory in the shadow. Make the dark

edges non-existent, even if you are painting the white drape, using burnt umber, ivory black, andtransparent oxide red.

Lemon takes a conspicuous place in the Flemish still life. Very often you can hear people viewing OldMasters' still lifes exclaim, "Look at this lemon! It really makes me hungry!"


Gastronomic reflexes are not at the last place in the perception of high art. Hence a good advice: treat thelemon you are painting as something delicious and not just a combination of yellow forms.

The skin of the lemon is grainy and glossy. The gloss on the lemon skin creates a symmetrical play ofhighlight constellations in the lighted area. It is very difficult to make this texture in this layer. All we

can do is to paint the color of the skin.

While painting the skin, use yellow ocher and cadmium yellow deep. Make the tone darker in the lightedareas only with burnt umber. In shadows, to umber you can add ivory black.


The darkest places of the lemon skin should be blended with the background tone to avoid the unpleasantmonotony of the sharp contour. Generally speaking, always try to merge the borders of almost black with

almost white.

The classical oil painting technique rests on three principles. First, the brush stroke shadowing; secondly,correction with a soft dry brush; and thirdly, blending with a large fluffy dry brush.

Paint the lemon flesh with a mixture of Indian yellow and cadmium yellow deep; closer to the shadowsadd transparent oxide red.


The flesh of a lemon is made of hundreds of transparent water balloons with amber yellow sour juicejoined into a single mass.

Where the lemon was cut with a knife there is a microscopic play of highlights that can only be seenthrough a magnifying glass. Forget the highlights for the time being. Try to perceive the lemon as if

made of semi-transparent amber.

The inner layer of the skin is soft and white, so treat it as an ordinary opaque detail that has a highlight,light, half-tone, shadow, and drop-shadow.


The membranes in the lemon flesh are less transparent and create an additional play of light and shadow.We can perform this task now.

Let's make the wooden handle of the knife not very conspicuous in the general coloring of thecomposition.


Its construction should be painted with burnt umber and ivory black mixture.

To paint the sharp tip of the blade, use your sharpest brush. The blade of the knife is like a mirror; findthe reflections of the drape and the lemon on it.

Apply the mixture carefully, moving from the lightest area to the half-tone, gradually decreasing thethickness of the applied paint.


Half-tones consist of their own light and shadow. The lighter part of the half-tone that is closer to lightgets lighter and warmer.

The darker part of the half-tone that is closer to the shadow gets darker and warmer.

The pear is yellow in color, but with an orange hue, and is not so intensively yellow as the lemon.


.It has more visible dead underlayer in the light area; that is why its color should be made closer to thedead underlayer tone.

The gloss of the pear's surface is not so shiny as the lemon's. Certain greenness in the half-tone makes animpression of "sour" yellow color; and the sweetness of the pear is expressed with hot shadows.


The use of fingers for wiping away the applied paint can be an irreplaceable method of developing theprevious layer in order to create various hues of color and light

The porcelain plate has a misty mirror surface reflecting nearby details.


The golden edging is also a mirror but more contrasting than porcelain. The gold in the shadow is almostblack and brown; in the light it is a mixture of yellow ocher and gray, tone to tone. We'll discuss

highlights on the edging later.



II. Color LayerAnother method to make sure that the picture is well died is to scrape the canvas with a razor blade andsee if the paint comes off as shavings or as powder. If it comes off as shavings, the picture hasn't dried

well enough.

In our case the painting has dried too much: two months passed since the previous layer.

The glossy surfaces will not absorb oil, which means that the contact between the fresh layer and the drylayer will be bad, and the movement of the brush will be handicapped.

To eliminate this problem, we can use an onion.


Onion's ether oil will soften will soften the outer microscopic layer of the dry paint, and will make thedry layer have good contact with the fresh paint.

In the second color layer we'll be using flake white, regular gray mixture, ivory black, burnt umber,permanent madder deep, Chinese vermilion extra, red ocher, yellow ocher, cadmium yellow deep, extra

fine Indian yellow, and Prussian blue.

The second color layer is made according to the general principal of the first color layer: more light andmore color in the direction of the texture. As you may have noticed, during the drying period the color


layer has got dimmer. This means that the top layer has become more transparent and got a little darkerdue to the dead layer. We can now see more nuances in half-tones that were not visible immediately afterthe completion of the first color layer. Dry your painting in the sun, but don't leave it outside overnight.This was recommended by Old Masters because it accelerates drying and makes pigments a little more

transparent. The sun makes paints lose lightfastness many times quicker than when the painting gets dryin the studio. In this layer delicate nuances of light and shadow come into play more and more.To createthis effect, work with a light and a dark brush, with a little difference in tone compared to the tone of the

underlayer.

Here we begin to work on very small areas of light and shadow, keeping in mind our general principle: inlight areas add more light and more color, in dark areas add more darkness and more color.

We sort of repeat the work we did in the previous layer, but we intensify light and color. Some areas ofhalf-tones can be overpainted with semi-transparent mixtures with slight deviations in light or shadow.

Now the flesh of the lemon is well prepared for making the texture. Let's take open white with cadmiumyellow deep, and the thinnest brush. Now we must find the rhythm of tiny bubbles of the lemon flesh.

You can try making reflections with open cadmium yellow deep.


You can try making reflections with open cadmium yellow deep. The light and shadow play achieved inthe previous layer prompts the movement of the brush.

Let's emphasize the difference of the white flesh with cold mixtures.

Try to recreate the softness of the white layer of the lemon skin.


Light touches of the fluffy dry brush may be very helpful.

Once you have painted a lemon two or three times, its texture will cause no difficulty for you. Try toremember the proportions of your mixtures. Don't make the same mistakes, try to remember the

succession of operations, keep a diary of your observations. There's no competition in the world ofclassical painting. That's why try to find artists holding similar views and study the classical technique

together. Even Great Masters worked on their paintings together with other artists. For example, inRubens' paintings many portraits were painted by Van Dyke, and fruits and flowers by Snyders.

Hypothetically, the decay of classical painting began when artists stopped cooperating with each other.Craftsmanship in art can be called the science of painting, in other words, knowledge based on the use of

method and skill. The science of painting was created by generations of artists during a few centuries.The regeneration of classical painting depends on our joint efforts. Unlike the modern school of painting,

that calls for originality and uniqueness, the classical school gives you the power of knowledge of themethod and rules accumulated for centuries; and an army of admirers tired of the destructive ideas of themodern aesthetics, admirers who long for simple and understandable beauty. The success of a classical a

painting depends on the quality of the painting, and to a smaller extent, on the name of the artist. Theviewers will evaluate the painting's artistic and technical quality on the basis of natural criteria of beautythat people are born with, and not on the basis of false aesthetic views disseminated and imposed on us


by venal critics who run the art market. An avant-garde artist can, of course, paint a lemon in the form ofa purple square. But it will take some time to explain that the purple square is a lemon, and even more

time to convince the viewer that it is beautiful. Whatever shape and color the avant-garde artist choosesfor depicting a lemon, the lemon will always remain yellow and sour.That's why, let's go back to our

lemon.

The color of the lemon skin is not ready yet for painting the texture; and, according to our principle:more light and more color, we paint the skin one more time.

The most difficult part in painting a lemon is to depict the grainy skin. Don't hurry in doing that; try tofind the right size and proportion of the lemon skin pores.

In addition, we can identify a birthmark that will make our perfect lemon more life-like.


Painting the pear, again, make it lighter and more colorful, keeping the warmth of the orange color in itsyellowness.


The pear's blemishes, painted with permanent madder deep, burnt umber, and Chinese vermilion, speakof its sweetness and ripeness.


The warmth in the shadow breathes life into our fruits. Blend your red brush strokes with the tender skinof the juicy pear.

Highlights on glazed surfaces must be painted over a prior light-ray mixture with Prussian blue.

The blue under the highlight is a kind of reflection of the blue sky around the bright orange sun. The skyis reflected through the window, that's why the blue shape under the highlight is like a rectangular shape

of the window.


Dust covering things produces a bad impression in everyday life; in the classical painting, however, abluish coating of dust always looks attractive. That's why a little suggestion: if you have any still life

objects, don't remove dust from them.

Now we are preparing the surface for a highlight. Add some burnt umber to flake white, cadmiumyellow, and vermilion mixture so that the paint dries better for the next layer, in which we'll paint the

highlight again with a greater intensity of light and color.


The glaze of the jar is not so glossy as lemon juice drops, that's why it must be blended well.

Your bright madder deep, vermilion, and red ocher strokes will remind the viewer that the flesh of the jaris made of brick-red clay. As you can see, there isn't much paint on the jar, but it is sufficient to tell the

viewer about its true color.

Now we are correcting the construction of the jar: it is our last opportunity.

The jar's shadow is not just a mixture of black, umber, and madder. It is the reflection on the glazed jar of


the dark space of your room.

Using the blending brush, we begin making the porous texture of the jar. We dip the very tips of thebrush's hairs in the thin mixture, and then, by touching gently the canvas, with subsequent blending, we

achieve the desired effect.

In the same way we make tiny dots that are visible through the pear skin.


By means of careful blending you should make those dots hardly visible.

The highlight is made with flake white, cadmium yellow deep, and a little vermilion. Let's check oncemore the construction of the plate.

Let's also check the construction of the knife, with a very sharp brush.


Cover the lighter areas of the table top with vermilion and madder deep, but keep in mind that it is notthe highlight yet: it's the color of the wood.

With madder deep and ivory black, deepen the shadows and check the construction.

Use gray with some Persian blue to make the dust coating in the dips of the ornament. Dust changes thecolor, but not the shape, that is why the dust coating should also have its light and shadow.

This orange mixture is used not for highlights but for wood worn to lightness.


Having made corrections and blending, let's now make cracks in the wood with the dark brush, andcomplete them with the light brush, with some more blending afterwards.

In the unlighted areas the tonal step is much more gentle than in the lighted areas. Let's intensify thehighlight on the background in color and tone.

There's always some blue on the border between the sharp drop shadow and light.


Closer to the texture, the finishing layer, blending is always livelier, in order to create an additional playof light and shadow.

Put the unused paint on another palette, for the next day's work, and keep the palette in the fridge.Keeping the palette with paints in the fridge has the effect contrary to keeping the painting in the sun: it'll

help to keep your paints fresh.

Remove the waste mixtures from the palette, and then wash the palette and the brushes with paintthinner.


After that wash the brushes in warm water with dish soap that neutralizes any fat; thus you will prepareyour brushes for the next day's work.


TextureWe are now beginning the last layer of the texture.The canvas dried during one month; there wasn't much

paint, and it has dried well.

After the usual preparation we begin work.


We'll be using flake white, regular gray mixture that we have been using since the dead underlayer, ivoryblack, burnt umber, permanent madder deep, Chinese vermilion extra, red ochre, yellow ochre, cadmium

yellow deep, extra fine Indian yellow, transparent oxide red, and Prussian blue.

Work only on the lightest highlight areas of the drape.

Be very attentive in accentuating the direction of folds and wrinkles of the drape.

The sign of the drape's texture, its nap, is seen in the previous layers, in which the contour of the drape


was softened at places.

At the texture stage the main role will be played by our thinnest brush. Keep in mind that there is no, andthere cannot be, open white in the white drape. The ornament should be made to the maximum possible

perfection.

As before, we are using our gray mixtures, adding to them however, more and more cadmium yellow andred ochre, following our principle: more light and more color with each layer.


It is in this very stage that our objects gain their final color and shape.

Now we can observe a miracle that amazes us in the museum: an optical mix of colors due to thetranslucency of the layers.

The correcting brush should be used very carefully, without wide strokes. Only after you make sure thatthe paint has been distributed accurately, use the big blending brush.

In painting the drape, try to depict the most characteristic features of the fabric.


At this stage your picture has just been born, and during all your lifetime it will be getting more andmore beautiful, because all paints have the property of getting more and more transparent as time passes.The goal of the classical painting is not to depict objects as close to nature as possible, but to compose abeautiful composition of color and tone. Rely on the laws of painting more than on what you see in reallife. Real life can give you good prompts, particularly in such objects as a drape, a rose, or a face. It is

very difficult to compose these objects, the smallest falseness will make the drape look plastic, andflowers cardboard. But many other textures can be composed well.

There's one more advantage of the classical school: we know precisely when the painting begins, andwhen it is completed. Many proponents of the realistic school suffer a lot because they don't know whento finish; and very often they stop in the middle of the work. Don't listen when you are advised top stop

painting because your picture looks very elegant. You must carry on to the highlight. The completedhighlight signals the end of the work.

Now we will finish the jar's pores that we began painting in the previous layer.


Be inventive in this stage, but don't overdo it. Give your viewer an opportunity to have a good look at thedetails.

We are painting the sun in the center of its halo, and a couple of little suns on the bends of the jar.

Now, the water drops. To paint them, use the color of the nearby darker tone of the surface.


Blend the painted base of the drop with the thinnest brush in the most careful way.

Touch the drop's highlight very gently, with the tip of the paint that is hanging on the tip of the thinnestbrush, and after that the spherical reflection of the highlight at the other side of the drop.

Then, also with great care, blend your touches.


Let's invent a crack on the jar; perhaps our village vessel will forgive us this flirtation. Very delicately,make blending with the big brush.

The most difficult part in the finishing layer is the grainy skin of the lemon.

In fact, we are beginning and finishing it in this layer.


We use a light brush with a considerable difference in tone, and a mixture warmed with vermilion, inorder to emphasize the yellowness of the skin with the warmth of the highlight

Don't make irregular thrusts with your brush. Concentrate, and find the proportion of the pores to thedistance between them.

Take your time, even if it will take you several days. Give that time to the painting, your painting, andyour viewers will be grateful to you for your efforts. If you have to delay your work until the next day,wipe oil well from the surfaces that you didn't work on. Before you begin work the next day, oil these


surfaces locally.

Let's invent details that real life objects lack. Make the lemon flesh sparkling. For inspiration, take alemon and cut some skin from it.

Similarly, paint the second lemon, using the two brushes, light and dark, the same correcting brush withsubsequent blending.


First, we make a bluish coating, with the same highlight mixture of flake white, cadmium yellow deep,and vermilion, dimmed with burnt umber and a little Prussian blue.

Then we make the highlight, and blend it to make the surface of the pear look mat.


Don't forget to make a hint at the bluishness of the sky, when you paint highlights.

Now the drops. Use the color of the nearest shadow.

The highlight of the drop is made with flake white with a little cadmium yellow deep.


The highlight of cold steel is of the same color as of cold water.

We make final corrections. Let's make the wood texture with a dark and a light brush with subsequentblending.

The highlights are much darker than those of the jar; dim the intensity of the highlights with burnt umber.


Think of an elegant signature. Remember that your painting will live at least three or four hundred years,and, perhaps, you will be judged by your descendants by your signature.

Let's sprinkle the tabletop with a few drops of water.


We can make the background a little livelier by showing a few areas of paint peeled off the wall. Imaginethat the previous layer of paint on the wall was of a warmer hue.

We make the areas where the paint peeled off the wall a little higher in tone.

Now we work on these areas first with a dark brush, then with a light brush, and blend them after that.Blend well to prevent these areas from coming to the foreground.


Now we just used the opportunities of the air perspective.

Let's once more light the highlight on the background.

The gold in the painting must shine, even if it isn't shining in real life, or even if it isn't gold at all.

The painting that is not varnished looks pleasant as it is; you can display it that way too, but yourcreation looks at its best only after varnishing.


Varnish saves the layers from all sorts of damage. After drying the painting for at least six months, youmust apply a cover varnish. To show how to do it, we'll use another painting because our still life hasn't

dried yet. Clean the surface from dust, and apply varnish in quick and confident movements.

Cover the canvas with the regular non-thinned damar varnish using a soft flat varnish brush

Keep the painting in the horizontal position for at least one day: it will make brush strokes spread on thesurface evenly.


The process of painting is finished. From this moment never expose the painting to the open sun.

One may think that the classical painting technique takes too much time and efforts. But if you work onseveral paintings simultaneously, then, after a few months, you may be completing almost one painting a

day.



ConclusionLet's make a brief review of what we have done.

Why did we choose this particular painting technique from a variety of Renaissance painting methods?Anyone visiting Renaissance halls in the museum can notice that some paintings look as fresh as if theywere just painted, so bright and fresh their colors are. In other pictures paints faded, grew gray or brown,details are hardly seen. The reason is in the painting technique employed by the Renaissance artist. Astime passes, oil paints become more and more transparent, that is why paintings executed on the white

canvas with umber underlayer look as fresh as if they were just made, because umber underlayerpractically does not fade at all and the white canvas remains white, unlike paintings made on gray ordark brown priming. For the same reason you should be very careful with all sorts of corrections in oilpainting. Any radical correction will become visible. Thus, in 'The Portrait of Philip IV on Horseback"

by Velasquez exhibited in the Madrid gallery you can see eight legs, because the artist, not satisfied withthe original position of the legs, overpainted them to be covered with the tone of the ground.

Accordingly, in order not to lose face with your descendants, make all your compositional decisions asearly as in the pencil drawing.

You must have as many brushes as you can afford.

Kolinsky brushes wear out very fast; that's why use a palette knife to make mixtures on the palette, whenpossible.


Please pay attention to how useful old brushes can be. An old flat kolinsky brush with worn out hair canbe used as a semi-dry brush. You can use it to apply paint, to blend, and to remove excessive paint. After

applying a sufficient amount of paint use a correcting or blending brush.

The main tools in our work were kolinsky brushes. They are very goods for both applying paint and fordry brush correction. WE used kolinsky brushes of different sizes, from size 0 to 1 inch.

Applying paint with a kolinsky brush, try to use the very tip of the brush imitating pencil or pen strokes.Begin each element of the still life slowly and carefully starting with more important details. Don't try to

paint the chosen area in one go, leave the original brown ink drawing so that you can see the guidecontour as long as possible.

For blending and correction we used squirrel, camel, pony hair, and soft synthetic brushes.


We used palette knives for priming, for making large amounts of the dead underlayer mixtures, and formaking small amounts of mixtures on the palette.

Our regular set of paints was flake white, yellow ochre, red ochre, burnt umber, Prussian blue, and lampblack. Additional paints that are safe to use are permanent madder deep, Chinese vermilion extra,

transparent oxide red, cadmium yellow deep, extra fine Indian yellow, and ivory black.

The working medium for the imprimatura is made of 20 parts of turpentine and one part of damarvarnish. The working medium used in all other layers is composed of approximately 2 parts of

turpentine, 1 part of damar varnish, and one drop of lavender oil. Use pure damar varnish as the covermedium.


Canvas. We used ultra-smooth cotton canvas.

For priming, we used a mixture of 1 part of priming gesso, and 1 part of modeling paste. Prime thecanvas

to the degree of egg-shell smoothness.

Overdraw the pencil drawing with water-based brown ink.


Imprimatura.From now on, oil the canvas and remove excessive oil before each layer.

Imprimatura is the middle tone of the lightest area of the painting. It is made of yellow ochre, lamp black,with some Prussian blue and burnt umber.

Umber underlayer.Before you begin each layer, make sure it is well dried; it takes from one week to one month, dependingon the climate you live in. From now on, scrape the well dried canvas with a round-corner razor blade

before each layer.

In this layer you work on shadows. Make the general tone of the painting using burnt umber, andworking in several stages.


The dead underlayeris made with mixtures of flake white, yellow ochre, lamp black, burnt umber, and Prussian blue. Red

ochre is optional.

The main goal is to develop half-tones: more light in light areas, more darkness in shadows. Half-tonesare made as accurate as possible.

First color layer.From now on, our main principle is more light and more color in light areas, more darkness and color in

shadows. The color layer is painted with the dead underlayer mixtures, with colors added to them.


Second color layer.The same process as in the first color layer with one difference: the painted areas are smaller and more

numerous. The goal of the second color layer is to prepare the surfaces for highlights.

TextureThe goal is to identify the character of highlights in relation to the degree of texture reflection, and to

paint them. We complete the painting with working on details and the signature.

We have finished work on our still life. In this course, we have discussed the foundations of the classicalpainting technique on the basis of a simple composition. Now you can see some of my paintings that Imade during the last few years. In my future video courses, we'll discuss more complicated textures of

larger still lifes and portraits. We'll trace the evolution of the Renaissance painting technique. I will sharewith you the secrets of Old Masters and all my discoveries and findings about the lost school of classicalpainting. I thank you for your interest in the painting technique that I believe has not been surpassed inthe entire history of art. I will be very grateful for your questions, suggestions, and criticism; and I wish

you good luck in your work.




Local DiskWelcome to 1art.com Teaching Zone!CompositionPriming the canvasDrawingImprimaturaI. Umber UnderlayerII. Umber UnderlayerDead UnderlayerI Color LayerII Color LayerTextureConclusion

classical oil painting technique

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