Hello, dear friends and subscribers! I prepared for this topic for a long time, because I understood that it was generally very broad and multifaceted. You can talk about oil painting techniques for a week all the time, and not say everything that can and should be said.

And yet, it is simply necessary to say the most important things. Just try to find it somewhere on the Internet a complete selection of basic techniques with descriptions them, so that a person who has never painted before can understand what basic techniques exist, how they are characteristic and how they differ from each other.

You will see that it is difficult. And it turns out that a person finds out that alla prima exists, there is a multi-layer technique, and that’s all...

But in fact there are many techniques. And knowing their features, and even more so being able to apply them in practice exactly where they are really needed, is very important for a professional artist. After all, such mastery 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. Sometimes the painting plays a significant role, but sometimes the complex paint layer and detailing of the painting is important.

The surface texture in your painting will depend on the method of applying the paint layer you used.

Therefore, a review of oil painting techniques takes place. If you are a beginner and just take your brushes in your hands, then this material will be especially useful to you. So let's begin. Let's start with the most popular ones...

Multilayer technique

This technique is the most traditional, and most of the world's masterpieces of oil painting are painted using it.

Its essence is that when painting a picture paints are applied on top of each other, and the next layer is superimposed after complete drying 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 out its details.

It all starts with a light underpainting, which determines the tone of the painting.

The working principle in multi-layer painting is as follows: First, a sketch of the drawing and underpainting in dark tones is made, plus time for complete drying. The second layer is the main painting of the painting with a layer of paint, plus drying time. The third layer is detailing and clarification in the painting...

This technique itself is very diverse and, depending on how and with what the individual layers are formed, it is divided into other writing styles.… Read about this below⇓

Alla prima

This is a common and popular technique among professional artists as well as amateur artists. It is also called the raw technique or the fast technique.

The method of applying paint is completely opposite to multilayer: with it, paint is applied to the canvas in one session... And painting a picture 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 elaboration of details, but at the same time it is complex due to the need to work, which is called “raw in raw”. If you apply a new layer of paint to an existing wet layer, there is always a risk of mixing the paint layer and making the image more difficult to form.

That's why, the second layer of paint using the Alla Prima technique is applied immediately, which is not permissible in a multilayer one.

Paintings painted in this manner are usually 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 a detailed genre painting... since for detailing, you may need more than one more layer to refine the painting after drying. What does it mean to work in multilayer technology... But you can definitely paint an interesting picture!

Alla Prima technique is in great demand among professionals and painting enthusiasts

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 multi-layer technique, with a centuries-old history, like a lush, fertile tree, gave rise to many of its variations. They, in turn, have already become independent techniques. For example…

Seven-layer painting technique, old master technique and glazing technique

Many people assume that such complex techniques have been forgotten...But in fact, there are a lot of professional artists working in these subtle techniques. Write a complex work, revealing all the possibilities of oil paints Only a special approach to writing can.

For example, to copy the work of the old masters, we need exactly these methods of applying paints, as well as thin transparent glaze layers. Or, popular and in demand paintings in the style of hyperrealism, using glaze techniques to subtly convey the believability of the subject.

Although, to master the style of hyperrealism, they use everything: pencils, paints, airbrushes, markers... that is, works are created, which in turn opens up enormous opportunities for art and humanity in general.

Techniques of old Flemish and Italian masters

Perhaps, seven-layer technique- one of the most complex options for multilayer technology. It is this technique that provides the most reliable reproduction of colors and play of light. There is no single recipe or exact sequence. For example, some points may change places, but the essence of the work remains. In short, the sequence looks like this:

1. The ground is tinted (imprimatura);
2. The drawing is drawn with a pencil and secured with ink;
3. The underpainting is done - translucent, watercolor grisaille;
4. A “dead layer” is applied—a grisaille of light and shadow is registered;
5. Colored writing is the main layer, taking into account the lower layers of imprimatura and registration;
6. Glazes are thin tinting layers of transparent paint;
7. Detailing, creating texture when necessary, for example in still lifes, finishing touches.

Eventually, working on one painting using this technique can last for months and requires the ability to work with different types of paints.

An example of a technique in multi-layer painting

There is also a name like glaze watercolor technique... these are all the same multi-layer techniques with the application of transparent paints - 3-layer, 5-layer, and if necessary, then 9-layer.

Its essence is that translucent layers of paint are applied one on top of the other. As a result of this overlay, new shades appear and a play of colors is created, which is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to achieve by applying opaque strokes.

Glaze layers applied on top of each other are translucent, which makes the picture unusually complex in shades and effects!

For glaze technology you need to have a very smooth canvas surface so that the transparent layer can lie flat on the surface. Previously, they wrote on wood, its surface was smooth, but canvas appeared much later.

Tinted primer plays a big role when painting is done with glaze paints and the primer shines through the transparent layers, changing their color.

The color of the primer 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 it is placed on a tinted primer s covering paints, its color will not matter for painting.

The technique of glazing 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 certain dilutions.

Specialists also share many of the more specialized techniques of oil painting. For example, the Italian technique, the Dutch technique, and various transitional techniques are known, which differ mainly in the individual nuances of applying different layers of paint.

And also Leonardo da Vinci’s favorite method of applying paints is Flemish (glaze). Knowing about the existence of such techniques is useful for general knowledge, but to create excellent paintings, using them is not necessary. 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 lush 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 the particularly complex manner of painting, many painters and old masters used a camera obscura, which conveyed exact proportions. What kind of miracle device is this, ⇐

Impasto, Pastose, or cabinet technique

This is the opposite of the glazing technique.

In principle, these are very similar techniques in meaning: pastose technique or body (pastoso), and impasto (impasto) , translated as dough... That is, the picture is “molded” like dough

Here thick opaque strokes overlap each other, and the overlying layer completely covers the underlying one. In this technique, the master can actively work with the relief of the painting.

The subject of the painting seems to be molded on the surface of the canvas

Moreover, you can apply paint using 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. The good thing about this technique is that provides an opportunity to express creative energy with a brush, palette knife, or spatula, for example. Vincent Van Gogh I felt like 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 style of writing in general. And it is also one of the options for painting in oils. Its main principle- use only one color to paint a picture. Here, all borders and accents are formed by individual shades of the same color, rather than by different colors. WITH the name comes from the wordgris, which translates from French as gray.

Grisaille technique in oil painting

The grisaille technique is used in monumental and alfresco painting for painting walls and facades, and this technique also makes it possible to perfectly imitate sculptures and sculptural reliefs. But it also occurs in painting interesting pictures.

Dry brush technique

It's more likely graphic technique 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 oils and brushes.

A rather rare manner in which the author uses slightly diluted, very thick paints. That is, it is written with an almost dry brush. As a rule, with such dilution of paints, they do not allow you to work with shades, but provide greater depth and saturation of the canvas.

Dry brush technique on paper

They say that this style of writing was brought with them by Chinese students who painted ink portraits on paper about 30 years ago for those who wanted it 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 a picture: to convey feelings, atmosphere, or details of a specific object or phenomenon? Which technique is closer to you - multi-layer or alla prima?

VIDEO FOR DESSERT: How artistic taste is formed

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Ask your questions below in the comments, I usually answer all questions quickly

Analysis of the works of portrait artists of the 15th–20th centuries. allowed researchers to identify two main methods of painting - multi-layer oil painting and painting alla prima.

The basic stages of sequential application of layers of paint in the technique of multi-layer oil painting were developed during the Renaissance and have undergone only a few changes over the centuries.

The way of doing the work was based on a harmonious system of glazes. The paint was applied in a translucent layer to the carefully prepared underpainting.

Coloring substances (pigments) from the point of view of optical properties have different transparency. Based on relative transparency, it has long been customary to divide them into two groups - low-transparent paints, called opaque, or body paints, and highly translucent, glaze paints. The paints of the first group were used for underpainting, while the second group was used for subsequent copy-painting. Covering (body) paints include white, ocher, cadmium yellow and red, cobalt green and blue, chromium oxide, various organic blacks.

Glaze paints transmit light well, have a fine texture and produce bright, saturated colors. This group of pigments includes natural and burnt umber, mars brown light and dark, natural and burnt sienna, thioindigo pink, viridon green, emerald green, green and blue FC, thioindigo black, ultramarine. Very transparent paints (so-called varnish-garances) are used in the topmost layers. These are yellow and orange mars, kraplaki, volkonskoite.

All the techniques of the old masters relied on the transparency of the colors and the brightness of the translucent base. As P.P. Revyakin wrote: “Transparency of colors is the core of painting technique. To understand this means to understand a lot about the technique of painting” (35, p. 34).

Studying the works of old masters, based on the evidence of contemporaries (Armenini, Vasari, Van Mander), researchers E. Berger, Yu.I. Grenberg, D.I. Kiplik, L.E. Feinberg came to the conclusion that the painting technique of the old masters is built in the following sequence.

1. Preparing the primer (bleaching) or tinted primer (imprimatura).

2. Transfer from a preparatory contour drawing (with enhanced contours with ink or gray tempera paint) or direct drawing on canvas. Flemish artists the preliminary contour drawing made on paper was transferred to a white adhesive primer. After this, a tonal drawing was made using transparent brown paint while preserving the transparency of the soil. After drying, the tonal pattern was covered with a layer of varnish.

3. Underpainting of the entire composition with opaque paints (white). Oil or other tempera mixtures (from the Flemings) were used as a binder. “The discovery of the Van Eycks was,” writes Ernst Berger in “Materials on the history of the development of painting techniques,” “that from fatty, viscous, oil or varnish binders they learned to prepare a binder, mixed with water and diluted to any desired degree, and they learned to use it masterfully” (6, p.52). This new type of oil painting, which so surprised contemporaries, provided a successful combination of the tempera layer with oil layers, glazes and the final paint layer.

4. Further work was carried out half-body in anticipation of subsequent glazes or painted in “dead tones” (paints free of excess binder were used). In the process of working in “dead tones”, registrations were carried out in a lighter and low-intensity tone (“dead tones”). Paints of light gray or blue could be applied for blue, light brown for red, pearl gray or yellow for green. Once the underpainting was dry, the entire work was lightly scraped with a knife to remove any rough edges and create a smoother surface.

The Flemish style of painting made it possible to use the internal glow of the underlying layers of paint and, using a limited number of pigments, to achieve a variety of shades.

5. Final layers of glaze.

6. A layer of topcoat varnish was applied after the painting had completely dried. It should be noted that each stage of painting was carried out on a completely dry previous layer. “Having applied paints containing a small amount of oil, the painter leaves work on the painting for many days until the paints are completely dry... If the paints are applied over an undried underpainting, they mix with it, becoming matte and dull” (6, p. 225).

Later Italian artists of the 16th–17th centuries. significantly enriched the technique of oil painting with techniques for working with the paint layer. According to legend, Antonello da Messina brought the Flemish technique to Italy, but oil painting in Italy did not become something unshakable, canonical in its technical techniques.

Leonardo da Vinci enriched his paintings with the effect of chiaroscuro. He took into account that light and shadow change depending on the lighting; his doctrine of the "turbid medium" of air led to the use of dark, warm underpainting. Leonardo da Vinci came to this after he realized that semi-covering, i.e. mixed with white, the tones give a bluish tint to the dark tones visible through them. Thick, colorful layers are not influenced by the colored primer, but in thinner transitions to the shadow parts and in the shadows, all gradations of tone can be developed on the basis of the tinted primer.

Starting with Giorgione, instead of creating volume by covering a light background with transparent glazes, they began to apply strokes of opaque white over dark tones, which gave the surface of the depicted objects convexity and relief. This technique made it possible to make changes to the painting as it was being created.

Deviations from the so-called “Flemish manner” began with the method of preparing the soil, which gradually turned from white to colored, first to light and then darker.

Imprimatura (colored tinted primer) was used as one of the structural elements of the chiaroscuro image. At the same time, the color of imprimatura varied in the works of different masters from light gray to dark gray, greenish, red-brown, dark red (bolus), brown, almost black.

Undoubtedly, imprimatura was also a means of coloristic construction of the work. Each stroke of paint placed on the tinted ground entered into an optical interaction with it, and the overall tone of the imprimatura acted like a tuning fork.

The underpainting was done impasto in the highlights, through a translucent brushstroke in the midtones and glazed in the shadows. At the same time, from a limited number of colors a classic decorative design was created. warm-coldness paintings - warm lights, cool midtones, warm shadows.

The painting process became more dynamic and allowed the artist to work more freely. This is confirmed by an analysis of the works themselves, as well as by the testimony of contemporaries. The artist Palma the Younger describes Titian's working method in this way: “Titian covered his canvases with a mass of paint, as if serving as a bed or foundation for what he wanted to express in the future. I myself have seen such energetic underpaintings, executed with a thickly saturated brush in pure red color, which was supposed to outline the undertone. With the same brush, dipping it in red, then black, then yellow paint, he worked out the relief of the illuminated parts... The artist made the final retouches with soft strokes of his fingers, smoothing out the transitions from bright highlights to halftones and rubbing one tone into another. Sometimes with the same finger he applied a thick shadow to some corner in order to strengthen this place, or he glazed it in a red tone, like drops of blood, in order to enliven the pictorial surface...” (37, p. 117).

According to contemporaries, Titian returned to the work he began only after a few years, when the paints had dried sufficiently and “settled” in tone. At the same time, he used a small selection of colors. According to Ridolfi, on top of the gray grisaille, Titian painted the body with only three colors: white, black and red, and the missing yellow tones were then applied with glaze. Researchers often cite the following statement by Titian in their works: “Whoever wants to become a painter should not know more than three colors: white, black and red and use them with knowledge” (16, 21).

Classical Italian style of painting looked like this:

1. A drawing was made with chalk or charcoal on the tinted ground. On light, neutral-toned soils, they began to paint by applying light using white alone or white tinted with ocher, umber, etc., according to the drawing made, modeling the shape.

2. Then, after drying, the work continued (in a cooler and lighter tone), painting the lights impasto in local tones in anticipation of subsequent glazing. The luminosity of the imprimatura was preserved in the shadows and midtones.

In the described painting method, the optical interaction of body (covering) and semi-covering paints is the main point. In order to make maximum use of the coloristic features of transparent (glaze) paints, the “old masters” chose paints for underpainting with great care. The main principle was a cold underpainting for a warm glaze or, conversely, a warm underpainting for a cold glaze. “They often prepared blue glaze with gray paint, fiery red with a cold or orange tone, etc. Italians often paint blue garments over a brown underpainting, which gives the fabrics a softness in the shadows. Ludwig, in his study of the paintings of the old masters, although he does not give specific examples, does mention a bright green underpainting for light red clothes, bright red for light green, pink-red for light blue" (6, p. 89).

In the underpainting, more attention was paid to the drawing and modeling of the form. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, many artists of that time, including Titian, used underpainting in gray tones (en grisaille, grisaille).

3. The work was finished with transparent or translucent glazes. Glazing, coloring the underlying layer of paint, darkened it and gave it a warm tint.

Thus, one of the basic principles of the texture construction of the “classical” painting technique can be formulated as follows: “The thickness of the paint layer should be directly proportional to the amount of light reflected by each part of the object,” i.e. lights are written in hues, and shadows in glazes (6, p. 12.).

The artist, adhering to the classical method of creating a painting, turned his attention at various stages of work, first to drawing and composition, then to developing the light and shadow features of the form, and then to color. He completed his work with generalizing glazes. “Classical technique... even in the hands of an imperfect master... - organized the paint layer harmoniously and beautifully. The technique was complex, orderly, and the old master knew the steps necessary to bring the work to completion. The creative process proceeded on the basis of a strict, elaborate and beautiful technique, and the aesthetic result was organized, supported and enhanced by the impression of beautiful texture. Of course, each major master introduced his own characteristics into the technical system, without destroying its technological and technical foundations, but developing them. However, the system itself was wisely and clearly designed and guaranteed high technical excellence. The individual principle - impetuosity and freedom of reception did not destroy the technical foundations, but developed them” (42, p. 154).

Each artist worked in accordance with his own creative individuality, but at the same time the basic scheme of constructing the paint layer was preserved.

After Titian, individual techniques of his painting style were varied or repeated to one degree or another. The most prominent of his successors (Rubens, El Greco) considered themselves his students, not to mention the Italian masters (Tintoretto, Veronese), whose work was a milestone in the development of European painting.

Among the “old masters,” the process of working on a painting was built with a clear delineation of stages, which allowed the lower layers of paint to dry well before the next layers were applied to them. When artists began to strive to convey the features of form with soft transitions from thick paint to transparent penumbra and shadows, these stages began to be combined, sometimes in one operation. “This led to the fact that Rubens, unlike the old Dutch, worked, as a rule, not with pure paints, but with mixtures of them, laying them (with the exception of blue and sometimes red clothes) in one layer” (16, p.231) .

Researchers studying Rubens' paintings first of all note that the painting technique of this brilliant master is a combination of the Italian principle of tonal impasto painting (Venetian version) with the principle of work of the Flemish masters, based on the translucency of light ground.

He considered the best basis for small paintings to be a wooden base (board) covered with a thick layer of chalk soil. This dense, dazzling white primer was tinted with a silver-gray imprimatura, which was a tempera or adhesive composition made from a mixture of crushed coal and white lead. It is even possible that the adhesive primer was simply wiped (using a sponge) with charcoal diluted with ordinary water. The primed board was quickly and uniformly covered with this composition, and, if possible, in one movement, so that the texture of imprimatura strokes remained on the board. The pictorial construction of the work from neutral tones to impasto highlights and glazes in the shadows became a feature of Rubens’ technique.

We have received information that Rubens advised “increasing the body of the lights (as far as seems appropriate), but when interpreting shadows, always preserve the transparency of the toning of the ground of the canvas or board; otherwise the color of this soil would become meaningless (6, p. 114).

An excellent example of the described manner is “Portrait of the Infanta Isabella’s Chambermaid” (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Oil paint is laid on top of the pearl-gray primer in such a transparent layer that it shines through the paint everywhere, especially in halftones, and gives the appearance of the young chambermaid lightness and airiness.

“Shadows should be painted lightly,” Rubens taught, “beware of getting white in there; everywhere, except for the lights, white is poison for paintings; if the white touches the golden shine of the tone, your painting will cease to be warm and will become heavy and gray... The situation is different in the highlights; in them it is possible to adequately enhance the body structure and thickness of their layer. However, the paints must be left clean: this is achieved by applying each clean paint in its place, one next to the other in such a way that with a slight displacement using a bristle or hair brush, you can connect them without “tormenting”; then one should undergo this preparation with confident strokes, which are always the hallmarks of great masters” (16, p.230).

It was previously said that the artists of the Venetian school (Titian and his followers) divided two stages of work:

– covering (shape development, whitening underpainting);

– translucent (the color was glazed according to the recipe).

But for Rubens, these two stages develop simultaneously, which required the highest execution technique and precise calculation.

The Venetian principle of work was that the artist approached the completion of the picture from above, i.e. from a more contrasting and lighter copy, through bright local glazes, ending with a general glaze (darkening and generalizing). And the principle of Rubens’ technique is to work from the middle, enhancing tone and contrasts in the process of writing on a gray imprimatur with the power of halftone.

If the artists of the Venetian school sought to use the texture of the canvas, then Rubens, working on canvas, tried to neutralize the base, creating a smooth surface of the ground, like a board.

Unlike the Venetians (Tintoretto and others), Rubens never used dark grounds, which is perhaps why his painting, especially on boards, turned out to be very durable.

Acquaintance with Flemish and Dutch painting of the 17th century. allows us to conclude that it is distinguished by the use of a limited number of the most durable pigments (in the palette of Rubens, Rembrandt, etc.). Yu.I. Grenberg in “Technology of Easel Painting” gives the following composition of colorful pigments: blue - azurite, natural ultramarine, smalt, indigo; green - malachite; yellow - ocher; brown - umber; red - cinnabar and kraplak; white - lead white, black - organic black.

Many artists of that time (Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Velazquez) also used tinted primers in order to have the strongest possible contrasts when modeling the body shape. At first, gray and reddish primers were used in medium tones. Later, the soils darkened (dark gray) and often intensified to dark red (bolus soil). This is how Caravaggio worked, who painted in pre-composed batches alla prima, using the glow of dark warm ground in the shadows and midtones and subtly registering the lights.

As already mentioned, paintings made on dark imprimatures are somewhat worse preserved. This is due to the loss of hiding power of lead white. Changes in the paint layer affected those paintings in which impasto underpainting was not used (this explains some of the blackness inherent in Caravaggio’s works).

Of the Spanish artists (Ribeira, Murillo, etc.), Velazquez painted on dark ground, especially in the early period. With confident brushstrokes alla prima, he modeled the body, using a ground tone for the shadow parts of the clothes, sometimes going over them with a local tone. Light strokes of paint were applied with a quick movement of the brush.

It is known that Velázquez used mainly cinnabar and organic varnishes (for red paints), yellow lead, oxidized clays (for ocher), lapis lazuli, smalt and lapis lazuli (for blue paints), green earth, black coal, black soot and white lead (4, p. 145).

Velazquez's admiration for the Venetian artists and his two trips to Italy made his style of painting so new and original that it did not find a response in the works of any of the European artists of that time. His mature canvases are nothing more than “a play of very light strokes, glazing without contour, spots at a distance that from a distance resemble the truth,” as the director of the Prado Museum A.E. Perez Sanchez wrote (4, p. 143).

It should be noted that the main law of portrait painters of the 16th–17th centuries. there was a concentration of light on the face and head of the person depicted. Therefore, the entire environment of the model was adjusted accordingly - it was made darker than the light of the illuminated figure. On canvas painted dark, this effect was achieved with the least effort.

In portraits of the “old masters,” the lighting is structured in such a way that the strongest light falls on the model’s head, is scattered across clothes, hands, and is lost below, in the shadows of the background.

The problem of lighting, chiaroscuro effects, and “concentration” of light becomes a distinctive feature, the principle of artistic expression of Rembrandt, an unsurpassed master of portrait and painting. The primed boards and canvases used by Rembrandt, as researcher A.V. Winner points out when describing Rembrandt’s painting technique (8, p. 53), had a tinted primer of light gray, slate gray, brown or golden brown. Rembrandt's palette of colors (supposedly) consisted of lead white, ocher of various shades, red, green and brown earth, Neapolitan yellow, cinnabar, red lead, ultramarine, indigo, verdigris, burnt sienna, charcoal black, burnt bone, black earth, grape and peach black. In many of his paintings he did not use blue or green paints at all; instead, he used a mixture of white and black.

Rembrandt often used tempera paints when working on the copywriting and underpainting. It should be noted that the “old masters” painted with freshly rubbed paints, which they prepared themselves or their apprentices. Rembrandt prepared oil-varnish paints using a complex binder, which consisted of sun-bleached walnut or linseed oil with the addition of varnishes and drier oils, which accelerated the drying of the paint layer.

Rembrandt’s painting technique was based on the classical three-layer construction of a pictorial-color layer based on a previously applied imprimatura, namely: writing, underpainting, final layer of glaze.

The artist’s system featured a variety of technical techniques and included:

Taking advantage of the optical features provided by tinted primer; giving the tone of the ground either a warm or a cold tint, Rembrandt had the opportunity to change the entire structure of the color of the created work in one direction or another;

Application of the Flemish (or Old Dutch) method of working “warm on warm”, the features of which were described earlier;

Skillful use of the Venetian method of working “cold on warm” and “warm on cold”, which was based on the most complete use of the optical-picturesque properties of tinted gray ground through working with glazes (warm on a cold base and cold on a warm base);

Masterful use of high, almost relief underpainting in light colors with a pronounced texture;

Performing glazes applied to darken the underpainting made with lead white (possibly tempera) or light-colored paints.

In the mature period of his creativity, Rembrandt successfully used the method developed by Titian and the masters of the Venetian school, which made it possible to use with the greatest effect not the gray tone of the ground, but the most valuable possibilities of additional colors in painting (described by Leonardo da Vinci) with a more or less opaque application of paint .

During the restoration of Rembrandt's Danaë, the following components of the paint layer were installed:

Soil (red earth, chalk, white lead, burnt bone, gypsum, driers, binder - animal glue);

Imprimatura (lead white, gypsum, chalk, burnt bone, smalt, binder - oil);

Drawing, writing (brown transparent paint: Kesen earth with a mixture of various pigments, lead white);

Painting layer (mixtures of various pigments: cinnabar, yellow lead-tin, yellow ocher, brown, red, azurite, smalt, burnt bone, umber, kraplak, binder - oil).

Rembrandt modeled the form with brown transparent paint on a very dark gray ground; this preparation gives his works warmth and depth. Then a textured underpainting was done over this brown lining.

About Rembrandt’s impasto style, a contemporary noted: “Rembrandt’s paintings are painted in corpus, mainly in the brightest light; he rarely merged colors, placing them on top of one another without mixing; this method of work is a feature of this master” (6, p. 116).

Rembrandt's textured, high underpainting, a distinctive characteristic of this great master's technique, forced the artist to paint and sculpt form with a brush, led to a deep understanding of the pictorial dynamics of form, and developed in him an unusually strong sense of the unity of form and color.

Recommending to adhere to the method of his teacher, his student Samuel Van Hoogstraten wrote: “First of all, it is advisable to accustom yourself to a confident brushstroke in order to separate plans, give the drawing proper expression and where you can allow a free play of color without falling too slick. The latter only spoils the impression, adds uncertainty and rigidity, losing the correct balance. It is better to express the softness with a full brush, or, as Jordanes used to say, one must “apply the paint cheerfully,” without worrying about its smoothness and shine, and no matter how thickly it is applied, it will take its place in the final elaboration” (6, p. 116).

The glazes applied by Rembrandt over a completely dry underpainting consisted of pure colored paints, mainly dark tones, and should not have been clouded with white, otherwise they would have lost their transparency, sonority and depth of tone.

Rembrandt used white in the final layer only in mixtures to extinguish the excessive brightness and color of individual paint tones, or in its pure form - for the purpose of light accents, but perhaps with subsequent final color glazes over them.

When applying glaze, Rembrandt always subtly calculated the final pictorial effect, which represented the range of sound of both the glazed paint layer and the underlying base, i.e., the colorful layers of the underpainting and the tinted primer, visible in a number of places from under the underpainting.

One of the most important moments in the construction of the pictorial and colorful layer in Rembrandt’s paintings, which determines the final tonal sound of the work, was the pattern in the addition of three stages: glaze, underpainting and tinted primer.

Thus, in the paired portraits of an old woman and an old Jew (located in the Hermitage), executed impasto, in the painting of hands, from under the final glazes, preparation in a lighter tone is visible.

The gallery of portrait images created by Rembrandt is unparalleled in the history of painting. For Rembrandt, the most important theme in a portrait was the relationship between the general plan, the appearance of a person, created by posture, pose, clothing, color and expression of the state of mind of the person being portrayed, the face, eyes, which constitute the most important aspect of the entire work.

His portraits and self-portraits (especially of old age) are distinguished by the depth of revelation of a person’s inner world; they reflect the entire lived life of those portrayed with traces of joy and grief, excitement and experiences.

An outstanding master of portraiture, whose painting skills influenced subsequent generations of artists, was Frans Hals. It is a mistaken belief that his virtuoso broad brushwork is the alla prima technique in the modern sense. Hals painted on white and light gray ground, shading the shape with brown paint. Further work on this warm underpainting was carried out using bleaching compounds, in the shadows in the light. The tone of the gray ground contributed to the coloring of the shadows. At the same time, the artist created a magnificent harmony of black, gray and white in his portraits.

Van Dyck's painting technique differs little from Rubens' technique. The imprimatura was tinted by Van Dyck with umber or gray mixed with ocher, which gave him, as a portrait painter, the opportunity to work quickly. Thanks to this, with the help of semi-opaque paints, when depicting the human body, he achieved soft transitions and transparency of depth. On tinted ground, Van Dyck also first laid shadows in a brown tone, then modeled the shape with grisaille. “In the Doria Gallery, a portrait of a boy was begun, painted in a gray-brown preparation “alla prima”. In the sketch depicting a knight in the Lichtenstein gallery, on a slate-gray ground, the contours and dark local tones are painted with black-brown paint with bravura, the light is partly white, partly local tones; the color of the ground is left in the halftones” (21, p. 386).

Van Dyck influenced many painters, especially the painters of the English school (Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, etc.)

The major English artist Reynolds, founder of the London Academy of Arts, studied the painting techniques of Rubens, Titian and other masters, in whose works the Flemish and Italian style of painting is reflected in its best traditions.

Reynolds believed that “the light portions of the image should respond with hot yellow and red tones. For shadows you need to use gray, green and blue tones, which in turn will enhance the effect of red and yellow tones” (3, p. 52).

Reynolds, in order to study the techniques of the “old masters,” tried many ways of doing work, but came to the conclusion that convincing modeling of form and color can be achieved only through whitening impasto in the highlights and gradually strengthening the whitewashed copywriting in the penumbra and shadows during the work. At the same time, in the shadows, you should prepare blue for cold colors, and for warm colors, prepare them with yellow and red, and apply them gradually and more glaze. Further work is carried out to intensify the highlights and deepen the dark accents in the shadows.

Reynolds' method of work can be judged from the entries in his diary:

“May 17, 1769. On gray ground. First registration: cinnabar, crappie varnish, white and black; the second - the same paints, the third - the same and ultramarine. The final one is yellow ocher, black, crappie varnish and cinnabar with varnish and white on top.”

“Mrs Horton. Everything is written with Copai balsam without yellow paint; The yellow one is placed at the very end of the portrait.”

“January 22, 1770. I developed my own method of painting: the first and second registration in oil or Copai balsam with paints: black, ultramarine and lead white; the latter - with yellow ocher, black, ultramarine and crappie varnish without white. After all, retouch with a small amount of white and other paints. My own portrait, given to M-s Burke” (21, p.369).

The method of work of the great English portrait painter Gainsborough was very original and very different from the methods of work of other artists. Gainsborough's contemporary Humphrey said that the artist always began his portraits in a shadowed room, so that it was easier to grasp the overall composition without being distracted by details, and only as he further worked on the whole did he let in more light (30, p.69). Gainsborough preferred to work directly on canvas. He did the underpainting in a light color, usually grayish-yellow or pink. This gave the painting surface a luminous lining, which, sometimes shining through, gave the work a unifying tone. Gainsborough then outlined the portrait, sometimes with dark pink outlines, and here and there with local colors. Gainsborough developed all parts of the picture at the same time, but first he worked on the head of the person being portrayed.

T. Gainsborough painted with long brushes (six feet long) and very liquid paints. At the same time, he tried to be at the same distance from the model and from the easel, so as not to lose the overall impression of the whole.

“Typically, Gainsborough used a fine-grained canvas, achieving a smooth surface, using a core brush for wider planes and a camel hair brush for details. He was very concerned about the quality of his pigments... He finished with light glazes, the main charm of his writing, and for fixing he used an easily soluble alcohol varnish of his own making” (30, p. 71).

According to eyewitness accounts, Gainsborough could draw with a piece of sponge tied to a stick; With it he laid shadows, and a small piece of whitewash, clamped with sugar tweezers, became a tool for whitewashing.

Much of what delights the modern viewer was not understood and appreciated by his contemporaries. For example, Rembrandt’s masterful impasto brushstroke, which was so admired later, caused ridicule and witticisms in its time. In order not to hear annoying remarks about the supposed unfinishment of his paintings, Rembrandt did not allow visitors to his workshop to closely examine his works. In the 18th century confidently placed strokes of paint were already considered a sign of the work of a great master. Thus, Reynolds spoke highly of the texture of Gainsborough’s paintings, the painting of which “close up is only spots and stripes, a strange and formless chaos, but at the proper distance it takes shape, revealing that main beauty that the truth and lightness of their effect provides” (16, p.239).

Thus, based on the analysis of works performed by masters of the past (Flemish, Italian schools of painting), researchers (Y.I. Grenberg, D.I. Kiplik, L.E. Feinberg) identify a three-layer construction of a pictorial-colorful layer on white or previously tinted primer - imprimatura, introduced as one of the structural elements of the image of chiaroscuro or the general pictorial state, namely:

- copybook(done with transparent paints). At this stage, the general compositional structure of the work is clarified, the main masses of light and shadow are distributed, and large color relationships are outlined;

- underpainting(the main painting layer, painted with body paints). This layer solves the problem of light and shadow modeling of forms. It is a preparatory basis for subsequent glazes;

- final pictorial layer(at this stage the coloristic problem is finally solved). Includes mainly glaze writing.

Imprimatura can be either single-layer or multi-layer; it can be used as the final layer of oil paint in the production of semi-oil primer. Can be done with tempera paint on adhesive, emulsion and synthetic primers. If the imprimatura is applied with oil paint, then the selected paint is diluted with pinene or pinene and varnish (3 hours + 1 hour) so that the imprimatura accepts subsequent layers well and dries quickly. Imprimatura can be applied in several layers depending on the task at hand. For example, the Caravaggists applied black over the red layer of imprimatura.

Imprimatura is of the following types:

1) verdaccio - gray-green (natural umber and white, a mixture of black, ocher and white);

2) bolus - brick-red (usually performed with kaput-mortuum);

3) pink (burnt umber and white, burnt sienna and white), cream, ocher (natural sienna with white), etc.

When performing light work, saturated with bright colors (plein air), it is necessary to use a light imprimatura, and when working with a dark setting, a denser tone. Dark imprimatura gives the image depth, but requires a fairly pasty application of paint in the highlights, since over time the paint layer becomes more transparent and the imprimatura can shine through it. Sometimes imprimatura is applied with a transparent glaze layer over a fixed pattern (burnt umber and burnt sienna).

Copybook- the first pictorial layer, in which the general compositional structure of the work is outlined, the general tone of the work, the main masses of light and shadow are distributed, and sometimes color relationships are determined.

According to color, the writing is:

Monochrome;

Bichrome;

Polychrome.

Grisaille (monochrome writing) is usually done with one paint (usually brown). Bichrome writing is created using two colors (black and brown), i.e. "cold" and "warm".

When performing multicolor (polychrome) copywriting, which is especially popular in modern painting, several colors are usually used. The paint is applied with a thin glaze layer. Shapes are outlined with color spots.

The following types of writing are distinguished:

1) tacking - performed by glazing with one paint (natural umber, burnt umber, etc.) both on white and tinted canvas. At this stage, tonal relationships are determined (a large shadow is cast, a difference in tone in the shadows). On a tinted ground, unlike white, the highlights are usually left unwritten in anticipation of further highlighting.

Based on this feature, the writing can be in tone:

Enlightened (lighter in anticipation of subsequent darkening);

Normal (tonal relationships are established in a tone close to the finished work);

Darkened (darker than at the end of the work, with the expectation of lightening);

2)bleaching (working with white) is used when working on dark imprimature. With this type of copywriting, they work with the highlights, showing the tonal difference that exists between them, while the shadows remain untouched. This type of writing is sometimes done with tempera (casein-oil) or acrylic white. Tonal gradations are achieved by changing the thickness of the applied paint layer. You can write with either pure oil white or backlit with ocher, umber, etc. Based on the tone, this type of writing is called pro

the past fascinates with its colors, the play of light and shadow, the appropriateness of each accent, the general condition, and flavor. But what we see now in galleries, preserved to this day, differs from what the author’s contemporaries saw. Oil painting tends to change over time, this is influenced by the selection of paints, execution technique, finishing coat of the work and storage conditions. This does not take into account minor mistakes that a talented master could make when experimenting with new methods. For this reason, the impression of the paintings and the description of their appearance may differ over the years.

Technique of the old masters

The oil painting technique gives a huge advantage in work: you can paint a picture for years, gradually modeling the shape and painting the details with thin layers of paint (glaze). Therefore, corpus painting, where they immediately try to give completeness to the picture, is not typical for the classical manner of working with oil. A thoughtful step-by-step approach to applying paint allows you to achieve amazing shades and effects, since each previous layer is visible through the next one when glazing.

The Flemish method, which Leonardo da Vinci loved to use, consisted of the following steps:

• The drawing was painted in one color on a light ground, with sepia for the outline and main shadows.
• Then a thin underpainting was done with volume sculpting.
• The final stage was several glaze layers of reflections and detailing.

But over time, Leonardo’s dark brown writing, despite the thin layer, began to show through the colorful image, which led to the darkening of the picture in the shadows. In the base layer he often used burnt umber, yellow ochre, Prussian blue, cadmium yellow and burnt sienna. His final application of paint was so subtle that it was impossible to detect. Own developed sfumato method (shading) allowed this to be done with ease. Its secret is in heavily diluted paint and working with a dry brush.

Rembrandt – Night Watch

Rubens, Velazquez and Titian worked in the Italian method. It is characterized by the following stages of work:

• Applying colored primer to the canvas (with the addition of some pigment);
• Transferring the outline of the drawing onto the ground with chalk or charcoal and fixing it with suitable paint.
• The underpainting, dense in places, especially in the illuminated areas of the image, and completely absent in places, left the color of the ground.
• Final work in 1 or 2 steps with semi-glazes, less often with thin glazes. Rembrandt's ball of painting layers could reach a centimeter in thickness, but this is rather an exception.

In this technique, particular importance was given to the use of overlapping complementary colors, which made it possible to neutralize the saturated soil in places. For example, red primer could be leveled out with a gray-green underpainting. Work with this technique was faster than with the Flemish method, which was more popular with customers. But the wrong choice of the color of the primer and the colors of the final layer could ruin the painting.

Coloring of the picture

To achieve harmony in a painting, they use the full power of reflexes and complementary colors. There are also such small tricks as using a colored primer, as is common in the Italian method, or coating the painting with varnish with pigment.

Colored primers can be adhesive, emulsion and oil. The latter are a pasty layer of oil paint of the required color. If a white base gives a glowing effect, then a dark one gives depth to the colors.

Rubens – Union of Earth and Water

Rembrandt painted on a dark gray ground, Bryullov painted on a base with umber pigment, Ivanov tinted his canvases with yellow ocher, Rubens used English red and umber pigments, Borovikovsky preferred gray ground for portraits, and Levitsky preferred gray-green. Darkening of the canvas awaited everyone who used earthen colors in abundance (sienna, umber, dark ocher).

Boucher – delicate colors of light blue and pink shades

For those who make copies of paintings by great artists in digital format, this resource will be of interest, where web palettes of artists are presented.

Varnish coating

In addition to earthen paints, which darken over time, resin-based coating varnishes (rosin, copal, amber) also change the lightness of the painting, giving it yellow tints. To artificially make the canvas look antique, ocher pigment or any other similar pigment is specially added to the varnish. But severe darkening is more likely to be caused by excess oil in the work. It can also lead to cracks. Although such the craquelure effect is often associated with working with half-damp paint, which is unacceptable for oil painting: they paint only on a dried or still damp layer, otherwise it is necessary to scrape it off and paint over it again.

Bryullov – The Last Day of Pompeii

Page 29 of 59

Various Oil Painting Techniques

Oil paints adhere well to the appropriate primer and make it easy to model, shade and achieve subtle, imperceptible transitions from tone to tone, since they remain wet for a long time, and do not change their original tone when drying.

All the best oil painting techniques were developed during the Renaissance. Knowledge of the properties of the material enabled the old masters to create a style of oil painting that was never surpassed later. In the entire history of oil painting, this style is unique in its harmony between the material and artistic achievements.

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 emergence of new ideas in it, it was gradually lost.

Already at the first Carracci Academy, the previous technical and artistic education of the painter was replaced by philosophical and artistic education. From this time on, technical knowledge, which in the past was always a support for the painter, seems to be a constraint on artistic freedom.

A particular decline in the technique of oil painting was 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 nature of oil painting; new ideas in art must seek other material for their implementation if they run counter to the old. Thus, from a scientific point of view, impressionism gave birth to a false style of oil painting, which, unfortunately, still has adherents among painters.

Work in the field of painting technique, both by representatives of art and science, at first consisted mainly in the discovery and revival of lost ancient techniques of oil painting, ignorance of which made it felt so bad in later painting. Much of what was lost was found and revealed, but painting itself at that time went too far from the tasks and principles of ancient painting. Of course, in our time it is not possible to reconcile the techniques of the ancient technique of oil painting with the modern understanding of painting, but the technique of oil painting, whatever its objectives, which claims 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, given 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 illumination on the ground used in the work.

2) Painting in several techniques - a method in which the painter divides his painting task into several techniques, 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 painter’s task is reduced to firmly establishing the drawing, general forms and light and shade. Coloring is either given secondary importance, or it is carried out in such tones that only in further prescriptions with overlying colors give the desired tone or effect - on the second, third, etc. registrations, 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 the entire painting consists of one layer, the drying of which, with a moderate thickness, proceeds unhindered and quite normally, which is why, with the appropriate soil, it is protected from cracks, just as the paints themselves retain their original freshness. But this method cannot always be implemented in practice and, moreover, it is not always part of the painter’s task.

The primer for painting “alla prima” should not be too sticky, nor too impermeable and slippery, therefore, when using adhesive primer, all necessary measures are taken to prevent too noticeable changes in the color of the paint due to loss of oil. Oily soil, especially one that has dried thoroughly and is therefore impenetrable, is given some permeability, which is achieved by rubbing it with alcohol or pumice; In addition, choose soil with a rough surface. As for the color of the soil, the most suitable in this case are light soils with various shades, in accordance with the pictorial task, as well as pure white soil. Pinkish, yellowish and other shades of primer are obtained by painting the white primer with transparent paint.

The painting method described often does not require conventional drawing, and the artist can directly proceed to paint and writing, depending on the painting task and the experience of the artist.

If a drawing is necessary, then it can be limited to a light charcoal sketch. Black charcoal drawing with its fixer should be avoided, since any sharp black contours will subsequently show through a thin layer of paint and thus spoil the painting. The composition of the fixative is also important for its strength.

To be able to finish the painting “raw”, i.e. Before the oil paints begin to dry, all sorts of measures are taken, but harmless to painting, starting with the selection of paints. Slow-drying paints are preferred here.

In order to delay the drying of paints as long as possible, the painting being executed is placed in the cold, in the dark, in the intervals between work, and, if possible, free access to air is blocked. The implementation of these last measures, unfortunately, cannot always be used, especially with large sizes of the painting, however, these measures are very effective.

Essential oils are used for the same purpose.

Painting with this method is carried out differently and depends largely on the individuality of the artist; That is why, when presenting this method, we can limit ourselves to only the most essential and important instructions.

By painting “alla prima”, in the literal sense of these words, one must mean one of the methods in which the artist sets himself the task of immediately reproducing in paint everything that he sees in nature, i.e. color, shape, light and shade, 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 even greater if the artist strives to finish his work “raw,” i.e. before the paints dry.

Painting is done in different ways. It can be started with strokes of semi-thick paints, applied freely, tone by tone, without stirring them for a long time on the palette, until the entire canvas is revealed.

Painting should be done with tube paints.

When applying a layer of paint that is too thick, making further work difficult, you should remove the excess using a palette knife, spatula and knife, as well as placing clean paper on the layer of paint, which is pressed with the palm of your hand against it and then, after removal, takes on all the excess paint .

When painting “alla prima”, you can start rubbing it, thinning the paints with skippy and applying them liquidly, like watercolors. This laying is carried out planarly, without modeling forms, with the goal only of a broad overall effect. For it, it is better to use body paints, introducing white into them. Then, in further work, impasto paints are introduced, and real painting begins.

When working “alla prima” on too tacky ground, oil paints produce a matte painting, which in terms of color is inferior to tempera and, in addition, if the paints are de-oiled too much, they lack strength.

Painting performed “alla prima” has a unique beauty; it is pleasant in its freshness and spontaneity, revealing the author’s “brushstroke” and his temperament. Examples of this type of painting can serve as I. Repin’s sketches for his painting “The State Council”.

Painting in several stages. This kind of painting is called multi-layered.

Techniques multilayer painting are different. It can be carried out from beginning to end with oil or oil-varnish paints, as well as a mixed method of painting, the beginning of which is given with water paints, and the end with oil and oil-varnish.

Depending on the painting method chosen by the artist, the canvas primer used is also selected.

The drawing from which the work begins is made with different materials, depending on the color of the primer, its composition and methods of pictorial underpainting. As stated 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 thinly diluted oil paint, which dries quickly on the oil primer.

With this approach to the matter, the soil retains the purity of its color, in addition, its surface, which may suffer when corrections and changes are made in the drawing with charcoal, pencils, etc.

Then comes the underpainting, the technical side of which should perhaps better suit its purpose.

Underpainting. Since the underpainting in a painting is the first layer of painting, which must then take over 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 proceed with further registrations in a short time .

The most appropriate technique for this task will be water paints: watercolor and tempera.

Underpainting with water paints is done only on emulsion primer, on which both watercolor and tempera paint work quite well. This primer should contain a significantly smaller amount of oil than an emulsion primer for oil painting.

Watercolor, however, is only suitable for small works; In addition, the tone of watercolor paints under varnish is not similar to the tone of oil paints. This is why watercolor underpainting requires a full coverage of it with oil paints.

Tempera painting should be considered the most applicable in underpainting. It is especially appropriate when performing large-sized works. Here, of course, only tempera of the highest qualities can be used, i.e. casein or egg tempera.

Tempera underpainting gives greater strength to paints, which become so intense under varnish that the oil paint that finishes the painting can give up in terms of color intensity in front of them. This circumstance must be taken into account when performing underpainting. In this case, the best material for underpainting would be oil-varnish paints.

Tempera underpainting is done with body and transparent liquid paints, but always in a thin layer without any paste.

Underpainting with oil paints, both technically and pictorially, is done in different ways.

Carrying out painting using this method on adhesive and semi-adhesive primers is the most appropriate, since with the use of the latter the number of oil layers decreases, which has a very favorable effect on the strength of the painting, but impeccably prepared oil primers can also be used.

One of the frequently used and quite productive ways of painting in underpainting is to do it “as a rub” with oil paints, diluted essential oils, turpentine, oil, etc., which is also practiced in “alla prima” painting.

A thin, as if watercolor layer of paints establishes the forms, the general coloring of the picture and its entire ensemble.

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 paint layer, which, of course, is of great importance for further work on the painting.

But you can also do underpainting with impasto painting, and the technique will depend entirely on the properties of the soil used.

Paints are applied to the adhesive pulling primer in the form in which they come from tubes, without any thinners.

The positive properties of this underpainting are that its paints dry quickly and bind firmly to the ground. The disadvantage is the change in the tone of the paints during the painting process, as well as when wiping the underpainting with varnish before further registration.

The old masters, especially those more distant from us, looked at their work in the underpainting as a preparatory rough work, where all the attention of the master was absorbed in the setting of the drawing, modeling of forms, and details of the composition; As for the coloring, 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 explained by the method of work described above.

Modern painting adheres, in general terms, to the same system of work, but the “alla prima” method of painting 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 pictorial sense should be carried out in such a way as to simplify, if possible, all further registrations. A correctly executed underpainting is therefore easy to finish with a small load of paints during the second registration.

An underpainting made with tempera will be ready for registration earlier than other underpaintings. Then, in order of readiness, come oil underpaintings on adhesive primers and, finally, impasto oil paints on emulsion and oil primers. A well-dried painting can be recognized by the following characteristics: it does not stick; when scraped with a fingernail and a knife, it turns into powder, but not into shavings; It doesn't fog up when you breathe.

If necessary, the underpainting can be well scraped and smoothed with a knife, special scraper, etc., before re-painting.

Scraping, pumice and smoothing layers of oil painting is especially appropriate when underpainting with impasto (greasy) layers of paint, since here excess roughness is cut off and, what is especially important, the top crust of dried oil is removed, which, when the oil paint dries strongly, prevents the attachment of the layers applied on top of it oil paints. After this operation, the underpainting is washed with clean water and dried.

If the underpainting is not impasto, there is no need to scrape it. In order for the dried layer of oil paint to regain the ability to accept paint, if it has not been scraped and sanded, it is wiped with bleached oil, which is rubbed into it with the palm of the hand. The oil is applied in the smallest amount, just to moisten the surface that is supposed to be painted again.

Instead of oil, the underpainting can be coated with a warm liquid solution of Venetian turpentine (balsam) in turpentine, as was practiced in the old days, or with a liquid solution of turpentine varnish, since essential oils easily moisten dried oil paint. The same goal is achieved by adding painting varnishes containing essential oils to paints.

If the rules for handling the underpainting are not followed, the upper layers of the painting become prone to crumbling, and the more so, the longer the underpainting is left in place; There are many examples of this in the works of painting of a later era.

When further painting the underpainting, glazes can be introduced if they were part of the painting execution plan, or secondary painting is carried out in the so-called “half-letter”, i.e. with a thin layer of body paint, and the 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 begin.

Basic Rules:

1) do not apply oil paints in thick layers in general, and especially paints rich in oil;

2) always use a moderately adhesive (oil) primer in painting, as well as the underpainting and, in general, the underlying layers of painting, saturating them with oil if its content in the latter is insufficient.

The best painting technique for the second registration is “alla prima” painting, which gives freshness to the pictorial execution.

The second registration is carried out with more liquid paints than underpainting. Painting varnishes and condensed oils are applicable here. The latter are introduced into paints in a mixture with turpentine varnishes. The second registration, in terms of the content of binders in its paints, thus exceeds the underpainting. The ancient principle of layering oil paints - “fat on skinny” - is fully observed.

If the underpainting was carried out in conventional tones, then to make the work easier, it is useful to start the second registration in local tones of nature with glaze or semi-glaze, on top of which body painting follows.

Glazing. Glazes are 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 are transparent, others are semi-transparent. Less suitable ones include cadmium, cinnabar, Neapolitan yellow, English red, kaput-mortuum, black cork and peach and some others.

Transparent glazes only change the tone of the underlying preparation into a thicker and more transparent one, without affecting the detail of the modeling and the main light and shade. Translucent ones can significantly change, depending on the degree of their transparency, the detail of the underpainting modeling.

Glazing can be used to complement or complete almost any painting that has been started in one way or another, but even better results are achieved with underpainting specially prepared for this purpose. In this case, the underpainting is done in such a way that the painting is lighter and colder than it is supposed to be in its finished form; the proper tone and chiaroscuro give it glazes in combination with the tones of the underpainting.

Glazing was of great importance to the old masters. Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez, their contemporaries and other masters of earlier times made excellent use of them in their painting. The popularity of glazes in past eras indicates that they perfectly met the pictorial needs of the artists who used them.

Glazes, due to their physical structure, strongly absorb light, and therefore a painting made with them requires much more light for its illumination than a painting painted in body paints, which reflect light more than they absorb.

For the same reason, painting done with glazes is devoid of airiness, which is best achieved in painting with paints with a matte surface that strongly reflects and scatters light.

The tones produced by glazing come forward rather than receding back. Therefore, the sky in the painting is not painted with glazes.

Of great interest to the artist of our time are semi-glazes applied in translucent tones.

Semi-glaze is paint applied in a thin translucent layer. From an optical point of view, such a layer of paint is one of the types of so-called “turbid media”, which are responsible for some of the visible colors of nature. The tones obtained in painting using semi-glazes have a unique beauty. They do not shine with strength and brightness, but it is not possible to obtain them by physically mixing colors on a palette. The old masters of the later era made extensive use of the described painting method; Contemporary artists also use it, often accidentally or unconsciously.

Corrections. Oil paints become more and more transparent over time. This increase in transparency is also observed in body paints, and some of them, like lead white, become translucent due to their loss of hiding power, as well as the thinning of the layer upon drying. 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 with a thin layer of body paints, after a long period of time, become again visible.

Thus, in the equestrian portrait of Philip IV by Velasquez, eight legs are visible (Madrid gallery), of which four protrude from under the tone of the ground, which the author covered them with, apparently being dissatisfied with the position of the legs.

In the portrait of the artist Litovchenko by I. Kramskoy (Tretyakov Gallery), through the black hat placed on the artist’s head, Litovchenko’s forehead can be seen quite clearly, on which the hat was placed, apparently, later, when the head was already painted. In Rembrandt's portrait of Jan Sobieski, the stick that Sobieski holds in his hand was initially large in size and then shortened. There can be many such examples.

The above examples clearly show that corrections made in a thin layer, even of opaque paints, in oil painting do not achieve their goal. Here, thorough repeated layers of paint are needed, which alone can make forever invisible those parts of the painting that they want to destroy. It is even better in this case to completely clear the areas intended for alteration from painting and then write them down again on clean ground. Using chloroform, acetone and benzene, you can easily and quickly remove even very old oil-based paint.

When making small corrections on important places (for example, the head, hands of a portrait, etc.), you need 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 areas to be altered are thoroughly dried, covered with liquid varnish and corrected with paints and painting varnish in order to avoid the appearance of dryness. In the same case, if a fade has formed, it should not be covered with retouching varnish, but the lost shine and tone should be restored to it only by oiling.

Material index
Course: Painting Techniques
DIDACTIC PLAN
Introduction
General information about paints

I have long wanted to publish this text. I read it in the Soviet magazine "Artist". I read it and was surprised that it was written by an art critic. What a powerful knowledge base there was in those days. And how close art criticism was to art cuisine. Now not every artist has such knowledge. And art criticism has taken on more of a gallery-expert character, what kind of colors and textures are there...

Yes, this text is intended for a narrow circle of readers. Rather, only for artists and aspiring to become artists. I think that getting acquainted with this art-historical creation will bring considerable benefit to fellow workers. (A. Lysenko. www.lyssenko.ru)

ABOUT THE TEXTURE OF OIL PAINTING.

Anyone who has at least once tried to paint with oil paints knows that a stroke has not only color and certain outlines on a plane,
but also thick, slightly raised. In addition, its surface has a certain character, depending on the thickness of the paint,
from the tool with which it is applied, from the properties of the base on which it is applied. Even with a little experience, a novice painter
notes that the nature of the stroke and the consistency of the paint are not indifferent to “the image that comes out from under his hand.
So, sometimes the paint can be too liquid, the stroke turns out to be wide, fluid, and it is difficult for the writer to handle it.
Sometimes, on the contrary, the paint seems thick and difficult to control; a seemingly well-chosen color on the palette
deteriorates on the canvas - large grooves from bristle hair destroy the clarity and brightness of the color spot. Sometimes random strokes make the entire work rough and unfinished, contrary to the wishes of its author. Sometimes enough is enough
change the brush, for example, replace a large bristle brush with a small kolinsky one, use a different solvent, change the thickness of the paint layer, or abandon some preconceived pattern of strokes, and the long-elusive desired effect is suddenly easily achieved.
The beginner is faced here with a very important element of painting - the so-called texture. Texture is the visible and tangible structure of the paint layer. This is the thickness of the paint layer, its composition, the character, shape, direction, size of the stroke, the nature of the combination of strokes with each other and with the surface of the base - canvas, cardboard, etc.
From what has been said, we can already conclude, firstly, that texture is an indispensable property of a painting:
There cannot be a painting without a surface, there cannot be a surface without its own character. Even smooth, deliberately thin,
a transparent paint layer is already an example of a special texture. Secondly, texture is associated with the image and thus
with the created artistic image.
Texture, whether it is thought out or random, is already an inseparable part of the pictorial work, not only purely material,
but also figuratively expressive. A completed work is only truly perfect when it contains the quality
perfect “doneness”, when you neither add nor subtract anything. Any stroke placed on the canvas is already particles of the future
a picture on which its unity, integrity, and beauty depend. Since the artist thinks about his work from the first steps
in the material, it is important that he fully understands the multifaceted capabilities of the chosen technique.
All painting techniques are different from each other, each has difficulties, advantages, and unique opportunities. Of course
any work made in any technique, even graphic, has its own texture. But the greatest interest
and oil painting offers the greatest opportunities. Oil is the most flexible and at the same time the most complex material.
The opposite opinion is common among beginners - that it is easier to paint in oils than, for example, in watercolors. This opinion has
The only reason is that oil allows you to rewrite the same place many times and, therefore, easily correct the work,
but in watercolor this is impossible. This opinion is incorrect, as it ignores the requirements and possibilities of the texture of oil painting.
Since the advent of oil painting, artists have taken care of the colorful surface of their canvases, carefully
developed the technology of painting materials. A complex system of applying paints in multi-layer painting,
the use of various oils, varnishes, thinners was largely explained by the noble desire of artists to create
durable works that can live for many years without being destroyed. Master, reverently
concerned with his art, he strove to bring his canvas to a state of perfection. Of course, and "the surface of his canvas
could not be handled carelessly, somehow. Works of old painting captivate everyone, even the most inexperienced viewers,
masterly technique, perfect execution.
Oh, of course, it was not only concern for strength that determined the attitude of the old masters to texture. The texture of painting was an artistic means for them.
As you know, paint can be applied to the canvas in a thick opaque layer, as they say, impasto, or, conversely, you can paint with liquid transparent strokes,
so that the ground or underlying paint layers can be seen through the paint layer—this method of registration is called glazing.
There are paints that are dense, opaque, and reflect light - the so-called body or covering paints, which include, for example, white and cadmium.
The palette also contains a lot of transparent or translucent paints that transmit light—these are glaze paints (for example, specks, mars, etc.).
Pasty registrations with mixtures using white
give colors that are colder, denser, “dull” compared to glazes, painting “in the light”, which gives deep colors,
rich, warm.
Old masters widely and consciously used the optical properties of oil paints and methods of application. This was expressed in a well-thought-out system of consistent
alternating layers of paint. This system can be represented purely schematically as follows. After transferring the drawing to the ground
the artist painted the image in one or two colors, warm or cold, depending on the coloristic tasks facing him,
paying primary attention to the drawing,
outlining the basics of chiaroscuro. This so-called writing was done with a liquid layer of oil or tempera paint.
This was followed by an impasto layer, mainly a whitewash underpainting, in which special attention was paid to material modeling
volumes, painting protuberances, illuminated places. On top of the dried impasto layer they wrote with glazes, achieving the desired
color solution.
With this method, special intensity, depth and variety of color were achieved, multifaceted possibilities were used
glaze paints, while the actual modeling of textures was carried out in the impasto layer, plastic,
“material” qualities of thickly applied body paint.
Of course, the scheme of the “three-layer” method outlined by us is a kind of generalization of the infinite variety of methods used by different
masters of real systems, each of which had its own advantages and disadvantages. Different artists in different ways
belonged to each of the layers, sometimes even refusing any layer; for some, the pasty layer was of leading importance,
others paid primary attention to glazes; Artists worked differently in each layer. For example,
sometimes the impasto layer was written with almost pure white, sometimes it was colored, in which the main coloristic problems were solved;
different artists gave preference to different types of glazing from the so-called “rubbed” to half-body, etc. At the same time, and within the same canvas, artists combined various
ways to process different pieces.
Even among artists of the same school, we often encounter completely different artistic approaches to textural tasks.
This is especially clearly seen in the example of the great Rembrandt and his students. Rembrandt even among his wonderful
contemporaries stands out for the special individual originality of the textured structures of his canvases. The magic of Rembrandt
colors, the special uniqueness of his canvases cannot be explained without studying the material pictorial means,
by which “spiritual” beauty is achieved. For the great Dutchman, the spiritualized flesh of paint lives a special life.
The texture of Rembrandt's paintings, so magnificent, beautiful, perfect and at the same time so unusual, is not always
liked by contemporaries who were accustomed to other texture solutions, lumpy, difficult, heavy, for example, in comparison
with the ease and freedom of the brush of another remarkable 17th century Dutchman, Frans Hals, even in itself can say a lot
tell the attentive viewer.
The history of oil painting provides a wide variety of texture solutions, including the abandonment of traditional multi-layer painting.
systems and opening new texture possibilities. The magical splendor of Rembrandt textures, the restraint of texture
among the old Dutch, the “porcelain” surface of Boucher’s paintings, the wide brush of the romantic Delacroix, the sliding instability,
mobility, tremulous brushstrokes by Claude Monet, struggle with paint, tension, energy of the brushstroke, cult of the “raw”
tube paint from Van Gogh... A textural solution is not something found once and for all, no matter how successful in each individual
case it never happened, it is created anew every time, each era finds its own patterns of constructing textures, each
The artist's textured solution takes on a special, unique face; in each canvas the texture is individually unique.

Since the 19th century, artists have increasingly abandoned the traditional system of multi-layer painting with underpainting and
glazes. This gives great freedom, the ability to write quickly and solve all formal problems at the same time.
The so-called La prima technique is becoming increasingly popular, the specificity of which is that the artist
writes in one layer. However, this method does not always meet artistic goals. Therefore, many painters prefer
work on all or some of your canvases for a long time, returning
to already. prescribed and dried pieces, but without observing the traditional principle of alternating layers.
Greater independence and freedom in resolving issues of texture pushes many painters to search. Since the end of the 19th century
artists are experimenting especially intensively in the field of texture, texture constructions are becoming more and more diverse,
more and more new solutions.
This freedom, liberation from tradition, is fraught with dangers. Along with the purely formal approach of artists to the issue
textures one can often find the artist’s complete indifference to the possibilities of paint, a soulless attitude towards colorful
surface, which is almost never found in old painting. Some artists want to emphasize the birth of an image in paint,
in a colorful mess, they enjoy the paint to the point of abandoning the image in the name of the cult of the material; others want the whole thing
to subordinate it to the task of representation, while killing as much as possible its independent materiality - but this, of course, is an extreme,
within which there are many gradations. Of course, one cannot impose on an artist this or that attitude towards paint,
but it still seems that a true artist cannot not love paint, his material; at the same time you shouldn't become her
slave However, every artist needs to understand his material, feel its beauty, and understand the “soul” of paint.
only then is a painter’s conscious approach to his work possible, only in this case can success be guaranteed.

Another danger is the lack of a deeply thought-out system for applying paints, repeated application of insufficiently dry paints.
painting pieces, arbitrary use of various materials, in particular thinners, neglect of the craft side,
which entails fading, color change, and destruction of the paint layer.
The quality of the color and the integrity of the color spot depend on the texture of the paint layer and its combination with the texture of the base.
An endless variety of shades of color and tone is achieved not only by mechanically mixing various paints on the palette,
but also by alternating individual layers of paint, using different methods of applying paint. Depth, saturation, brightness of color are determined
not only by the quantitative ratios of the various pigments in the mixture, but also by its density, stroke thickness, etc.
For example, transparent glaze paints, characterized by a deep, saturated color in thin layers, “in the light”, giving endless
a variety of shades depending on the color of the base on which they are placed, if used in clumps, mixing, for example,
with condensed oil or varnish, they give the most interesting semi-translucent, colorful layers shimmering from the inside. In the same time
Thick opaque body paint, very flexible, striking in impasto layers, can be diluted and painted with a liquid translucent layer.
At the same time, new “glaze” capabilities of paints of this type are revealed, although not as rich as those of glaze paints themselves.
At the same time, we should not forget about the specific capabilities of glaze and body paints, and the traditional ways of using them.
Often, many pictorial effects that are difficult to achieve in one go become easily achievable if you break down the painting process,
that is, apply a system of two or more layers, taking into account the optical properties of the paints. For example, to achieve the illusion of transparent or translucent,
You can resort to dry glazing. In this case, it is necessary to think in advance about the nature of the soil or paint layer on which the artist is going to paint with glazes.
Glazing is very rich in pictorial possibilities, which should hardly be neglected by modern painters, unless, of course, this method contradicts some found
the author’s system of using paint, which fully meets his artistic goals.
The special plastic qualities of oil paint allow you to create a wide variety of combinations of dense strokes, almost literally sculpting in paint. Achieving a special materiality of painting,
the artist can use these plastic properties of paint: a stroke can be placed according to the shape of an object or contrary to it, sculpt it or dissolve it in space, in the air
- it all depends on what tasks he brings to the fore.
By playing with different textures, the artist can achieve different degrees of tactility of the depicted objects. The high texture seems to bring the image to the viewer.
Therefore, in order to “tear off” the subject of the foreground from those in the background, the artist can paint it more impasto. At the same time, wanting to convey the extent of space,
he can use thin liquid strokes of paint to take distant plans into depth.
Its aperture ratio also depends on the texture of the paint spot. For example, for a long time artists have painted illuminated or luminous places much more impasto than shadows,
which were usually depicted with transparent strokes of deep-colored glaze paints. However, this does not mean that such techniques should be made the rule.
Using a variety of texture combinations, the artist can individualize the painting of different depicted objects and convey the texture diversity of nature.
An artist can paint with separately placed strokes, not fused with each other, and achieve “absolute” unity of all strokes; he can paint with a rough bristle brush,
and the texture of his strokes will be rough, rough, but he can even out the layer of paint with a palette knife and achieve a smooth reflective surface; small brush
he can put strokes that are barely noticeable to the eye and sculpt the most complex textures, or he can scratch lines in the paint layer, for example, with the opposite end of his brush, in the end he can even lay down or level the paint with his finger - it all depends on the task facing him .
However, one should not strive for a direct illusionistic transfer of the texture of an object - for example, when depicting the bark of a tree, imitate it with colorful layers,
literally repeating the texture of the bark, or writing, for example, hair in separate thin, long strokes of hair. With such a “frontal” use, textures are snatched
and some individual properties of an object are exaggerated to the detriment of others (texture to the detriment of volume, color in space, etc.).
In this copying of particulars, the whole is lost sight of, resulting in an unpleasant naturalism.
Therefore, the artist must proceed from the entire set of color, volumetric, spatial, texture, and ultimately compositional and artistic tasks that confront him.
The texture solution, with all the variety of techniques used, must be distinguished by a certain integrity, without which the unity of the picture and its perfection are impossible.
Already determining the format of his work, its dimensions, the artist must always keep in mind the qualities of the base he has chosen - coarse-grained, fine-grained, medium-grained canvas,
smooth cardboard, boards, etc., the special nature of the weaving of the canvas threads.
Coarse-grained canvas has been “played with” since the heyday of Venetian painting in the 16th century, from the era of Titian; they paint on it with a wide brush, achieving unique pictorial effects.
If an artist cares about very fine jewelry depiction, strives for special accuracy and depiction of the image, he will not complicate his decision by choosing a coarse-grained base
- he will settle on a fine-grain canvas for a small work and a medium-grain canvas for a large painting. It is unlikely that he uses the possibilities of a “broad brush”, sweeping texture.
However, this does not mean that its texture will necessarily be “slicked”, although, of course, such a solution can exist if it meets the author’s objectives.
The smooth surface of the base can be carefully preserved, light touches of the brush do not disturb the special pristineness and freshness of the canvas, and at the same time there are special possibilities for solving spatial
tasks. Sometimes the smooth surface of the base is, as it were, contrasted with the texture of the paint layer created by the artist himself,
in this case, the texture of the base is neutralized. When moving from one technique to another, the artist especially clearly feels the specific features of each.
A beginner can be recommended to try different techniques in order to understand the specific properties of various materials, the unique charm of each, and choose the technique that is most
matches his creative aspirations.
At a certain stage of his development, the artist begins to consciously resolve issues of texture. The sooner this moment comes, the better for the artist himself.
It is only important that, like any other aspect of the complex integral act of creativity, it is not exaggerated, does not develop alienatedly, independently of its other aspects,
would not turn into a self-sufficient formal experiment. Of course, every artist has the right to experiment, even of a purely formal nature, and for a painter to experiment in the field of texture,
especially for a beginner, I can only advise. It is important, however, that one aspect of art does not kill all the others. Therefore, the artist must be aware of whether his search is
a formal experiment, or this is his artistic language, capable of expressing everything he wants to say. It is important here that the beginner manages not to succumb to the charm of this or that manner,
managed to preserve or find his own identity, not determined only by these important, but far from exhaustive and not autonomous from the artist’s other interests, textural searches.

I. Bolotina. Magazine "Artist". December. 1967