Stages of oil painting. Alla prima, multi-layer technique, glazing and other oil painting techniques

The great figure, scientist and Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci said: "Painting is poetry that is seen, and poetry is painting that is heard." And one cannot but agree with him. Real art is truly perceived comprehensively. We see, and contemplate, and hear, and in our souls we keep the works of art we like. And world masterpieces remain in our memory for many years.

Genres and types of painting

Drawing a picture, the master performs it in a certain state, a special character. The work will not turn out to be full-fledged, worthy of love and attention, if only form and color are depicted on it. The artist is obliged to endow objects with a soul, people with charisma, a spark, perhaps a secret, nature with peculiar feelings, and events with real experiences. And genres and types of painting help the creator in this. They allow you to correctly convey the mood of an era, event, fact, it is better to capture the main idea, image, landscape.

The main ones include:

• Historical- depiction of facts, moments in the history of different countries and eras.
• Battle- transmits battle scenes.
• Domestic- Scenes from everyday life.
• Landscape These are paintings of nature. There are sea, mountain, fantastic, lyrical, rural, urban, space landscapes.
• Still life- illustrates inanimate objects: kitchen utensils, weapons, vegetables, fruits, plants, etc.
• Portrait- This is an image of a person, a group of people. Often, artists like to paint self-portraits or canvases depicting their lovers.
• animalistic- Pictures about animals.

Separately, one can single out another plot-thematic genre and include here works, the subject of which are myths, legends, epics, as well as paintings of everyday life.

Types of painting also mean separate ones. They help the artist achieve perfection when creating a canvas, tell him in which direction to move and work. There are the following options:

- Panorama- an image of the area in a large-scale format, a general view.

- Diorama- an image of battles, spectacular events curved in a semicircle.

- Miniature- Manuscripts, portraits.

- Monumental and decorative painting- painting on walls, panels, plafonds, etc.

- iconography- paintings on religious themes.

- decorative painting- creation of artistic scenery in cinema and theater.

- easel painting In other words, pictures.

- Decorative painting of everyday objects of life.

As a rule, each master of fine arts chooses for himself one particular genre and type of painting that is closest to him in spirit, and mostly works only in it. For example, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Hovhannes Gayvazyan) worked in the style of a seascape. Such artists are also called marine painters (from "marina", which in Latin means "sea").

Techniques

Painting is a certain manner of executing the plot, its feeling through the world of colors and strokes. And of course, such reproduction cannot be done without the use of certain techniques, patterns and rules. The very concept of "technique" in the visual arts can be defined as a set of techniques, norms and practical knowledge, with the help of which the author conveys the idea and plot of the picture most accurately, close to reality.

The choice of painting technique depends on what kind of materials, type of canvas will be taken to create a work. Sometimes an artist can take an individual approach to his work, take advantage of a mixture of different styles and trends. This author's approach allows you to create truly unique works of art - world masterpieces.

In technical terms, there are several options for painting. Let's consider them in more detail.

Painting of ancient times

The history of painting begins with rock carvings of primitive man. At this time, the paintings are not distinguished by the liveliness of the plots, the riot of colors, but there was a peculiar emotion in them. And the plots of those years clearly inform us about the existence of life in the distant past. The lines are extremely simple, the subject is predictable, the directions are unambiguous.

In ancient times, the content of the drawings becomes more diverse, more often they depict animals, different things, make entire biographies on the entire wall, especially if the pictures are created for the pharaohs, which was then very believed. After about another two thousand years, colors begin to acquire.

Ancient painting, in particular, Old Russian, is well conveyed and preserved in old icons. They are a shrine and the best example, conveying the beauty of art from God. Their color is unique, and the purpose is perfect. Such painting conveys the unreality of being, images and instills in a person the idea of ​​a divine principle, of the existence of an ideal art, which one must be equal to.

The development of painting did not pass without a trace. For a long time, mankind has managed to accumulate real relics and the spiritual heritage of many centuries.

Watercolor

Watercolor painting is distinguished by the brightness of colors, purity of color and transparency of application to paper. Yes, it is on a paper surface that it is best to work in this fine art technique. The drawing dries quickly and as a result acquires a lighter and matte texture.

Watercolor does not allow you to achieve interesting tints when using dark, solid shades, but it perfectly models the color when the layers are superimposed one on top of the other. In this case, it turns out to find completely new, unusual options that are difficult to obtain with other artistic techniques.

Difficulties with watercolor

The complexity of working in such a technique as watercolor painting lies in the fact that it does not forgive mistakes, does not allow improvisation with cardinal changes. If you did not like the applied tone or you got a completely different color that you wanted, then it is unlikely that you will be able to fix it. Any attempts (washing with water, scraping, mixing with other colors) can lead to both a more interesting shade and complete contamination of the picture.

Changing the location of a figure, an object, any improvement in composition in this technique is essentially impossible to do. But due to the quick drying of paints on painting, it is ideal for drawing sketches. And in terms of depicting plants, portraits, urban landscapes, it can compete with oil paintings.

Oil

Each of the technical varieties of painting has its own specifics. This applies to both the manner of performance and the artistic transmission of the image. Oil painting is one of the favorite techniques of many artists. It is difficult to work in it, because it requires a certain level of knowledge and experience: from preparing the necessary items, materials to the final stage - covering the resulting picture with a protective layer of varnish.

The whole process of oil painting is quite laborious. Regardless of which base you choose: canvas, cardboard or hardboard (fibreboard), you must first cover it with primer. It will allow the paint to lie down and hold well, not to stand out from the oil. It will also give the background the desired texture and color. There are a lot of types and recipes for various soils. And each artist prefers his own, specific, to which he is accustomed and which he considers the best option.

As mentioned above, the work takes place in several stages, and the final is the coating of the picture with varnish substances. This is done in order to protect the canvas from moisture, the appearance of cracks (mesh) and other mechanical damage. Oil painting does not tolerate work on paper, but thanks to the whole technology of applying paints, it allows you to keep artworks safe and sound for centuries.

fine arts of china

I would like to pay special attention to the era of Chinese painting, since it has a special page in history. The Eastern direction of painting has developed over more than six thousand years. Its formation was closely connected with other crafts, social changes and conditions taking place in people's lives. For example, after the introduction of Buddhism in China, religious frescoes acquired great importance. In times (960-1127), historical paintings become popular, including stories about everyday life. Landscape painting has established itself as an independent direction already in the 4th century AD. e. Images of nature were created in blue-green colors and Chinese ink. And in the ninth century, artists increasingly began to paint pictures that depicted flowers, birds, fruits, insects, fish, embodying their ideals and the nature of the era in them.

Features of Chinese painting

Traditional Chinese painting is notable for its specific style as well as the materials used for painting, which in turn influences the methods and forms of Oriental art. First, Chinese painters use a special brush to create paintings. It looks like watercolor and has a particularly sharp tip. Such a tool allows you to create sophisticated works, and, as you know, the style of calligraphy is still widely used in China. Secondly, ink is used everywhere as paints - Chinese ink (it happens that together with other colors, but it is also used as an independent paint). This has been happening for two thousand years. It is also worth noting that before the advent of paper, people in China painted on silk. Today, modern masters of art perform their work both on paper and on a silk surface.

This is not all the technical possibilities of painting. In addition to the above, there are many others (gouache, pastel, tempera, fresco, acrylic, wax, painting on glass, porcelain, etc.), including author's options for art.

Epochs of painting

Like any art form, painting has its own history of formation. And above all, it is characterized by different stages of development, multifaceted styles, interesting directions. Not the last role here is played by the era of painting. Each of them affects not just a piece of the life of the people and not only the time of some historical events, but a whole life! Among the most famous periods in the art of painting are: the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the work of impressionist artists, modern, surrealism and many, many others. In other words, painting is a visual illustration of a certain era, a picture of life, a worldview through the eyes of an artist.

The concept of "painting" literally means "to write life", to depict reality vividly, masterfully, convincingly. To convey on your canvas not only every detail, every little thing, moment, but also the mood, emotions, color of this or that time, the style and genre of the entire work of art.

Starting to master the fine arts, sooner or later you should decide on "your" painting technique. And these are not necessarily the techniques that you are best at right now - this is the technique with which you can most fully realize your creative potential. The mistake many promising artists make is to take the easy way out. After reading this article - try, experiment, search. You are sure to find painting technique to your liking.

So, painting techniques. Our online store "Lucky-ART" presents goods for easel painting which is performed on canvas, easel and paper. There is also monumental painting, where the walls of various structures are used as canvases. Primitive people became the first muralists in prehistoric times, painting the walls of caves with images of animals, hunting scenes, and so on. By the way, cave, rock painting is also called petroglyphs and was performed not only with the help of yellow, red, white and black paints, but also with the use of chisels, primitive tools for carving images in stone.

For the ancient Egyptians, this technique has not lost its relevance, but has been modernized: working surfaces - stone and wood were covered with a layer of limestone and gypsum, resin. In addition, green and blue colors began to be used. Now this painting technique was named tempera, that is, paints based on natural pigments.

In the same ancient Egypt, the glue painting, which involves the use of tempera and glue (vegetable or animal origin). Since then, it has become known encaustic, a wax painting technique of painting pictures with molten paints, which was adopted first by ancient artists, and later by Greek icon painters.

Approximately around 2000 BC. already existed fresco- painting on wet plaster. As you know, this painting technique relevant to this day. Painting oil painting- very old painting technique, it appeared in the seventh century BC. at least in Afghanistan, where evidence of this fact was found.

Watercolor - painting technique water-soluble paints, originated in the second century BC.

Paint made from soot ink, also called the method itself, very ancient and used for calligraphy and sumi-e.

The Chinese also invented guohua where ink and water-based paints are used. This is the second century BC. They were invented in the fourteenth century dry brush- rubbing oil paints on a paper surface.

A century later, the world appeared carnation- multi-layer imposition of paints. Thanks to this painting technique portraits and images of people began to turn out more "alive".

Grisaille paint artists who conquered the gradations of one color, usually sepia and gray.

Gouache- drawing images with more matte and dense colors than watercolor. It was invented in Europe in the sixteenth century.

The famous Leonardo da Vinci invented sfumato- softening the outlines of figures and objects. With its help, you can even convey the air that envelops people and objects. Translated from Italian, this name translates as "disappearing like smoke", shaded. By the way, no one has yet surpassed this master, who applied a layer of paint a couple of microns thick, while the entire layer of paints did not exceed 40 microns thick!

Glaze Also an invention of Leonardo da Vinci. This painting technique also called glisal. It consists in applying translucent tones over the base layer.

Pastel- Drawing with crayons and pencils. The method has been known since the sixteenth century, and there are three varieties: wax, oil and dry.

When pictures are painted with rectangular strokes and / or dots, then this is - divisionism or pointillism originated in the nineteenth century.

Andy Warhol pioneered acrylic - painting techniques waterproof acrylic paints.

By the way, if you want to use at least part of all this at the same time, then this is also acceptable. Then you will work in mixed media.

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Various Oil Painting Techniques

Oil paints fit well on the appropriate primer and make it easy to model, shade and achieve the finest imperceptible transitions from tone to tone, as they remain wet for a long time, moreover, when dried, they do not change their original tone.

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

Knowledge of painting techniques was preserved in the workshops of painters until the 18th century, but then, with the separation of painting as an art from a craft, under the influence of the birth of new ideas in it, it was gradually lost.

Already in the first academy of Carracci, the former technical and artistic education of the painter was replaced by philosophical and artistic. Since that time, technical knowledge, which in the past was always the support of the painter, already seems to be a constraint on artistic freedom.

A particular decline in the technique of oil painting is observed in the era of the French Impressionists, who laid the foundation for unsystematic work with oil paints, which was brought to grandiose proportions by their followers (Neo-Impressionists).

Pointillism has an undoubted meaning from an artistic point of view, but it does not follow from the properties and character of oil painting; new ideas in art must seek other material for their embodiment if they run counter to the old. Thus, from a scientific point of view, impressionism gave birth to a fake style of oil painting, which, unfortunately, still has adherents among painters.

Work in the field of painting technique, both representatives of art and science, at first consisted mainly in the disclosure and revival of the lost ancient techniques of oil painting, ignorance of which made it feel so in later painting. Much of the lost was found and revealed, but painting itself at that time had gone too far from the tasks and principles of ancient painting. Of course, in our time it is not possible to reconcile the methods of the ancient technique of oil painting with the modern understanding of painting, but the technique of oil painting, whatever its tasks, claiming to create durable works, must follow from the properties and nature of the materials of oil painting.

All normal methods of oil painting come down to two characteristic techniques.

1) Painting in one step " alla prima"(alia prima) - a method in which painting is carried out in such a way that, with the artist's artistic knowledge of the matter and favorable conditions, the work can be completed in one or several sessions, but before the paints have time to dry. In this case, the color resources of painting are reduced only to those tones that are obtained from the direct mixing of colors on the palette and their translucence on the ground used in the case.

2) Painting in several stages - a method in which the painter divides his pictorial task into several stages, of which each is assigned a special meaning, intentionally with a certain calculation or due to the large size of the work, etc. In this case, the work is divided into the first registration - underpainting, in which the task of the painter is reduced to a solid establishment of the drawing, general forms and chiaroscuro. Coloring is either given secondary importance, or it is carried out in such tones that only in further prescriptions with overlying paints give the desired tone or effect - on the second, third, etc. registration, in which the task is reduced to resolving the subtleties of form and color. This second method makes it possible to use all the resources of oil painting.

Painting "Alla Prima" (alla prima). In technical terms, this method of painting is the best, since with it all painting consists of one layer, the drying of which, with a moderate thickness, proceeds unhindered and quite normal, why, with the appropriate primer, it is protected from cracks, just as the paints themselves retain their original - freshness. But not always this method can be implemented in practice and, moreover, it is not always included in the task of the painter.

The primer for painting "alla prima" should not be too pulling, as well as too impenetrable and slippery, therefore, when using adhesive primer, all necessary measures are taken to prevent too noticeable a change in colors on it in tone due to loss of oil. An oily soil, especially one that has dried out and is therefore impenetrable, is given some permeability, which is achieved by rubbing it with alcohol or pumice; in addition, choose a soil with a rough surface. As for the color of the primer, the most suitable in this case are light primers with different shades, according to the painting task, as well as pure white primer. Pinkish, yellowish and other shades of ground are obtained by painting white ground with transparent paint.

The described method of painting often does not require the execution of an ordinary drawing, and the artist can proceed directly to paints and writing, depending on the painting task and the experience of the master.

If the drawing is necessary, then it can be limited to a light charcoal sketch. Black charcoal drawing with its fixer should be avoided, as any sharp black outlines will later show through a thin layer of paint and thus spoil the painting. The composition of the fixative is also not indifferent to its strength.

In order to be able to finish the painting "on the raw", i.e. before the oil paints begin to dry, all sorts of measures, but harmless to painting, are taken, starting with the selection of paints. Slow drying paints are preferred here.

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

Essential oils are used for the same purpose.

Painting by this method is carried out differently and depends largely on the individuality of the artist; that is why, in presenting this method, one can confine oneself to the most essential and important indications.

Under the painting "alla prima", in the direct meaning of these words, one must mean one of the methods in which the artist sets himself the task of immediately reproducing in paints everything that he sees in nature, i.e. color, shape, chiaroscuro, etc., without resorting to dividing this complex task into separate moments of work. The difficulty of solving this problem is, of course, great, and becomes all the more so if the artist strives to finish his work "on the raw side", i.e. before the colors dry.

Painting is done differently. It can be started with smears of semi-thick paints, applied freely, tone to tone, without mixing them for a long time on the palette, until the entire canvas is revealed.

Painting should be done with tube paints.

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

It is possible, when painting “alla prima”, to start it by rubbing, diluting the paints for nothing and applying them liquidly, like watercolors. This laying is carried out flatly, without modeling forms, having the task of only a broad overall effect. For her, it is better to use body paints, introducing white into them. Then, in further work, pasty colors are introduced, and real painting begins.

When working "alla prima" on a too pulling ground, oil paints give a matte painting, which is inferior to tempera in terms of color and, moreover, if the paints are too strongly de-oiled, it is devoid of strength.

The painting performed by "alla prima" has a peculiar beauty, it is pleasant with its freshness and immediacy, revealing the "stroke" of the author and his temperament. I. Repin's sketches for his painting "The State Council" can serve as examples of this kind of painting.

Painting in several stages. Such painting is called multi-layered.

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

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

The drawing from which the work begins is made with different materials, depending on the color of the soil, its composition and the methods of pictorial underpainting. As mentioned above, it is best to do it separately on paper and then transfer it to canvas, where it is outlined over an adhesive or emulsion primer with watercolor and tempera and liquid diluted oil paint, which dries quickly on an oil primer.

With such an approach to business, the primer retains the purity of its color, in addition, its surface, which may suffer during corrections and changes in the drawing with charcoal, pencils, etc.

This is followed by underpainting, the technical side of which should, perhaps, better suit its purpose.

Underpainting. Since the underpainting in the picture is the first layer of painting, which should then take over the subsequent layers, then, in the interests of the strength of the painting, it should be done in such a way that it makes it possible, with a full guarantee of the strength of the work, to proceed to 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 carried out only on emulsion primer, on which both watercolor and tempera fit quite well. This primer should contain in its composition a significantly smaller amount of oil than an emulsion primer for oil painting.

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

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

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

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

Underpainting with oil paints, both in technical and pictorial terms, is performed differently.

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

One of the frequently used and quite productive ways of painting in underpainting is to perform it “rubbed” with oil paints, diluted essential oils, turpentine, oil, etc., which is somehow practiced in “Alla Prima” painting.

The forms, the general color of the picture and its entire ensemble are established here with a thin, as if watercolor layer of paints.

The drying of the underpainting made by this method is very fast if the paints are fast drying, and, moreover, through, due to the thinness of the layer of paints, which, of course, is of great importance for further work on the picture.

But it is possible to carry out underpainting with impasto writing, and its technique will depend entirely on the properties of the soil used in this case.

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

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

The old masters, especially of a time more distant from us, looked at their work in underpainting as a preparatory rough work, where all the attention of the master was absorbed by the setting of the drawing, the modeling of forms, the details of the composition; as for the color, only the necessary base was prepared for it in the underpainting, based on which the color of the picture was subsequently created, the freshness of which is largely due to the method of work described above.

Modern painting adheres, in general terms, to the same system in work, but the method of painting "alla prima" has received very great importance in it. Each era, as we see, creates its own system of painting, which, of course, cannot be ignored.

Underpainting in a picturesque sense should be carried out in such a way as to simplify, if possible, all its further registration. A correctly executed underpainting is therefore easy to finish with a small load of paints at the second registration.

An underpainting filled with tempera will be ready for registration before other underpaintings. Then, in order of readiness, follow oil underpaintings on adhesive primer and, finally, pasty oil paints on emulsion and oil primers. A well-dried painting is recognizable by the following features: it does not stick; when scraped with a fingernail and a knife, it turns into powder, but not into shavings; when breathing it does not fog up.

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

Scraping, pumice and smoothing layers of oil painting is especially appropriate when underpainting with impasto (greasy) layering of paints, as excessive roughness is cut off here and, most importantly, the top crust of dried oil is removed, which, when the oil paint is very dry, prevents the layers applied on top of it from attaching oil paints. After this operation, the underpainting is washed with clean water and dried.

With a non-pastose letter, the underpainting does not need to be scraped off. In order for the dried layer of oil paint to regain the ability to take on paint, if it has not been scraped and polished, it is rubbed with bleached oil, which is rubbed into it with the palm of the hand. The oil is applied in the smallest amount, so as only to moisten the surface that is supposed to be re-registered.

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

If the rules for handling the underpainting are not followed, the upper layers of the painting acquire a tendency to crumble, and the greater the longer the underpainting has stood; There are many examples of this in the works of painting of the later era.

With further underpainting, glazing can be introduced if they were included in the plan for painting, or secondary prescribing is carried out by the so-called “semi-painting”, i.e. a thin layer of body paint, and painting ends with this technique. It must be borne in mind, however, that too much build-up of colors in oil painting is considered unacceptable; each newly applied layer must be dried, and only then can further work be started.

Basic Rules:

1) do not apply oil paints in thick layers in general, and even more so oil-rich paints;

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

The best method of painting in the second registration is the painting "alla prima", which gives freshness to the pictorial performance.

The second registration is carried out with more liquid paints than underpainting. Varnishes for painting and condensed oils are applicable here. The latter are introduced into paints mixed with turpentine varnishes. The second registration in terms of the content of binders in its paints, therefore, exceeds the underpainting. The old principle of layering oil paints - "fat on skinny" - is completely observed.

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

Glazing. Glazes are called thin, transparent and translucent layers of oil and other paints applied to other well-dried similar paints to give the latter the desired intense and transparent tone.

Almost all paints are suitable for glazing: some for transparent, others for translucent. Less suitable are cadmium, cinnabar, Neapolitan yellow, English red, caput-mortuum, black cork and peach and some others.

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

Glazing can be used to supplement or finish almost any painting begun one way or another, but even better results are achieved on an underpainting specially prepared for this purpose. In this case, the underpainting is done in such a way that its painting is lighter and colder than it is supposed to be in its finished form; the proper tone and chiaroscuro are given to it by glazing in combination with underpainting tones.

The glazes of the old masters were of great importance. Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez, their contemporaries and other masters of an earlier time used them perfectly in their painting. The popularity of glazing in past eras indicates that they were the best suited to the pictorial demands of the artists who used them.

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

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

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

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

Semiglazing is paint applied in a thin translucent layer. From an optical point of view, such a layer of colors is one of the types of so-called "muddy environments" to which some of the visible colors of nature are due. The tones obtained in painting with the help of semiglazing have a peculiar beauty. They do not shine with strength and brightness, but it is not possible to obtain them by physically mixing colors on the palette. The old masters of a later era made much use of the described method of painting; contemporary artists also use it, often accidentally or unconsciously.

Corrections. Oil paints become more and more transparent over time. Such an increase in transparency is also observed in body paints, and some of them, like white lead, become translucent due to the loss of their hiding power, as well as the thinning of the layer when dried. Taking into account this feature of oil painting, it is necessary to be very careful about all kinds of correspondence and radical alterations in oil painting, which the painter sometimes needs, since all corrections and notes made by a thin layer of body paints, after a long period of time, become again visible.

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

In the portrait of the artist Litovchenko by I. Kramskoy (Tretyakov Gallery), through the black hat put on the artist’s head, Litovchenko’s forehead, on which the hat was put on, apparently later, appears quite clearly, when the head was already painted. In the portrait of Rembrandt "Jan Sobiessky" the stick, which Sobiessky holds in his hand, was initially large, and then shortened. Many such examples could be cited.

The examples given clearly show that corrections made with a thin layer, even of opaque paints, in oil painting do not achieve their goal. Here, thorough re-layering of paints is necessary, with which alone it is possible to make forever invisible those places of painting that they want to destroy. In this case, it is even better to clean the places intended for alteration completely from painting and then write them down again on clean ground. With the help of chloroform, acetone and benzene, even very old oil paint can be quickly and easily removed clean.

With small corrections in critical places (for example, the head, hands of a portrait, etc.), it is necessary to take into account the possible swelling and the usual darkening under the varnish of the corrected places. And therefore, when starting to correct, the places to be altered are dried well, covered with liquid varnish and corrected with paints with varnish for painting, in order to avoid the appearance of sagging. In the same case, if sagging has formed, it should not be covered with retouching varnish, but the lost brilliance and tone should be restored to it by oiling alone.

Oil painting. Basics. Bill Martin's Lessons for Beginners.

There are things you need to know before you start painting in oils.
All paints are a mixture of dry pigment and liquid. In oil paints, the coloring pigment is mixed with linseed oil. Linseed oil is an oil that dries out in the process of air oxidation. It absorbs oxygen from the air and crystallizes the paint pigment permanently. Once the oil dries, it cannot be removed.
Oil paints are thick. They are produced in tubes. Paints are squeezed onto a palette, and mixed with a palette knife to obtain new shades. Then they are applied to a vertically arranged canvas with hard elastic brushes.
Oil paints dry very slowly. Usually you need to wait three days before putting on the next layer. Such a long drying time is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The big advantage is that you will have time to think about what you have drawn. This is very useful when you make gradient transitions from one color to another. Or, if you are unhappy with how it turns out while the paint is still wet, you can scrape it off with a cloth, palette knife or rubber scraper, and repaint.
The downside is that if you put wet paints of two different colors next to each other, they can mix with each other sloppily. The palette, brushes and damp cloth must be handled very carefully so as not to smear yourself, clothes, food and furniture.
You can work with paint up to 12 hours in a row, then you must leave the work to dry for three days, after which you can continue working. When the paints have dried, you can put new colors on top. A work can have many layers. Each subsequent layer must be the same thickness or thicker than the previous one, otherwise cracks will occur.
After the work has completely dried (from three to six months), you need to apply a protective layer of Damar varnish.

PICTURE.

A complex drawing is quickly lost when applying oil paints, so it is better to designate a drawing with simple figures and contour lines. The drawing can be done directly on the canvas, or it can be prepared in advance and transferred to the canvas.
When applying the drawing directly to the canvas, it is better to use diluted paint. Since it's already paint, you don't have to isolate it from subsequent coats.
You can also use charcoal. The charcoal charge will need to be isolated from the next layers with a fixer. Soft charcoal is easier to fix with fixer than pressed charcoal.
The drawing can also be applied with a pencil to the canvas. Then also fix with a fixer. The sharp tip of the pencil can make cracks in the primer layer, so you can additionally apply another transparent layer of primer. If you have applied another coat of primer, no fixer is required.

In the photo: a spray can with a fixer, in a box - carbon paper.
It is better to prepare a drawing for transferring through carbon paper on thin tracing paper, then it will be easier to translate it. Attach the drawing to the canvas. Translate it with carbon paper. Outline your drawing with carbon paper underneath. Use a ballpoint pen in a contrasting color to see which areas you have already translated and control the thickness of the lines. The applied pattern must also be fixed with a fixative or a thin glazing layer of a transparent primer.

TRANSITION FROM ONE COLOR TO ANOTHER

Consider a graduated transition from one color to another. Oil paints, because they take time to dry, allow you to move them around on the canvas while they are still wet. That is why it is much easier to make smooth color gradations with oil than with other paints. This can be done with any brush. But flat brushes are best, and round ones are worst. For small and large stretch marks, the same principles work.


Paints are mixed on a palette and applied to their intended places on the canvas. Then the brush is moved back and forth in a crosswise manner between two gradations of color until a result that satisfies you is obtained. Then parallel strokes are carried out for the final processing of the site. Work with a clean brush from dark to medium, and then again with a clean brush from light to medium.


(A) In this example, the brush strokes are ALWAYS perpendicular to the highlight. Moving the brush in a circle, we try to make strokes perpendicular to the highlight, respectively, we get the shape of strokes of a twisted brush.
(C) Depending on the location of the primary colors of the stretch, an idea is created of the plane in which the surface is located. Notice how the shades are positioned to represent a flat surface (left) and a curved surface (right).

WE CREATE FORMS

All forms are created from five basic forms. These shapes are: ball, cone, cylinder, cube and torus (donut, bagel). Parts of these shapes form any objects that we see. Imagine half a cylinder on a cube - and you get the shape of an American mailbox. A half ball and a cone will give you the shape of a teardrop, a fir tree is a cone, an oak is a hemisphere (half a ball), and a cylindrical mug usually has a handle in the form of a half torus (donut).


Chiaroscuro creates a form. Each of these shapes has well-defined locations of light and shadows. The sphere is characterized by a sickle and ovals. The cones have a triangular illuminated part and everything else is in the shade. Cubes and flat surfaces contain stretch marks (gradient transition of light into shadow).
The cylinders are made up of strips. Thor - from crescents and stripes.
Concave versions of these shapes have the same chiaroscuro, but without reflexes.
If you learn how to draw these five shapes, you can draw anything.

The sphere (sphere) is defined by crescents and ovals. Balls are painted with crescent-shaped and twisted brush strokes.


The cones are made up of triangles of light and shadow. Cones write with triangular brush strokes.


The cylinders are made up of strips of light and shadow. Cylinders write with parallel brush strokes.

Cubes and any flat surfaces follow the same rules. Graduated transition from light to shadow. If the depicted surface is parallel to the canvas, then it is depicted in one even tone. A cube is a combination of intersecting planes. Each side of the cube contains a chiaroscuro stretch. The cube is drawn with parallel brush strokes.

The torus contains aspects of the other two figures. It has bands of light and shadow like a cylinder in the center and crescents like a sphere around the edges. Thor is written using twisted strokes and crescent strokes.


Here you can see that to convey the shape of the object, you need to use light and shadow, and not contour lines. Light can confuse you, so first try to see the shape of the object, and only then - how exactly the light falls on this shape.

COLOR MATCHING


The rainbow gives us examples of the pure colors that surround us in the world. The colors of the rainbow are in order: red-violet, red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue-violet, violet. When these colors are framed in a circle, we get a "color wheel". The color wheel is a necessary thing when matching colors.


The circle is positioned so that yellow, the brightest light color, is at the top, and purple, the darkest, is at the bottom. From top to bottom, on the right, are yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red and red-violet. These colors are called warm.
From top to bottom, on the left side, are yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue and blue-violet. These colors are called cool.

Additional colors.


Any TWO colors located opposite each other on the color wheel are called COMPLEMENTARY colors. Red and green are complementary colors to each other, as they are located opposite each other on the color wheel. Yellow and purple are also complementary to each other. Yellow-green and red-violet are complementary colors. Complementary colors placed side by side on the canvas reinforce each other. Complementary colors when mixed on the palette neutralize each other. On this plate, complementary colors are at opposite ends of the scale opposite each other. If we move towards the middle on this scale, we will end up with a neutral gray color, the least saturated of all.

All colors have shades. Pure spectral colors in this picture are marked with letters.
So, how do we choose colors, keeping all of the above in mind?
We only need to answer these three questions.
1. What color will the color we need come from, where is this color located on the color wheel? (meaning the spectral color).
2. How intense is it? (the more we add an additional color to the color, the less saturated the color we need becomes).
3. Hue (how dark or light it will be).

Here's how it all works.


Paints are sorted by color on the palette.


We select the color, like a brown leaf.
The spectral color will be red-violet. White is added to match the hue. Yellow-green, complementary to red-violet, is added to reduce its saturation.


We select the color of the green leaf.
Spectral green. Cadmium green is our base color. It contains a bit of yellowness, so we reduce its saturation with red-violet (quinacridone pink). Yellow-green and red-violet are complementary colors to each other.
White is added to refine the shade.


We select the color of the silver electrical tape.
The spectral color is blue. White is added to clarify the tonal saturation. Orange, complementary to blue, we add and get gray.


We select the color of a three-dimensional object. A piece of soap.


Let's pick the middle one first. The spectral color is yellow-orange. A very small amount of additional blue-violet is added to reduce the intensity of the color. And a little bit of white.


To get light areas of our soap, add white to the resulting color of the middle. To get the color of the shadow, add another blue-violet to the color of the middle.


So, the colors of the soap are selected. Usually, to get the color of the shadow on the subject, you need to add an additional color to the main color of the subject. For darker shadows, use the main color of the subject, but with less white. In some cases, adding an extra color doesn't darken the color enough, that's when we add some black.

SHADOWS

Shadows create light. Shadows fall into three categories. The first is the shaded part of the subject, known simply as the SHADOW. The second is a falling shadow from an object, which is formed by the fact that the object obscures the light from the light source. The third category is the shadow of neighboring objects.


The shadow part of an object is a darker, less saturated version of its base color.
Direct light produces dark shadows. Diffused light produces less intense blurry shadows.
Reflected light in the shadow (reflex).


Light falling on an object from its environment is called reflected light or reflex. The color of the objects that surround our object significantly affects the reflected light. See the green reflected light in the left ball? Notice the reflected red in the middle ball. The color of the environment is an integral part of all shadows.


The light and shade saturation of the surrounding objects also affects the reflected light. The first ball just hangs in the air. The second ball also reflects the white surface. The third ball reflects a black surface. The light and shade saturation of surrounding objects is also an integral part of the shadows.

Falling shadows.

A drop shadow is always characterized by being darkest and most focused at the source of the shadow (the subject). Drop shadows are written in a darker, less intense color than the color of the surface they fall on.


A drop shadow color always contains the complementary color to the lighting color and the complementary color to the surface color on which the shadow lies.
See the blue tint in the shadow of the subject that is illuminated by the orange light? And an orange tint in the shadow of an object lit in blue. In the shadow of an object illuminated with red light, there is a tint of green. And notice the red-purple hue of the shadow cast by the object illuminated by the yellow-green light.
Drop shadows are about shape and texture.


Drop shadows describe the environment of an object. On the left, the wall is defined by the falling shadow of the glass. On the right, the shadow indicates the presence of a mound.


The edges of the shadow determine the texture of the surface that the shadow falls on.
Grass on the left and mud with rocks on the right.

Drop shadows in direct and diffused light.




Direct light (left) usually comes from a single light source, such as the sun or a spotlight. It gives high contrast and rich dark drop shadows.
Diffused light is usually obtained from several light sources. It gives low contrast and fuzzy drop shadows.


Objects with little or no drop shadow are ALWAYS in ambient light, where they appear flatter and less textured.

Shadows from neighboring objects.


These are the dark shadows we see where objects touch each other. The dark line around the closed door, the dark line under the coffee mug, the dark line between tightly clenched fingers - this is the shadow from neighboring objects.
It is relatively independent of the direction of illumination. These shadows in the shadows are usually the darkest places in the drawing.


The narrow dark strip under the cylinder on the left tells us that the objects are separated. The cylinder on the right is connected to its base.

CONTRAST

Let's use light and shadow together.

Contrast is the ratio of the lightest and darkest part of an object or its surroundings.

Tone scale.

Left is high contrast, right is low contrast.

When objects have high contrast, they appear closer to us. When the contrast is less, objects appear farther away from us. Those rocks in the distance seem to us located farther from us, their contrast is lower than the contrast of the rock closest to us.


The gradual saturation of objects with contrast makes them visually closer to us.


The distance can be determined from the contrast of the falling shadow and its surroundings.

Low contrast


Objects in ambient light have the lowest contrast.


Objects without a drop shadow are always in ambient light. If an object has a medium to dark tonal range, it should have a drop shadow.


If the object has a tonal transition from medium to light, then it will appear as if in a haze or fog.

CONTRAST CREATES A TYPE OF LIGHT. High contrast corresponds to bright lighting. Low contrast corresponds to ambient light, far distance, and haziness.

TEXTURE

Texture helps define what you see.

Best of all, the texture is visible when the light passes into the shadow. On smooth objects, flare is a distorted display of the light source itself. The sharper the focus of this reflection, the smoother the surface of the object. A glass bottle has a smoother surface than aluminum, which in turn is smoother than candle wax. We know how these objects focus the highlight on themselves.

On objects without bright highlights, the texture is visible well and is determined by the transition from light to shadow.

These ten objects are arranged in order of their degree of texture.
Notice where your eye is immediately looking to appreciate the texture of an object.

We look at the transition of light into shadow to determine how textured an object is.

Texture in diffused light.

Left - direct light, right - diffused.

Objects in direct light appear more textured than objects in ambient light.
The log and towel appear softer and smoother in diffused light. Objects appear less textured in ambient light because the transition from light to shadow takes longer.

GLAZING / GLAZING LAYERS

Glazing layers are applied over the dried paint.

Transparent layers of oil paint are called glazing. Translucent - these are layers of glazing. To obtain a glaze, the paint is diluted in a ratio of 1/3 Dammar varnish, 1/3 turpentine and 1/3 linseed oil. Glaze is a thin transparent layer of paint that is placed on another dried layer to get a shade of the third color. For example, if you put diluted quinacridone pink (clear color) on blue, you get purple. If you glaze exactly the same color, then you will strengthen it. Falling shadows on complex textures are often glazed. Glazing slightly darkens the color. (See the lesson "Paints" about transparency and haze).

This is glazing.

For example, the shell of a beetle needs to be greened.

Glazing liquid is mixed on a palette with cyan green (transparent color) until the desired degree of transparency is achieved.

Then the mixture is applied with a kolinsky brush to the drawing in a horizontal position. We leave to dry overnight. When using glazing, you can change the color of the drawing without changing the direction of the strokes of paint on the main layer.

Glazing is obtained by using a diluted matte color over the dried color of another paint. The glaze layer does not change color and is a translucent layer.

The paint is also mixed on a palette with a mixture for glazing and applied to a horizontal surface with a kolinsky brush.

White (matte color) with glazing give us rays of light. Leave the work to dry overnight.
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of the past fascinate with their colors, the play of light and shadow, the appropriateness of each accent, the general condition, color. But what we see now in the galleries, which has survived 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, technique of execution, the finish of the work and storage conditions. This does not take into account the small mistakes that a talented master could make when experimenting with new methods. For this reason, the impression of the canvases and the description of their appearance may differ over the years.

Technique of the old masters

The technique of oil painting gives a huge advantage in work: a picture can be painted for years, gradually modeling the form and prescribing details with thin layers of paint (glazing). Therefore, body writing, where they immediately try to complete the picture, is not typical for the classical manner of working with oil. A well-thought-out phased application of paints allows you to achieve amazing shades and effects, since each previous layer, when glazed, shines through the next one.

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

• On a light ground, the drawing was written in one color, with sepia - the contour and the main shadows.
• Then a thin underpainting was made with volume modeling.
• The final stage was several glazing layers of reflections and detailing.

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

Rubens, Velasquez 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 any pigment);
• Transferring the outline of the drawing to the ground with chalk or charcoal and fixing it with a suitable paint.
• The underpainting, dense in some places, especially in the illuminated areas of the image, and in some places completely absent, left the color of the ground.
• The final work in 1 or 2 steps with semiglazing, less often with thin glazes. In Rembrandt, the ball of layers of the picture could reach a centimeter in thickness, but this is rather an exception.

In this technique, particular importance was given to the use of overlapping additional colors, which made it possible to neutralize the saturated soil in places. For example, red ground could be leveled with gray-green underpainting. Work in this technique was carried out faster than in the Flemish method, which was more to the liking of the customers. But the wrong choice of the color of the ground and the paints of the final layer could spoil the picture.

The color of the picture

To achieve harmony in a painting, they use the full power of reflexes and the complementarity of colors. There are also little tricks like applying a colored primer, as in the Italian method, or varnishing the painting with pigment.

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

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

For those who make copies of paintings by great artists in digital format, this resource will be of interest, which presents web-based artist palettes.

Lacquering

In addition to earthy colors that darken over time, resin-based topcoats (rosin, copal, amber) also change the lightness of the picture, giving it yellow tints. To artificially give antiquity to the canvas, ocher pigment or any other similar pigment is specially added to the varnish. But a strong darkening is more likely to cause an excess of oil in the work. It can also lead to cracks. Although such the craquelure effect is more often associated with work on half-wet paint, which is unacceptable for oil painting: they write only on a dried or still damp layer, otherwise it is necessary to scrape it off and re-register.