Layered Approaches
Layering is still the soundest approach to oil
painting, though the range of techniques and materials
is necessarily wider than those used in Flemish
paintings. The method is a lengthy one, and is best
suited to miniatures, photo-realism, and painting
that requires a very high degree of detail and surface
finish.
Steps:
Either 1a. begin with an accurate drawing (older
artists probably used a camera obscura, for which
photographs can be substituted today)
Or 1b. begin like a watercolor with few pencil
lines and broad washes of turps-thinned paint.
2. Dry.
3. Lay in thin body color
4. Dry.
5. Lay in second thin body color, within the contours
of the first layer or overpainting it.
6. Continue building up the underpainting in a
long, continuous process of trial and error, using
the full range of painting techniques.
7. Dry thoroughly.
8. Lay in glazes, and work wet into wet as necessary.
9. Dry.
10. Lay in thicker glazes, modifying previous glazes
where necessary.
11. Add body color to recapture areas glazed too
heavily.
It is also possible to alternate body color and
glaze rather than leave all glazing to the end.
Shadows may be created by glazes, and the final
picture harmonized.
Wet into wet — wet color into, over or alongside
other wet color
Wet over dry — traditional approach allowing
systematic control.
Painting to completion or in sections — more
control with latter but disjointed appearance is
a danger.
Painting in layers — principle behind traditional
technique.
Refining foundation — adding to the body color
with more subtlety of color and tone.
Finishing with glazes — final modifications
of foundation and layers with glazes.
Varying paint thickness — modifying tone
and color by thickness of paint: common but needs
great skill.
Dead coloring — first application in layered
technique, either built up subsequently into further
layers or into underpainting.
Underpainting — painting which is designed
to combine with later painting (often but not necessarily
glazes) to produce desired effect.
Using ground — allowing the ground to partly
show through in the finished picture.
Body color — paint given body: dense paint:
generally paint made opaque by adding white.
Grisaille — underpainting wholly in shades
of gray.
Scumble — partial covering of white applied
while paint below is still wet.
Frottie — complete film of semi—transparent
paint, either with glaze or smeared thin.
Scraping back — paint scraped back to reveal
ghost of last application or some of previous.
Rubbing — using fingers to rub in paint: a
controlled and useful technique.
Glazing — layer of transparent color: laid
on when paint below is practically dry: any color
can be used with glazing medium but transparent
colors are best.
Impasto — thick paint standing proud of surrounding
surface: used for textural effects and also with
glazes.
Blending — softening edges of paint after
they have been applied, usually with clean brush.
Teasing — manipulating paint after it has
been set down.
Hatching — strokes or cross-strokes in wet
paint that blend at a distance.
Scoring — scratching back to underlying layer:
often used to represent hair or creases in skin.
Oiling out. When the painting or part of the painting
dries dull and opaque (i.e. the paint sinks in)
it is wise, prior to continuing painting, to gently
rub in a retouching varnish as as to correctly judge
colors.
The
first supports were panels of wood — poplar,
oak, lime, beech, chestnut, cherry, pine and silver
fir: all carefully prepared. Canvas was adopted
by the Venetians, as wood tended to warp, and fresco
to mildew, in the moist atmosphere of the lagoons.
