Painting -- Ultimate Guide to Crafts and Hobbies

Changing styles of modern painting

The paintings found in museums around the world range from the rigid, conventionalized tomb paintings of ancient Egypt through the formal but realistic works of the Renaissance masters to the dizzying proliferation of art fashions and fads in our time.

Modern Western painting has its roots in antiquity, but it began to emerge as we know it today in the Middle Ages under the influence and patronage of the Christian Church. Most early Church-inspired works— altar panels, frescoes, and manuscript illuminations—were highly stylized, emphasizing religious symbolism rather than realism. The first attempts at realism are usually associated with Giotto, an Italian master of the early 14th century. While Giotto’s works have religious themes, his subjects are rendered with an anatomical accuracy and a personalized sense of emotion. His scenes look real, and his innovations influenced what has come to be called international gothic style, which reached its zenith with the 15th-century Flemish masters. Jan van Eyck, a founder of the Flemish school, pioneered in the then relatively new technique of painting in oil. Florentine masters, meanwhile, were introducing mathematical perspective, even closer anatomical accuracy, and chiaro scum—the effects of light and shadow.

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---222 Four painting styles: Thomas Cole’s (1801-1848) romantic landscape (upper left) is filled with deep shadows; Pierre Bonnard’s (1867-1947) river scene (upper right) emphasizes texture; Claude Monet’s (1840—1926) impressionist “Landscape at Giverny” (bottom left) is a dazzle of light; and Vincent Van Gogh’s (1 853—1890) “Les Chaumes” shows a bold use of brushstrokes.

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During the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries), Western art advanced with unprecedented splendor. Painting reached a new level of authority and grandeur under such towering masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. The ensuing centuries saw the rise of a number of new painting styles, each a reaction against its immediate predecessor. The lurid colors and anguished forms of post- Renaissance mannerism were replaced by the exuberant richness of the baroque style. When the baroque turned to an overripe and pompous opulence, it gave way to the beguiling sensuousness of rococo. After rococo degenerated into inconsequential frothiness, artists returned to nature and to classical ideals in the style of neoclassicism. Among the great names of these centuries are Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish genius; Rembrandt van Rijn, the renowned Dutch master; and Francisco de Goya, perhaps the greatest Spanish master.

By the mid-19th century the most innovative movement was impression ism, pioneered by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Edouard Manet. Georges Seurat, a neoimpressionist, invented pointillism—using tiny dots of pure pigment that fuse into solid colors when seen from afar.

The pace of change quickened in the 20th century. Two early movements, though short-lived, have had a lasting influence on the modern approach to form and color. Henri Matisse’s fauvism arbitrarily distorted natural colors, while cubism, pioneered by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Marcel Duchamp, fractured solid form, rearranging it in two-dimensional shapes as if it were seen from more than one vantage point. A major art movement native to the United States, abstract expressionism, occurred in the late 1940’s.

Given so varied a legacy, the artist today has complete freedom to paint the subject matter of his choice in the style of his choice, naturalistic or primitive, realistic or abstract, representational or nonobjective.

Painting mediums:

A painting’s stylistic effects derive not only from the artist’s purpose and vision but also from the painting medium. The brushstroke textures of oil paints, the airy moods of watercolor washes, and the blond highlights of tempera are all characteristics of those mediums that would be difficult to re produce by other means. Paintings using most of the mediums described below are shown later in this chapter.

Oil. This remains the most versatile painting medium and the most highly developed. Oil paint consists of a pigment, a ground, an oil (usually refined linseed oil), and a drying agent. Al though it is possible to mix oil paints from scratch, few artists do so. Most buy the paints as tubes of paste. The paste can be applied just as it comes from the tube, or it can be diluted with thinners such as linseed oil, turpentine, and varnish.

Exposure to the air chemically transforms the oil into a solid, transparent, malleable film; the film acts as a protective coat over the bound pigments. The artist may vary his texture from delicate tonal gradations to im pasto hillocks (solid piles of oil paints on canvas); he may apply the paints with brushes, palette knives, or wood laths, or he might even pour and drip the paint onto the canvas.

Watercolor. These transparent, water-soluble pigments are used on special watercolor papers. The pigments are bound with gum arabic or other water-soluble agents. Pigments come in both pans and tubes. Water colors dry rapidly and demand different techniques than oil paints do.

Tempera. A medium for opaque water-soluble colors, temperas, unlike watercolor pigments, cannot be re-dissolved with water once dry. Originally “tempered” with egg white or yolk (which protects the painting from heat and humidity), tempera paint today often comes in fatty emulsions. The paints are available in trays, jars, or tubes. This quick-drying paint can be applied with any tool. Since it stiffens upon drying, the surface used is usually a stiff board that has been gessoed (coated with a plasterlike substance).

Gouache. Another medium for watercolor pigments, gouaches consist of transparent watercolors mixed with opaque Chinese white. Gouaches have some of the transparency of watercolors and some of the opacity of temperas. These paints dry rapidly to a matte finish and are ideal for commercial illustrations and posters.

Casein. Casein is tempered with a substance derived from cheese or milk curd. It is applied on rigid surfaces in thin washes and dries quickly to a lighter tone. It can be applied with a brush to create an impasto effect. Casein has been used as a substitute for oil, but it is being replaced for this purpose by acrylic paints.

Acrylic. Pigments are mixed into an acrylic polymer resin emulsion to create this new synthetic paint. It has many of the expressive characteristics of oil paint, yet dries more quickly than oil and with less change in color than casein. Acrylics produce a matte finish without brush marks, but the lack of texture can be compensated for by building up impasto or by diluting the paints to obtain transparent color glazes. Acrylics come in a wide range of intense colors, including metallic and fluorescent hues. This paint dries into an elastic, durable, waterproof film that can be cleaned easily.

Aniline dye. Used largely by commercial artists and illustrators, aniline dye offers intensely bright colors but no opacity. It penetrates into paper fibers and can only be removed with bleaches. Colors should not be blended or overpainted, as aniline dyes have a propensity to bleed.

Preparing the canvas

Canvas for oil painting comes in various grades, ranging from bold-textured linen through the less expensive cotton duck to the cheapest, but not too satisfactory, plain cotton canvas.

To assure the proper adhesion of the paint, all grades of canvas should first be sized, then primed. The traditional sizing consists of a diluted solution of rabbit-skin glue. The rabbit-skin glue comes in a concentrated form that must be mixed with water and cooked before it can be applied. The traditional primers for oil painting are gesso or white lead in linseed oil. Ready-mixed primers are available at art supply stores. The new acrylic primer developed for acrylic paints is adequate for oils and is very easy to use.

You can buy ready-to-paint canvas from art supply stores, either oil primed (“single primed” or “double primed”) or acrylic primed (“all-purpose canvas”). It comes in rolls or al ready stretched on a frame.

Many artists prefer to buy untreated canvas at cheaper prices and to stretch, size, and prime it themselves, as illustrated below. It is not necessary to size canvas when using acrylic primer.

---224a When stretching a piece of canvas, staple opposing sides in an alternating sequence.

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1. Assemble ready-made stretcher bars into a stretcher frame for canvas by fitting the tongue and-groove ends into each other tightly.

2. To make sure that all corners are square, check the frame with a triangle or a carpenter's square or, as an alternative, against a doorframe.

3. Cut canvas from roll. Put it face down flat, with frame (beveled lace down) on top of it. Trim canvas to within 1½ in: of frame edge all around,

4. Fold canvas back against one long side of frame and staple into edge at middle of the side, Instead of staples, carpet tacks may be used.

5. Pulling canvas tightly against the other long side with a pair of canvas webbing pliers, staple into edge at the middle of the other long side,

6. Staple the middles of the short sides. When pulling canvas against the second short side, use the pliers to make sure that canvas is taut.

7. From the middle of each side, staple at 3-in. intervals outward while pulling the canvas tightly.

Leave a 3-in, length near the corners unstapled.

8. At one corner, fold canvas and tuck one part under another. Be sure the tucked-in part is folded snugly and neatly against the frame.

9. Staple the bided canvas at the corner. Take care to shoot the staple into the widest portion of the corner wood. Repeat at the other corners.

10. Fold surplus strip of canvas around frame edge and staple it to frame back at 3-in, intervals.

Staple all sides in the same manner.

11. At each corner, fold the surplus canvas against the back of the frame, continuing the line of the creases along the sides. Staple all corners.

12. Use a flat varnish brush to prime the canvas with one or two coats of ready-made acrylic polymer gesso. Canvas is now ready for painting.

Preparing hardboard:

A panel primed with acrylic gesso can he used for any paint. The panel should he made with a piece of untempered hardboard (Masonite or similar brand). If the board is larger than 24 inches on any side, back it with a frame. Lightly sand the smooth side with extra-fine sandpaper. Scrub it with denatured alcohol mixed with a little ammonia. Gesso as shown below.

Equipment and supplies:

An oil painter should have a stable and adjustable easel to hold the stretched canvas. A palette is necessary for holding and mixing pigments. Although the traditional oval palette with thumb hole is convenient, many painters prefer a piece of glass, marble, or some other suitable surface placed flat on a table for use in the studio.

Brushes come in flats (flat, square-edged), brights (shorter flats), longs (longer flats), and rounds (rounded, ending in a point). In general, the broader flat brushes are used for working larger areas; the round, pointed brushes are for finer work. Brushes are made of stiff hog’s bristles, soft camel or squirrel hair, and springy sable hair. Bristle emphasizes the texture of brushstrokes, while sable allows for very smooth blending.

Painting knives, flexible and trowel-shaped, are ideal for spreading paint thickly on canvas. Palette knives are stiff, blunt instruments for mixing colors on the palette.

Oil paints come in tubes and fall into three price ranges: professional quality for serious artists; intermediate grade; and student’s grade.

---225a Thin the acrylic gesso slightly with water and brush it on the sanded hardboard, using a wide brush. Remove bubbles with fingers.

When the final coat is thoroughly dry, remove brush marks and other irregularities by sanding until smooth with fine (4/0) garnet paper.

---225b Flat bristle; Bright bristle; Round sable; Long sable; Oil colors; Painting knife; Palette knife

---225c Care and cleaning---To make your brushes last, wipe them frequently when at work by squeezing them with a rag or paper towel. Avoid getting paint up to the ferrule. At the end of the day wash brushes in turpentine, then in soap and warm water. Rinse them thoroughly. Dry, reshape, and store them hair-end up in an open jar.

Oil painting techniques

Oils are more durable than paintings done in most other mediums. A finished painting, particularly when protected with a coat of final varnish, will last for a long time without any loss in the vividness or richness of its color. It need not be covered with glass, as is necessary with a watercolor. Any grime, dust, or grit that accumulates on the surface over the years can simply be wiped away with a dampened cloth or a mild solution of soap and water.

No other painting medium is so versatile in its effects or so expressive of nuance. Unlike watercolor and tempera, for instance, the physical proper ties of oil paints impose almost no restrictions upon the artist. They can be applied to the canvas in many ditlci’e,ii ways to achieve a wide variety oF c fects, as suggested by the photograph of masterworks on this page and ilt# illustrations

Furthermore, oil is a medium that kind to beginners yet challenging Ii. seasoned artists. A serious painict, whether a novice or an accomplished artist, can choose from among all ll methods and techniques in the in Ii body of painting knowledge developed by his predecessors over centuries. No single artist could or should use all liii techniques known. He needs only tho’ few that best suit his personal style.

Direct painting---An oil painting i usually done by one of two major methods: direct painting (a/la priPn or indirect painting—underpainting with overpainting. In the first method the artist aims at his final effect liy simultaneously dealing with the piiili lems of color, value, modeling, unit texture as he progresses with the painting. Depending on his personal prel ence, he may work from the darks to the lights or vice versa and from le intense colors to brighter ones or F u’oui brights to subdued colors.

Indirect painting---Direct painting hii been the more popular method in oil for the past century. In earlier times, however, indirect painting was the more widely used technique.

In the indirect method the arti builds his surfaces in a series of laycis. After making the sketch, he first ex cutes a monochrome underpainting, The underpainting establishes the basic gradations of light and dark, solving the problems of both composition and value. When the succeeding layer or layers are painted, the artist concentrates on color, modeling, and texture. The painting can be elaborated with such touches as impasto, glazing, and scumbling.

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A tonal painting is one that employs a limited range of colors to attain its effect. This is a detail from “Self-Portrait,” a tonal painting in browns by the greatest of all tonal painters, Rembrandt van Rijn. Scumbling is the technique of dragging a topcoat of paint over the partially dried canvas to create uneven texture. This famous example is a detail from Claude Monet’s ‘‘Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight.’’

Impasto—the technique of piling thick paint on the surface of the painting to create coarse textures—is shown off to fine effect in this detail from ‘Oysters” by pioneer French modernist douard Manet.

To achieve the brilliant glazing seen in this detail from his “The Annunciation,’’ Flemish master Jan van Eyck mixed colors with varnishes and special oils, building up several layers of semitransparent paint.

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An important consideration in the indirect method is that the underpainting must be sufficiently dry before it in be painted over; otherwise, the paint may eventually crack. For this reason many painters like to use fast-drying paints for the underpainting. Such paints include the traditional temperas and the newer acrylics. An oil underpainting may require several weeks of drying before overpainting.

Another traditional method, wiping nut, often achieves a unique appearance. The canvas is covered with a flat tune of a neutral color, such as raw umber. The sketch is scratched gently into the paint with the end of a brush handle. Then dark accents are painted in and light areas are wiped out with a rag dampened with turpentine.

Heightening effects---Aside from the major methods of building up an oil painting, many techniques are used to heighten the desired effects. The technique of color mixing is more complicated than it may seem. A particular hue—say, red—has no fewer than 70 different gradations that are recognizable handle to a trained artist. When these gradations are further differentiated by variations in tone (light and dark values), some 700 color variations of red result. If a red is mixed with a blue (which also has some 700 variations), the number of combinations becomes astronomical. The illustrations at right suggest what you can do to vary one single color of your palette.

Other techniques---An intriguing technique of color mixing was devised by the French impressionists (including pointillists), who applied paint to the canvas as dabs or minute flecks of pure, bright color. Like the tiles in a mosaic, the colors are not blended on the canvas but in the viewer’s eye—an effect called optical mix.

During the heyday of indirect painting, two major techniques, glazing and scumbling were favorite devices for achieving varied color effects. Glazing is the use of smooth, transparent layers of paint mixed with a medium such as resin ethereal varnish to produce a glowing, burnished surface, as in the canvases of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and other Dutch masters. Scumbling involves the dragging of a light, opaque paint over darker areas, creating broken patches of color, as in Claude Monet’s famous cathedral series. The two techniques yield striking color and light effects.

Interesting textural effects can be achieved by brushwork, and by the use of palette and painting knives, rollers, rags, fingers, dripping paint from cans, and many other un conventional means. One such time- honored effect is impasto, the thick piling of paint on the canvas with brush or palette knife. Old masters such as Rembrandt and Rubens made brilliant use of impasto, especially for light areas and highlights.

Tonal techniques are used to create a picture rich in values and restrained in color effects; a painting may be rendered out of a single dominant color tone. Rembrandt is known for his brown tonal paintings dramatized with strong chiaroscuro.

Varnishing. When a painting is finished, certain areas may be absorbed into the canvas more than others, giving them a dull, lifeless look. The problem can be remedied by brushing or spraying these areas with retouch varnish (a very thin solution of non- yellowing resin). To protect a painting as well as to preserve the richness of its color, a final varnish is evenly applied when the painting is reasonably dry— after about six weeks, or better still, several months. If it is varnished too soon, the binding medium will still be contracting and will cause the layers of color to crack.

---227 Color modification:

Medium blue

Dark blue

Value darkened

Value lightened

Turpentine

White

Medium blue

Value lightened

Medium blue

Complementary color

This chart shows how a given color can be modified and still remain basically a color of the same hue.

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Texture and modeling:

An oil painting can have a smooth or a textured surface, depending on the way the paint is applied to the canvas. Many sorts of brushwork are possible, including wet and dry brush techniques, cross-hatching, pointillism, glazing, scumbling, and impasto. Examples of such brushwork appear on this and the facing page.

Paint, of course, can be applied to the surface with implements other than a brush. Great bas-relief ridges of impasto can be piled up with palette knives, fingers, trowels, spatulas, or by squeezing paint onto the canvas directly from the tubes. When working with the palette knife, large quantities of paint are first squeezed onto the palette; the knife is used to pick up paint from the palette and to press it onto the canvas. Washes of diluted paint can be applied with rags.

Modeling is the process of grading color values in a painting to portray solid form and receding planes with an illusion of three-dimensional depth. The technique involves the blending of adjacent areas of unequal value by creating transitional zones, as seen on this page in the step-by-step illustrations of the modeling of a sphere.

Without modeling, the planes of surfaces of objects would look like cardboard pieces. Faulty modeling, on the other hand, upsets the tonal balance of a painting, resulting in an unnatural look. Modeling is found in what is perhaps its most dramatic u among the works of the Venetian masters who worked under Titian. The paintings are characterized by the cuts trast of closely modeled shapes in Ii tones with large, flat, dark areas. However, some painters, including hiuti Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh, intentionally Ii nored modeling in developing their own personal styles of painting.

---228a Some types of brushstrokes : Pointillist strokes; Linear strokes; Dry-brush strokes; Undulating strokes; Cross-hatching; Graded wash; Contour-following strokes; Wet-to-dry strokes

---228b Modeling techniques

Impasto, glazing, and scumbling:

Of all the traditional oil painting techniques, impasto, glazing, and scum hung are among the best known. They were extensively used in previous centuries when indirect painting was the dominant method of working. Painters still make use of these techniques for special effects.

Impasto. The word “impasto” is used to denote both the technique of im pasto painting and the resulting masses of paint on the canvas. Paint is piled and pressed onto the canvas and is left to dry, preserving a rich texture of palette knife marks or brushwork. Drying may take several weeks or even months.

Glazing. In glazing, a transparent color such as burnt sienna is thinned with a glaze medium, which can either be bought ready-made or mixed in the studio. A popular recipe is 1 ounce stand oil, 1 ounce 5-pound-cut damar varnish, 5 ounces pure gum spirits of turpentine, and 15 drops cobalt drier. The glaze is applied thinly over the selected area of a painting. Light penetrates the transparent coating and is reflected by the underside of the glaze layer. This lends a brilliance and luminosity to the undercoat color. Peter Paul Rubens’ favorite technique of laying several glazes on top of one another is still used by many artists.

Scumbling. In this technique a light, opaque color is painted over a dried undercoat of a darker color. The over- painting can be applied irregularly by dragging a heavily loaded flat bristle brush very lightly and quickly over the area. The countless broken patches of pigment combine with the darker undercoat to add a sparkle lo another wise flat color tone. Scumbling may also be in the form of a coat thin enough to allow light to reach the undercoat. Optical grays, a unique effect of scumbling, are achieved this way.

Impasto – Glazing -- Scumbling

This impasto consists of thick masses of oil paint pressed onto the canvas with a palette knife, forming ridges.

A brush rather than a palette knife is used to create this impasto effect, more supple than that pictured above.

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Viridian green, another transparent color, is used to glaze the same bands of color that were over-painted above with burnt sienna.

A glaze of transparent burnt sienna is painted over bands of white, yellow, red, and blue under-painting.

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Five colors are scumbled over burnt sienna. A moist brush is used to work in the pigments, yielding a more refined effect than above.

Stages in an oil painting:

The best way to learn to render portraits in oil is, of course, to study with an experienced portrait painter. But considerable insight can be gained simply by looking over the shoulder of an artist at work. Such an opportunity presents itself on these two pages.

The artist used cotton-duck canvas that was stretched on an 18- by 24-inch frame and double-primed with acrylic. Her equipment and materials included a studio easel, a disposable paper palette, a cup of turpentine mixed with linseed oil for thinning paints, and another cup of turpentine for cleaning brushes. The brushes used were Nos. 1,3,4,5, and 7 filbert-bristle brushes and a large, flat, sable brush. The basic palette consisted of ivory black, titanium white, Naples yellow, yellow ocher, cadmium red (light), Venetian red, alizarin crimson, raw umber, ultramarine blue, viridian green, and cadmium yellow-orange.

She mixed several basic colors on the palette to be used with touches of this or that additional color. Among the basic colors were three different flesh tones for the model’s skin: light (Naples yellow and cadmium red light); medium (yellow ocher and cadmium red light); and dark (Venetian red and ultramarine). A mixture of ultramarine, viridian green, alizarin crimson, and white provided the back ground paint. Raw umber was used for the hair; white with dashes of viridian, Naples yellow, ultramarine, and raw umber were mixed for the blouse.

When any basic mixture was found to be too intense, the artist neutralized it with a little complimentary color. Throughout the painting the artist worked from the largest to the smallest shapes, from the simple to the complex, and from darks to lights. She built up the image from the background to the foreground, first using only average colors and average values of light and shadow. She used the largest possible brush for any given area to avoid the creation of distinct lines.

First session. As can be inferred from the first photograph, the artist studied the model after she was seated comfortably in an armchair; she then placed the head slightly off dead center of the canvas and fixed the line of gesture or pose (in this case, the mid line from the pit of the neck down the torso to the crotch). Then she sketched rapidly with a brush, relating the largest shapes to each other and to the line of gesture. While at work, the artist frequently stepped back from her can vas to grasp the totality of the picture.

After the initial sketching, the artist painted in the hair mass and laid in the background. Then she began color- keying (testing her color mixtures) with small patches of paints at strategic spots. During the next stage she used average colors and values, ignoring nuances and details. Starting from the general shadow areas and going to directly lit areas, she massed as many shapes, colors, and values as she could, covering the entire canvas with paints.

After putting in the averages, the artist restated the accents (darkest darks and lightest lights). These acted as constants in the value scale and were used as references for creating gradations. Finally, the artist used a clean brush to soften boundaries so that no distinct edges were left.

Second session. The artist began her second painting session by refining shapes and colors that had been only loosely defined in the first session. She proceeded to define details that had not been painted in previously. During the later stages she used her clean, dry sable brush for fanning (sweeping all edges lightly), blurring and softening them to create the illusion of rounded forms receding into the background.

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1. With a No.4 brush dipped in diluted raw umber, the models head is drawn as a simple oval. The line of posture’ is established by a line down the center of the model’s face, another line along the shoulders, and a third down the torso.

2. The hair is washed in with raw umber. The darkest areas are filled in. These include shaded parts of the hair near the neck; shadows under both arms, on left side of neck, and in the lap, and a large crease in the blouse.

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3. The background is washed in thinly with a color slightly darker than what the eye actually perceives, which makes it appear to recede from the viewer. Then the background is blurred into the edges of the hair to avoid a cutout effect.

4.Major darks are filled in—the shadow side of the face and neck, the underarm areas, the chair, the model’s slacks, and the shadow above her right shoulder Color-keying the painting now begins on the light side of the cheek and neck.

5. Directly lit areas on skin and blouse are given average color and value variations. Shadows in light areas, always lighter than those in dark areas, are added to model’s left eye socket and left side of forehead and neck.

6. With the whole canvas covered, the process called blending the poster begins—introducing gradations and interchanges between major darks and lights. Darker colors are brought into light areas of lips, nostrils, and blouse shadows.

7. The mouth and folds in the blouse are defined as clearer shapes. The whitest white is given to the lightest blouse area (center plane facing the light). Red is put into nose and cheeks. Hair is softened over forehead. Nostrils are softened.

8. After the design on the blouse is roughed in, the mouth, nose tip, and a nostril are further refined. The dark accents in the hair are deepened. Red is added to the forehead, cheeks, nose, and hair. Eyebrows are defined

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9. The painting now progresses to smaller forms. The chin and cheek creases are defined. The side of the nose is blended with the rest of the face. More color is put into the mouth. The softening of edges and refining of light and shadow continue.

10. Irises are painted into the eyes in a dark hue, which has the effect of making the whites of the eyes look whiter. The left arm is darkened to conform to the rest of the painting. Highlights are added to the hair and nose.

11. The left wrist is given a center light, suggesting that the hand is advancing toward the viewer, The design on the blouse is more sharply delineated. Highlights are refined, then softened by fanning with a dry sable brush,

12. During the final stage the artist finds it desirable to redefine the outlines of the chin, cheeks, and hair, making the face slimmer and thus heightening the resemblance to the model. Facial features are softened with a sable brush.

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Watercolor:

Painting with water-soluble colors has been done in many lands since antiquity: on papyrus in ancient Egypt, on silk and rice paper in China, and on illuminated manuscripts and tempera panels in medieval Europe. Watercolor as we know it today, however, grew out of the work of Rembrandt and other 17th-century Dutch masters who used pen and ink with monochrome washes. Eighteenth-century English artists perfected watercolor as an art in its own right, with unique characteristics. With its pigment bound by gum arabic and thinned with water, watercolor has a soft luminosity and gentle airiness unequaled by other forms of painting. Its effects result from the near-transparency of the colors, the dazzling white of all-rag paper that sparkles as highlights, and the merging and interflowing of colors from saturated brushes. Once on paper, the effects are almost impossible to alter through overpainting.

Watercolor paints come in cakes, pans, or tubes. Those in tubes are easiest to use and are usually of better quality. They are often sold in metal boxes whose lids have mixing wells or depressions, which serve conveniently as palettes. It is usually sufficient, especially for beginners, to have a dozen or so basic colors. These paints fall into two general grades and price ranges: professional, or artist’s, and student’s.

Watercolor brushes are mainly the round variety that taper toa point. In addition, an oval-shaped (“sky”) brush is used, mainly for washes. Some artists prefer flats to ovals for applying washes. The best brushes are made of soft, resilient red-sable hair. Expensive but long-lasting and versatile, these brushes are used for both fine work and washes. The least expensive brushes are of ox-ear hair; in between are those of mixed ox-ear and red-sable hair.

---232a

Tools and equipment: Narrow flat brush; Oval brush; Small round brush; Large round brush; Paints in tubes; Watercolor set

---232b

Brushstrokes: Dry-brush effect; Broad linework; Thin linework; Undulating line-work

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Care and cleaning: An essential item tor watercolor painting is a container of clear water. After the application of a color, it is imperative that the brush be rinsed clean before being dipped in a new color. Rinse it frequently even if it is used for the same color for an extended period. Colors are mixed in the mixing wells or on some other surface serving as a palette, not by dipping the brush directly and consecutively into different pigments. After a day’s work, brushes and palette (or the box lid with wells) are washed with mild soap and warm water. A hair-shedding brush can be fixed by hammering on the ferrule.

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Watercolor paper

Paper for watercolor painting comes in many varieties. All are made of 100 percent rag, as wood-pulp paper will discolor and deteriorate with age. The most expensive papers are handmade by European manufacturers with long traditions as makers of quality papers. Most artists find that better quality machine-made domestic papers are perfectly suitable for their best work.

Papers come in three finishes: rough (R) for bold effects and dry-brush techniques; fine, or cold-pressed (C.P.), for all-around purposes; and smooth, or hot-pressed (H.P.), for fine brush- work. The smooth finish is more likely than the others to betray signs of an erasure in the pencil sketch or any accidental scuffing. Although water color paper is sold in a number of colors, white is the most popular and effective because of the dazzling high lights that result from unpainted areas.

Papers are sold in rolls, pads, and sheets of several sizes. The most common size is imperial (22 by 30 inches), which can be used for a single painting or cut into smaller pieces. Other avail able sizes are royal (19 by 24 inches), double elephant (27 by 40 inches), and the largest of watercolor papers, antiquarian (31 by 53 inches).

Paper weights. Another feature of watercolor paper is weight, indicated by the number of pounds per ream (500 sheets). This ranges from 72-pound (the flimsiest) through 140-pound (medium) to 300- or even 400-pound (the thickest). The weight is important be cause most types of paper must be stretched before use. The reason is that wet paint causes the paper to wrinkle and buckle, making colors streak into rivers and lakes. The 300-pound and heavier papers, being as stout as thin cardboard, need no stretching. Some thinner papers also require no stretching because they come in blocks (pads glued on four sides). When a finished painting has dried, the top sheet is easily sliced off from the rest of the block with a knife.

Stretching. Wet paper is stretched on a wooden drawing board or frame by fastening it to the wood with tape, glue, or tacks so that when it dries and shrinks it becomes a drum-taut surface. Painting is done on this paper when it is quite dry but while it is still stretched tightly on the board. When the painting itself has dried, it is cut from its taped edges with a sharp knife or razor blade. For beginners the easiest procedure is to stretch half a piece of imperial-size paper (15 by 22 inches) on a 16- by 23-inch drawing board. A simple method of stretching watercolor paper is illustrated below.

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1. Soak the paper in cold water in a clean sink until it is saturated (about 15 mm). Grip the paper at its corners; lift it up and allow excess water to run oft.

2. Lay wet paper on a drawing board. Sponge off any remaining excess water, smoothing wrinkles from the paper. Dab dry about a 1-in, margin all around the paper.

3. Wet a wide strip of gummed paper tape and apply it to the board and the margin of a long side of the paper. Then tape opposite edge and short edges. Press tape firmly outward from the paper.

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Stages in a watercolor painting

2. While the wash is still wet, the blue is dabbed off with a rag in areas that are to appear as cloud

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6. To emphasize the gnarled bark of the lower trunk, the dry-brush effect is applied, resulting in a very rough texture

The photographs on these two pages show typical stages in the development of a watercolor landscape. For the landscape shown here the artist used a 17- by 22-inch sheet of French hand made, cold-pressed, 300-pound water color paper which, because of its thickness, required no stretching. To introduce a variety of brushstrokes, he used several types of brushes, including round red-sable brushes in three sizes-small (No. 3), medium (No. 5), and large (No. 12)-as well as 1-inch, 3/4-inch, and 1/4-inch square, fiat, ox hair brushes.

The artist employed 10 watercolor paints in tubes: Hooker's green (light), Windsor blue, ultramarine blue, Payne's gray, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cadmium yellow, yellow ocher, vermillion, and alizarin crimson. He purchased them in an enameled box whose cover wells served as a palette in which to mix paints and make color washes. A white enamel palette tray was also used for these purposes.

A watercolor can be painted directly from life or copied from a photograph or another painting. For representational subject matter, such as this landscape, the artist first draws a sketch on the paper, either in light pencil or charcoal, then paints over the sketch.

In this case a very light pencil sketch was first made on the paper. The paper was then attached to a drawing board with masking tape.

The artist began by filling in the sky and mountains with washes. The top of the dark tree in the foreground was later overpainted on the light sky, but unpainted voids were left in the darker mountain wash for the trunk of the tree and for the house. To prevent unintentional mingling of colors while wet, the paint of one area must be allowed to dry before another color is painted either on top of or adjacent to it. Here the artist accelerated the drying by using a hair dryer.

Dry-brush strokes-achieved with ti half-dry brush and pal n ted wi iii ragged, broken strokes-were used lii depict the rough texture of the lower trunk of the big tree. The foliage, just beginning to turn color in the fall, was dabbed with paint while varying the pressure on the brush. For the fore ground twigs and the house porch, very fine, precise lines were painted with the point of a red-sable brush. To test the color mixtures, the artist dabbed them on the paper's margin (eventually covered by the mat).

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1. First the paper is wetted with water so that the color can flow out freely. Then the sky is painted with an even wash.

3. The hills are first painted with a flat wash on dry paper, darker areas are achieved by overpaint with a wet brush

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4. A wash is used to fill in background meadows, then those in the foreground. Bushes are done with a medium brush.

5. The darkest portion of the landscape is the big tree. A wash is used for the upper part, a small brush for the twigs.

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11. The road area is wetted, then washed with diluted colors. Ruts and bumps are created with dark lines and dabs of paint.

12. Shadow cast by tree is painted dark gray. Great care is taken to depict distortions caused by uneven road surface.

13. By scraping away paint lightly with a razor blade, highlights on some twigs are created here.

14. Foreground bushes are completed with a small brush over dried painted areas. Finishing details are added here and there.

15. Framed with a mat, the completed landscape is a well-composed pastoral scene, delighting the eye with vibrant fall color.

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Aniline-dye watercolors:

The totally transparent liquid water colors known as aniline dyes have more brilliance and radiance than any other form of water-soluble color. The dyes require a somewhat different painting technique than ordinary Watercolors, however. To demonstrate this, the same subject—a pot of Egyptian lilies—was painted twice, once using dyes (below) and again with semi-opaque gouache paints (opposite). Six stages are shown for each painting.

The artist used long-haired spotter brushes to work the dyes onto the paper. To avoid blotching, she moved her brush in only one direction within a given area. To avoid bleeding, she worked from the edges of a color area toward the center. To darken a color in a large area, the dye was brushed on diluted, then overpainted repeatedly.

A china (not plastic) watercolor palette is used for the dyes, which stain virtually anything else.

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1. Diluted cerulean blue is used for the sky, terra-cotta for the bricks, and light gray for the mortar seams between the bricks.

2. Nile green…

3. Cadmium yellow is used for the flower pistils; then it is blended with cadmium orange for the petals. Bricks are overpainted.

4. After the flowers are painted, additional toning of the leaves and leaf veins is rendered with Nile green blended with sepia.

5. Flower petals are toned with fine strokes of cadmium orange. To make the lines very fine, a small, pointed brush is used.

6. Finally, brown dye is applied with the same small brush to shade the flower pistils, completing this painting in aniline dyes.

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Gouache:

The term “gouache” is applied to the technique of painting with either transparent watercolors mixed with i white or with special paints sold in art supply stores as designer’s colors or poster paints.

Gouache has varying degrees of opacity, depending on its degree of dilution during application.

Shown on this page are six stages of a gouache painting of Egyptian lilies. The painting was done with an assortment of designer’s colors thinned with water. The paints were applied with round red-sable brushes.

Like traditional watercolors and aniline dyes, gouache can be applied in thin washes, as in the sky in this painting. But unlike the other two, it can also be brushed on thickly into a quick-drying matte finish, as in the bricks here. Corrections, alterations, and additions can be done by overpainting, as in the mortar seams in the bricks.

1.Diluted ultramarine blue is used for sky; lemon, ocher, emerald green tor lawn; vermillion, burnt sienna for bricks.

2. Leaves are rendered with a blend of green, cobalt blue, and lemon; veins are darkened by adding more green to color mixture.

3. The flower petals are painted with vermillion, then overpainted with the same paint to obtain a deeper color.

4. Pistils are first done with ocher and burnt sienna; each flower is then overpainted with lines of gold, yellow, and vermillion.

5. To darken the bricks and to shade parts of the lily pot, areas are overpainted with burnt sienna and a touch of black.

6. The picture is completed by painting mortar seams with white blended with burnt sienna over the darker brick color.

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Tempera:

Tempera painting was popular in Europe until the advent of oil painting during the Renaissance. A 20th-century revival of tempera has restored the medium to popularity.

Traditionally, tempera meant water- soluble paints bound in an oil-and- water emulsion, with the aid of egg yolk as an emulsifier. But the term as used currently covers a variety of paints emulsified with any natural or synthetic substance. Because temperas characteristically dry into a stiff, matte finish, they are usually painted on a rigid panel.

The various stages in two tempera paintings employing entirely different techniques are illustrated on these pages. The first picture (below) was painted with the regular tempera technique on a piece of gessoed Masonite board. The artist made a sketch of her subject—a vase of flowers on a table against a wallpaper background—using a soft pencil to delineate meticulously the entire outline. She then filled in the sketch with all the details of the design. Then she executed the painting in a systematic, de liberate manner, which suits the characteristics of tempera paints. Except for the first diluted coat of the background, the paints applied were completely opaque.

Wet tempera --- The second painting, of a tree in a meadow, was done in a very different manner. The artist first used a large sable brush saturated with water to wet a piece of white paper liberally. Next she diluted her tempera paints and employed the wash technique to lay them on the wet, paper quite rapidly. This wet-on-wet technique created a soft, diffused painting suggestive of a landscape done in a watercolor wash. A small brush was used to fill in a few details on the tree trunk.

1. A sketch of a vase of flowers is drawn lightly in soft pencil. Next, background is painted with diluted chrome yellow pale.

2. Vase is painted in light green-blue; tabletop is Bordeaux red, raw umber, and white; leaves and stems are brilliant green.

3. Light blue is used for the flower petals, and the centers of the flowers are painted yellow ocher.

4. After the wallpaper design is completed with yellow ocher, the vase and the table are toned with darker shades of their own hues.

5. A small pointed brush is used to tone the flowers with fine strokes of Cyprus blue and the delicate leaf veins with olive green.

6. Tiny dots of chrome yellow pale, with a touch of cadmium orange on the flower centers, complete this delicate and precise painting.

Wet tempera:

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1. A very thin blue wash is laid on a piece of wet watercolor paper with a large sable brush. Then a green wash is used for the foreground

2. Another green wash is added for the foliage. The tree trunk is defined in diluted gray with a small brush and is filled with a gray wash

3. Part of the foliage is painted with a darker wash. Smaller branches are detailed with a pointed brush. The texture of the trunk is refined.

4. After further refining, background grass is painted in dark green. Red apples on the tree and grass are painted over the green washes.

Acrylics:

Acrylics have the expressive characteristics of oils, but they dry very quickly, usually within half an hour. They are synthetic paints, manufactured by combining pigments with acrylic-polymer and vinyl-polymer resins. The paint dries to form a glossy, elastic, waterproof film that is highly durable and easy to clean. Acrylics come in a wide range of brilliant colors; they will not fade or yellow with age. But because acrylics are opaque, it is not possible to blend colors by over- painting unless the paint is first thinned to form a wash or a glaze.

Acrylics are sold in tubes, squeeze bottles, and jars. For the thicker tube and squeeze-bottle paints a sheet of glass makes the best palette. Squeeze colors onto the glass and recap the tubes immediately. Work from the glass. Later, the glass can be stripped of dry paint with a razor blade. A container of water is kept beside the palette to keep the brushes wet: if the paint hardens on a brush, the brush may be ruined, although it is possible to remove dry paint from brushes with a special solvent sold by art shops. To use the more fluid acrylics, simply dip your brushes directly into the jars.

Some precautions. Because of acrylics’ characteristics, certain pre cautions should be observed when using the paints. Acrylics are harsh on natural hair, so many artists use only nylon brushes. Because of their quick- drying nature, acrylics are difficult to keep for long once the tube or jar has been opened and used. Only the small amounts needed for each session should be squeezed onto the palette.

Acrylics can be applied with rags, sponges, kitchen forks, and even combs. Paper, canvas, hardboard (Masonite), wood, metal, and burlap are all suitable painting surfaces. A coat of acrylic gesso will make the paint ad here to very porous surfaces.

Painting techniques. Acrylics can be applied in thin, transparent washes like watercolors. Light areas can be rubbed out with a soft rag or cotton while the wash is still wet. An acrylic painting can also be scumbled or glazed just like an oil painting. Acrylic glazes are made by mixing colors with acrylic medium. Acrylic medium comes in matte or gloss finish. The glaze can be applied an hour after the underpainting is done, and several glazes can be laid on top of one another on the same day.

Unlike oils, acrylics do not retain brushmarks. Texture can be achieved by modeling the painted surface before it dries with such implements as combs, serrated cardboard edges, or crumpled paper, or by stippling the surface with pointed brushes. Impasto can be given more bulk by adding inert extenders to the paints; these include marble dust, fine sawdust, kaolin (clay), whiting, and clean sand. Some artists build up impasto by first laying a modeling paste on the canvas, then applying paints over it. The paste can be bought ready-made or prepared at home by mixing an extender with acrylic medium, either matte or gloss. The ex tenders should never make up more than 25 percent of either the paint or the paste.

Acrylics are particularly suitable for precise shapes and hard edges. An area can be isolated by brushing around it with rubber cement before painting. Later the rubber cement is erased gently with art gum. Hard edges are painted using masking tape, as seen in the illustrations on page 241. Tones can be blended and hard edges softened by pressing a piece of cellophane onto the wet paint, then peeling it away. Corrections are made by scrubbing the paint lightly with a soft brush dipped in denatured alcohol and blotting away the unwanted paint.

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Free-form acrylic painting

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1. For this tree-form, highly stylized, Art Nouveau trellis design, a pale green wash is applied to the canvas panel before the vines are sketched,

2. Vines are overpainted with darker green. Stylized morning glories in opaque white and blue are painted within the vines, using a soft brush.

3. Two glaze layers-each made of white, green, and gloss medium-are laid over the entire painting to mule colors and hide Small imperfections.

4. Stylized petals are painted in opaque white with a stiff brush, which is twisted and turned to suggest the texture of the petals.

5. More petals are added. Slender stripes in blue, suggesting part of the trellis on which the vines are growing, are painted with a pointed brush.

6. The trellis is completed with blue, then the stamens of the white flowers are painted in dark red with a pointed soft sable brush.

7. Red mixed with orange creates the flower pistils. Graceful tendrils from bases of flowers are rendered in a deep green, using a small brush.

8. A final glaze of gloss medium covers the painting. Each glaze is allowed to dry completely before it is covered with another glaze.

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Hard-edge acrylic painting

1. Artist follows a small color sketch in laying out a full-size geometric abstract painting on a panel of gessoed hardboard.

2. The central shape is clearly delineated on all sides with masking tape. It is painted with the brush moving inward from the tape.

3. When shape is painted in, strips of tape are gently peeled away from center outward. Effect of masking is to leave sharp edges on all sides.

4. Each straight-edged shape is similarly taped and painted. Acrylics dry fast; tape can be applied over painted areas in about half an hour.

5. A curved area is completely covered with tape. Arcs are drawn on the tape with a compass, then cut out with a sharp knife.

6. The area cut out is overpainted in dark blue. Because of the opaque nature of acrylics, the underlying brown will not show through the blue.

7. Fresh tape is applied, and a second arc is drawn and cut bordering on the first. It is overpainted with the next color, light blue.

8. The hard-edged acrylic is seen completed. Note that the artist has left some of the geometric shapes an unpainted white.